DirtonDirt Dispatches
Dispatches: Veterans own HTF weekend
Dale McDowell (17M) and Jimmy Owens (20) battle. (mrmracing.net)
Among the latest notes and quotes from around Dirt Late Model racing the third weekend in May, including Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series events in Georgia and Tennessee and MARS shows in Illinois (look elsewhere for most Lucas Oil Series and World of Outlaws coverage). Also find a listing of live-streaming video from specials around the country:
Veterans shine
The Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series weekend in Georgia and Tennessee was one for Dirt Late Model racing’s decorated veterans.
First, 53-year-old Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., won Friday at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Ga., then Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., on the eve of his 59th birthday, captured Saturday’s King of the Mountain feature at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.
Even more notable: the pair of fiftysomething drivers battled for the lead and occupied the top two finishing positions in both races.
McDowell was well aware of the doubleheader’s theme after scoring a $15,000 victory in Smoky Mountain’s 50-lapper, a triumph he earned after swapping the lead with Owens midway through the feature and holding off the four-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion in the closing laps.
“Us old guys, man, we raced like crazy tonight and last night,” McDowell said with a smile, noting how he had been outdueled by Owens the previous evening at Sugar Creek. “Hopefully that gives us hope. These young guys, man, they make it tough on us.”
The teenagers, twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings and even forty-somethings in the Hunt the Front fields had nothing on the grizzled vets over the weekend. McDowell and Owens settled the races amongst themselves, especially at Smoky Mountain, where McDowell led all the way except laps 22-27 when Owens briefly slipped ahead.
McDowell speaks often of relishing every moment he has left in the twilight of his career, and the back-to-back battles with a longtime foe like Owens certainly had him feeling good.
“Well, it was fun,” McDowell said. “I mean we raced together for a lot of years and I got a lot of respect for him, and so we race hard and just have fun with it, man. We race each other clean. There’s no sliding and banging and all that stuff, and so it hurts us when we go to some places because we need to learn how to do that (more aggressive racing), you know?
“We didn’t grow up racing that way,” he continued. “It makes it exciting for the race fans … a little bit different, but it’s always fun. It makes us better racers because we race each other hard and it makes us go hard.”
McDowell’s victory was his second in eight starts this season driving his brother Shane McDowell’s Team Zero Chassis. He also won a Hunt the Front event on April 5 at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala., and has finished all seven of his feature appearances no worse than sixth (he didn’t qualify for April 26’s World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series Alabama Gang 100 at Talladega). — Series and staff reports
Different path
The trajectory of Cade Dillard’s 2025 season hasn’t exactly gone the way he planned, but he’s trying to make the most of his new direction.
Dillard, 34, of Robeline, La., was supposed to be chasing the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series for a third consecutive year. Once he opted to skip March’s event at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn., however, he shifted his focus to become an independent racer — a multidivision racer, in fact, with plenty of open-wheel modified action on his docket as well.
The Dirt Late Model side of Dillard’s Shane Sprinkle-owned program has lagged a bit behind his modified racing so far amid his new approach, but he turned that around a bit on Friday night. He scored a flag-to-flag victory worth $5,000 in the 30-lap Comp Cams Super Dirt Series feature at Revolution Park in Monroe, La., cruising to the checkered flag 3.895 seconds ahead of Charlie Cole to wash away some recent doldrums in the full-fender class.
“We tried a lot of stuff this week,” Dillard said after climbing out of his Longhorn Chassis in The Rev’s victory lane. “We’ve been off a little and hopefully we’re headed back in the right direction.”
After two frustrating Speedweeks trips to Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., in January and February that yielded just one top-10 finish (eighth) in his five WoO starts, Dillard won March 7’s Comp Cams Series opener at Boothill Speedway in Greenwood, La., but entered only five more Dirt Late Model shows over the ensuing two months. His last three before Friday were especially disheartening: 25th in April 26’s WoO Alabama Gang 100 at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala., and a 25th/DNQ doubleheader with the WoO tour on May 2-3 at Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Fountain City, Wis.
Dillard’s springtime modified appearances went much better — three of his four wins this season in the division have come post-Speedweeks, including March 29’s $20,000 King of America triumph at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. — but that hasn’t been enough to satisfy him. He needed the Late Model success he finally rediscovered at Revolution Park.
There was no stopping Dillard’s No. 97 on Friday as he dominated the action despite the conditions adding a degree of difficulty to dealing with slower traffic.
“I mean, we can maneuver around there early, and then the top just kind of got crumbed up a little bit and got bottom dominant,” Dillard said. “It’s like I got to the lapped cars fine but wasn’t able to do anything on the top, and I was able sneak by on the bottom on a couple … and then (turns) one and two you can make a little ground on the top, so we just try to be on them when we left four and pick one off on the top of one and two.”
The victory was extra special because it came at his home state’s reopened 3/8-mile Rev oval, which was purchased during the off-season by David and Misti Smith, who covered its concrete surface with clay to host dirt racing for the first time since its previous stint from 2020-22. His wife and their two kids were on hand to share in the joy along with plenty of other family members and friends.
“It’s cool to see this place going again,” Dillard said. “I used to come race here when it was asphalt and I always loved this place and this facility in this area … just thanks to everybody for coming out.”
Dillard’s triumph followed a post-Mississippi Thunder break from racing that saw him visit a local pre-school on May 8 to show the kids his modified and spend the weekend helping coach his daughter’s softball team. It was a fun time from the track in advance of one the busiest racing stretches he’ll tackle all season.
Next up for Dillard (following the rainout of Saturday’s Comp Cams stop at 67 Speedway of Texarkana in Texarkana, Ark.): May 22-24’s Show-Me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway; a May 25 USMTS modified show at Mason City (Iowa) Motor Speedway; May 28-31’s $100,000-to-win Modified World Championship at Mississippi Thunder; and June’s Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio — Series and staff reports
Respect your elders
A couple of fiftysomething drivers — Jimmy Owens and Dale McDowell — showed the younger folks the way around Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Ga., on Friday night in Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series competition.
The 53-year-old Owens of Newport, Tenn., overtook McDowell, of Chickamauga, Ga., who turns 59 on Sunday, on the 28th lap to collect $8,000 and his first HTF victory of the season.
In victory lane, Owens said he was a little “wore out” from navigating the Sugar Creek cushion, but he was glad he and the runner-up McDowell could outrun what he joked were “a bunch of young punks” giving chase.
Owens, a four-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion who is primarily focusing on regional competition in his Koehler Motorsports No. 20, continued a recent hot streak with his fifth consecutive podium finish overall, the first time he’s pulled off that feat since August 2020. The victory also followed May 10’s triumph on the Schaeffer's Spring Nationals at Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside, Ky., that ended a 15-month winless slump and gave Owens his first back-to-back victories since October 2022.
“It's a little rough up on that cushion, but it was fun,” Owens said. “I knew I had to do something to try and get around Dale. He was just too smooth through the middle, and I thought I could get him on a couple of them takeoffs because he was pushing out — but the problem is I was pushing right out with him.”
Eight cautions slowed the action, and Owens didn’t mind too much seeing them for clearer track and resting his equipment.
“The cautions made it a whole lot easier on the tires,” he said. “Just gave us long periods to cool everything off, but still at the same time, it was kind of hard steering for a few laps. But once that right-front (tire) started firing off, and we could steer good, then it was a lot funner.”
Owens dedicated the victory to longtime crew member Jeff "Mullet" Strope, who missed the race because of a health issue.
Owens was making his first visit to Sugar Creek since Sept. 30, 2005, when he finished 20th in what was then the track’s richest Super Late Model event with Shane Tankersley of Morganton, Ga., collecting $6,000 for leading all 66 laps of the main event. — Series and staff reports
Emotional victory
Tim McCreadie tried being stoic Thursday. He didn’t want to think about the emotions that come with May 15, the one-year anniversary of his legendary father’s death, “Barefoot” Bob McCreadie.
But one year later at Raceway 7 in Conneaut, Ohio, the former World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series champion put himself and his No. 9 tribute machine to his late father back in national touring victory lane. The weight of the moment was certainly hard for the 51-year-old veteran of Watertown, N.Y., to put into words.
“It’s hard to deal with," a choked up McCreadie said of leading all 35 laps to score a $12,000 win in Thursday’s Great Lake Showdown on the one-year anniversary of his father Bob's death. “When you got great people around you, like Boom (Briggs), their whole family, my mom, my brother, sister, everybody ... it’s been a tough day.”
“I’ve been holding it in all day, trying not to think about (losing his father). It’s been a rough go for us, but we’ll keep plugging along, that’s all we can do.”
McCreadie, who had to step away twice from the cameras and DIRTVision pit reporter Ashton Smyth to gather himself and his emotions to articulate those sentiments, put to rest a four-year winless drought on the WoO circuit.
His last win on the tour came April 2021 at Richmond (Ky.) Raceway. It also snapped a 45-race winless streak that spanned back Aug. 17’s one and only win with Rocket1 Racing at Batesville Motor Speedway’s Topless 100 in Locust Grove, Ark.
Fortunately for McCreadie, his 34th career WoO triumph came without any close calls or dramatics. He beat Ashton Winger to the line by 2.618 seconds in the non-stop feature in which the nation’s No. 1 driver Bobby Pierce never challenged for the win in his fourth-to-fifth performance.
McCreadie’s race-winning move came when he cleared the pole-starting Winger from the outside front row on a turn-three slide job on the opening lap. From there, his experience at Raceway 7 carried him. In four Late Model starts at the 7/16-mile track, he has two wins and has finished no worse than fourth.
McCreadie figures that kind of success at Raceway 7 is a byproduct of his knack for smooth, methodical driving.
“Maybe the way the style is, keeping the car straight and not spinning so much kind of lends itself to what I like to do,” McCreadie told WoO PR director Spence Smithback. “When I was younger I liked to spin the tires a lot, now that I’ve gotten older, I like to keep the car underneath me.”
Another benefit for McCreadie on Thursday was that Raceway 7 is roughly an hour from car owner’s Boom Briggs’ home in Bear Lake, Pa. A little backyard knowledge didn’t hurt.
“(Boom) told me where to be in qualifying, he ran over and told me where he thought I needed to be and it was good,” said McCreadie, who has three top-fives and five top-10s over his last six races. “He’s just positive. Since driving with him, the whole deal, it’s been amazing. He keeps me focused, and with everything going on today, he was just there for me.” — DIRTVision and series reports
Jam-packed schedule
Dirt track racers have earned a reputation of being the busiest drivers in motorsports, but few of them have an itinerary that holds a candle to that of Drake Troutman.
The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series rookie has already contested 55 races in the first four-and-a-half months of 2025. If everything goes to plan, Troutman could hit the century mark as soon as August.
Troutman, 19, of Hyndman, Pa., has only taken one weekend off since New Year’s Day, and parts of his schedule are what some would deem downright impossible. Case in point: after loading up at Talladega Short Track following the Alabama Gang 100 on April 26, the Team22 Motorsports crew drove 13 hours through the night from Alabama to Pennsylvania, dealt with hauler trouble along the way and made it to Port Royal Speedway in time to race in front of their home fans the next day in a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event.
Why would anyone voluntarily subject themselves to that much work? For Troutman, the answer is simple: racers race.
“Anytime you can race anything, it just makes you a better driver,” Troutman said. “Racing that much, we went to a lot of tracks that I’ve never even been to before this year, so just getting seat time on those types of racetracks, trying to go to tracks that the Outlaws race at later in the season, I feel like will help us. We went down all the way to Boothill (Speedway in Louisiana) for a race down there. We just went down there to get ready for later in the year, so we have an idea of what the place is going to be like.
“I think there’s a lot of pros to it. Don’t get me wrong, I think it can hurt you sometimes. By racing so much, you might not always be as prepared as what you want. But in the long run, I think it works out for you.”
All those extra laps have been turned with one goal in mind: becoming a World of Outlaws winner. Troutman has come close multiple times this year, as he’s won heats, sat on the pole and led the second-most laps in feature action through the first 13 races. He knows he has all the pieces he needs to succeed, and he’ll have four chances this weekend to put them together in a winning combination with the tour visiting Raceway 7 in Conneaut, Ohio (Thursday), Marion Center (Pa.) Speedway (Friday-Saturday) and Bedford (Pa.) Speedway (Sunday).
“Everything’s going pretty good,” Troutman said. “Some nights we had a bad night obviously, but that’s part of the deal, so we’ve just got to cut those out as much as we can. I feel like now, we’re getting to the point where we’re going to racetracks that I like a lot more. So I’m excited to get back out around Pennsylvania and race at some of my local tracks. I think we’ve got a really good program, I’ve just got to do a little bit better of a job behind the wheel of the car to capitalize on some of these nights when we start up front.”
While Troutman has been looking forward to Raceway 7 and Marion Center since the start of the season, he’s especially anxious for Bedford’s Billy Winn Classic. The 5/8-mile oval is right down the road from Troutman’s home and he spent his childhood watching the stars of Dirt Late Model racing from the grandstands, dreaming of one day joining them. That dream will become reality this weekend when Troutman makes his first WoO start at his home track.
“Man, I’m excited,” Troutman said. “Last time I was even at an Outlaw race (at Bedford) I was just a little kid. That was back in 2009 or something. So, it’ll be really cool to see. That’s where I cut my teeth at, was at Bedford. Honestly, I really don’t run that great there, but I’m excited to go and see everyone. It’ll be cool.” — Spence Smithback
Streaming schedule
Among upcoming Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events available via live streaming:
Thursday, May 15
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Models at Raceway 7 in Conneaut, Ohio (DIRTVision)
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway (FloRacing)
Friday, May 16
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Models at Marion Center (Pa.) Raceway (DIRTVision)
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Eagle (Neb. ) Raceway (FloRacing)
• Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Ga. (Hunt the Front TV)
• MARS Late Model Championship Series at Quincy (Ill.) Raceway (FloRacing)
• Comp Cams Super Dirt Series at Revolution Park in Monroe, La. (RaceON)
• Southern All Stars at West Alabama Speedway in Winfield, Ala. (Thirteen34 Racing)
Saturday, May 17
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway (FloRacing)
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Models at Marion Center (Pa.) Raceway (DIRTVision)
• Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn. (Hunt the Front TV)
• MARS Late Model Championship Series at Highland (Ill.) Speedway (FloRacing)
• Comp Cams Super Dirt Series at 67 Speedway in Texarkana, Ark. (RaceON)
• Southern All Stars at North Alabama Speedway in Tuscumbia, Ala. (Thirteen34 Racing)
• Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway unsanctioned Super Late Models (FloRacing)
• American Crate All-Star Series at Rockcastle Speedway in Mount Vernon, Ky. (Dirt Rich TV)
• Nutrien Ag Revival Super Dirt Series at Tri-State Speedway in Pocola, Okla. (Start2Finish TV)
• American Crate Late Model Series at Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore, Okla. (RaceON)
• Elite Racing Series 602 Late Models at Beckley (W.Va.) Motor Speedway (Dirt Rich TV)
Sunday, May 18
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Models at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway (DIRTVision)
