The Dirt Track at Charlotte
Hedgecock challenged both on and off track
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Cory Hedgecock at Charlotte. (Zach Yost)
CONCORD, N.C. (Nov. 4) — Mentally, emotionally, financially, entrepreneurially, you name it, racing this year has tested Cory Hedgecock more ways than he’d like to admit.
“We've been in the mood to race this year, but we've also been in the mood to burn everything down,” Hedgecock said while standing outside his transporter Tuesday evening in The Dirt Track at Charlotte pit area before Wednesday’s World Finals qualifying night.
The 33-year-old’s had a season worth being proud of. A dozen victories and runner-up finish to four-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion Jimmy Owens in the Hunt the Front Super Series title chase are no feats to gloss over.
But the Loudon, Tenn., driver enters this week’s World Finals, surprisingly, for the first time not only because he’s running well enough to make the trip worthwhile, but a few promising runs — which he’s hoping for — would be therapeutic for him.
This year, Hedgecock’s been “going through some personal stuff that’s gotten me down.” Over the last two months, Hedgecock’s momentarily shifted away from driving his family-owned BMF Race Cars, a decision that’s left him conflicted at times, to find success in a brand-new Longhorn Chassis.
“It’s just been a really, really weird deal, and thankfully, you know, we ran good and won races to keep us going,” Hedgecock said of his 2025 season. “It's just like, man, I'm telling you, this s---’s too hard. I'm not hanging my head about (running second in the Hunt the Front points), but I mean, I literally could see every time that I could have outran them and still won the championship. But hindsight’s always 20-20.”
Including Oct. 25’s Crate victory at I-75 Raceway, Hedgecock’s won five of his last nine races aboard his relatively new Longhorn machine. That success, of course, lured him to Charlotte’s year-ending event on the World of Outlaws Real American Late Model Series for the first time to battle against one of the sport’s toughest fields of the year topping 70 entries.
It’s Hedgecock’s first laps at the Bruton Smith-founded 4/10-mile oval since Nov. 1, 2019’s World Short Track Championship where he finished 11th in a Crate.
“We’ve tried to run some bigger stuff this year and have had success with it. We got this new car around the World (100) and it’s been good at speedways, and I’m gonna consider this place a speedway, at least early,” Hedgecock said. “Dad didn’t wanna come, but I talked him into it. I’ve been here for the Crate stuff probably five, six, seven years ago with Jensen (Ford), drove one of his Crate cars, ran decent.
“I’m excited to see what we can do down here. Our whole week will be set (during Wednesday’s qualifying). I’ll take two or three laps of hot laps and have to figure it out. We’ll get her tuned in and be fine.”
Hedgecock is making it a priority to return at some capacity aboard the BMF Race Car brand launched by his father, Chad, early 2023. He “still likes my cars a little better, maybe how they feel at the end of the night, just for how I feel in my seat that dad has been working on, trying to get the attitude back in the Longhorn that I like in the BMF.”
Overall, the Longhorn “is a better tool in our arsenal.” Estimating there’s 50-plus BMF cars being floating around the Dirt Late Model scene, though, Hedgecock knows there’s tremendous value he brings to the family enterprise. He remains heavily involved with his family’s engine business, Eagle Racing Engines.
“We’ll get back on that deal again so we can service our customers the way we need to,” said the younger Hedgecock, who before BMF drove Rocket Chassis for nearly a decade along with a stint aboard Black Diamond Race Cars. “I’ll never leave anybody out hanging dry, including dad. It’s more dad’s deal than mine. Actually, it’s all his. We’re not going to leave anybody hanging. … We knew we were going to hurt car sales when we rolled the Longhorn out. At the same time, I gotta not be selfish I guess, but I have to look out for myself when it comes to racing.
“And at that point in time in my life, I thought a Longhorn would help me a little bit. That’s why I went in that direction.”
Hedgecock emphasized “it's not necessarily the trends” of the sport that prompted him to become the umpteenth driver to join Team Longhorn, but that “it’s strengths in numbers.”
“That's why Longhorn’s kicking everybody's ass right now,” Hedgecock said. “Rocket's got obviously a good race car. There's no doubt Mark (Richards) knows what he’s doing. Longhorn, strength in numbers, there's a reason they win most of the races. They got 20 cars in a 24-car field.
“It was like that with Rocket four or five years ago. So, I think right now, Longhorn has a superior race car, and it always comes full circle. Next year, it'll be Rocket. The next year, it’ll be Joe Blow. You know, it's just a revolving door.”
Qualifying up front has been the common denominator for Hedgecock of late, ever since he debuted his Longhorn in Aug. 30’s Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series event at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. In 12 events, he’s earned quick-time honors four times, including Friday night at the World 100, and has only qualified outside the top-five once.
That bodes well for him in Charlotte.
“If you trust your race car, you're going to put yourself in positions that you think that you can do something with it,” Hedgecock said. “If you're just kind of out there timid because I don't trust it or I don't think it'll stick, I don't think it'll turn, or whatever the deal is, you know, you're not going to get up on the wheel and drive like you probably need to.
“I think that's helped me a lot with this ‘Horn, as I know without a shadow of a doubt it’ll turn left when I turn the wheel left, which has helped me tremendously in qualifying. I’m so much more aggressive in qualifying and it’s shown.”
This uptick in sheer speed has made Hedgecock prioritize Super Late Model shows over Crate competition this year and yielded nine overall victories paying more than $7,000, with seven five-figure paydays.
Next year, however, will look a little a different for Hedgecock, who doesn’t plan on committing to touring action.
“I think we're going to end up dialing back, honestly. I don't think I can, personally, as a dad. I cannot do a World of Outlaws or Lucas (Oil Late Model Dirt Series) deal with my personal life now,” said Hedgecock, who has a 7-year-old daughter Lily and 2-year-old son Miles. “I’m recently divorced, and it shook me to my core. And it’s just a juggling act for me I ain’t got figured out yet. And I care more about them kids that I’d burn this stuff to the ground.
“I wanna be there for them and make them happy. As I said, it’s a real different deal. I don’t even know how to explain it outside that. My gut is we’re going to dial it back and we’re going to gear up for some stuff that I think will go down the next four or five years as far as family stuff. Business-wise and personal health stuff that me and dad has to really gear up for, and make sure we have our feet firmly planted in the soil and ready for anything to happen that I think it inevitably going to happen.”
Hedgecock insists he’ll continue racing.
“We’re gonna run next year and we'll run probably, I'd say, run 70 percent of what we ran this year,” Hedgecock said. “We ain't gonna run for no tours or nothing. We’ll probably run maybe a little bit more locally. But we'll go to Eldora. We're going to come to Charlotte. We're going to go to, you know, Brownstown for the Jackson 100, that kind of stuff.”
Hedgecock also feels the stresses and strains of trying to keep his regional Super Late Model team afloat. He’s welcomed Shawn Martin’s backing from Viper Motorsports this season, and while every little bit helps the bottom line, maintaining a semi-traveling team “is just so expensive anymore and it’s getting worse.”
That’s why he can’t fault the McCarter family for selling one of his home tracks, 411 Motor Speedway, last year even though “it’s hurt the financial budget because I don't think we ever could not go over there and run good at least get some money.
“Hate that it had to shut down. Business, life, they had choices they needed to make. I never shame someone trying to make a dollar clean,” Hedgecock said. “So, for example, Mitch (McCarter) bought the property for X, sold it for X, no way in hell he could’ve turned it down. Yeah, I hate losing a racetrack. I care about racing. It's been my life since Day One.
“I'm not saying the people that don't run businesses know exactly what the hell I’m talking about, but the people that don't and they don't write the checks and they don't pay, they have no idea what it entails and how much sacrifice it is. My God, it’s awful. It’s just stressful. I’m 33 and I’m telling you, I got weathered this year. It’s hard. There’s nothing like running your own s--- and having to pay your own employees, insurance, rent, good God Almighty, it’s like it never ends.”
There’s still some races on Hedgecock’s radar the rest of the year, like Nov. 14-15’s FloRacing Night in America presented by Kubota at Senoia (Ga.) Raceway. In the winter, Hedgecock will focus on his family’s chassis and engine businesses while making headway on “other stuff in the works that we’re trying to get going.”
He doesn’t want to wish the season away because he’s running so well, but at the same time, he could use some downtime apart from the racetrack to properly reassess his future.
“In order to be your best, I don’t think you can let personal interfere to be the best in racing. And that’s in any sport. There’s only so much time, and you will sacrifice something,” Hedgecock said. “Whatever gets the least amount of attention is going to suffer. I’ve learned the hard way this year. You just got to not necessarily balance better, but I have to assess what’s important and … man, it’s just, I’m struggling right now. It’s bothering me.
“I’m not exactly sure where I need to be right now. I think I know, but I just gotta get my s--- together and dad has to get his s--- together, and we’ll figure it out.”
