The Dirt Track at Charlotte
Malone, 13, impresses in World Finals appearance
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Beckham Malone at Charlotte. (Zach Yost)
CONCORD, N.C. (Nov. 8) — Taking on Dirt Late Model racing’s best at just 13 years old is daunting enough, yet Beckham Malone did more than hold his own as a seventh-grader among working-class men at The Dirt Track at Charlotte’s World Finals.
The Rock Hill, S.C., up-and-comer became the youngest driver to start a feature at the season-ending World of Outlaws Real American Late Model Series event, but he wasn’t a field-filler. Malone finished ninth in Friday’s prelim and ran as high as eighth in Saturday’s 50-lap finale before ending up 20th.
“It’s pretty cool to have this night. Youngest to make the race here. We had a really good night,” said Malone, who takes all of his schooling online so he can race across the country. “Track was really good. Had a really good heat (Friday), finished second and came from sixth. Then we went out there had a great start, got tight the first corner, and followed in behind (Tim) McCreadie.”
On Saturday, Malone attributed his tumble down the leaderboard to being too aggressive early on, which resulted in a blistered right-rear tire and an ill-handling race car as the laps wore on.
“I was out there sliding and crossing over people trying to move forward. I think I could’ve prevented that from happening by just running one line instead of sliding people,” Malone said. “I think I could’ve been aggressive for that first 10 laps and then paced myself until I got to 10 to go.”
Malone impressed on a night where plenty of the sport’s heavy hitters, including Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champ Devin Moran and Kentucky standout Josh Rice, failed to make the main event with 71 entrants cramming the pits.
“We had a really good night. For me to be 13 out here doing this, it’s insane to be doing” Malone said. “I’m very proud of my team and everybody.”
Malone still has years to go to physically mature, but his potential as a Dirt Late Model driver and racer is promising.
Malone is completing his second full Late Model season and first complete season aboard his family-owned No. 23 Super machine. He won his Dirt Late Model debut at The Dirt Track at Charlotte on Oct. 28, 2023, in the 602 Crate portion of the World Short Track Championship vs. a 46-car field that included National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer and WoO Late Model Series director Steve Francis.
“We had a really good car that week. I just remember everything went our way,” Malone said, recalling his debut at the 4/10-mile oval. “I really had to commit to every hole I tried to fill and not let people bully me back.”
Last season, he notched six victories in Crate competition in the Carolina: Thrice at Ultimate Motorsports Park, twice Fayetteville Motor Speedway and once Cherokee Speedway. Malone, who posted another Crate victory at Carolina Speedway this year, is still awaiting his first Super victory, but has made steps toward that direction in 2025.
Malone contested all 12 races on the Schaeffer's Southern Nationals, finishing fifth in points behind Kaede Loudy, Garrett Smith, Jimmy Owens and Mike Benedum. He collected five top-10 finishes series events, highlighted by a third-place finish in the finale at high-banked Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway behind Benedum and Loudy.
The South Carolina youngster had Loudy on his race-day crew at the World Finals and for the season is mentored by driving coach Corey Gordon of Charlotte.
“He’s been there since Day One,” Malone said of Gordon. “I’m very thankful to have Corey there with me. He’s ran everything I’ve ran. He’s really good in legend cars. I’ve watched him in an asphalt Late Model once. He’s really good in that. He’s probably one of my favorite drivers when it comes to Dirt Late Model racing.”
Malone had to rely on the top side of the red-clay Charlotte oval for most of World Finals week, citing that he just couldn’t get his car to perform around the bottom enough to keep pace with the veterans of the sport.
Though a lot to ask of himself, Malone thought he “had a top-five race car” in Friday’s prelim “if I could’ve made that bottom work.”
“The top was really working for me. The bottom just wasn’t there with my car. I wish it was because I probably could’ve made it work knowing (Tyler Erb) passed me around it,” Malone said. “I tried to move down, but whenever I moved down, the car wasn’t the best there. Went where the car felt comfortable and where I felt comfy. Car was good.
“I knew we had a really good car to do it. I knew we had a car to get a nice top-five. Everything just didn’t go our way. But it was all right.”
Malone has a few marquee events left on his calendar in the 2025 season, including the Gateway Dirt Nationals at The Dome at America’s Center that falls on his 14th birthday on Dec. 6. The Tulsa Shootout in Tulsa, Okla., the Super Bowl of micro sprints this Dec. 29-Jan. 3, is on his radar as well Jan. 12-17, also in Tulsa.
Next year he has audacious plans in the works for his sophomore Super Late Model season.
“I think we’re going to try to commit to World of Outlaws or a series,” Malone said. “We’re just gonna have to figure out Eldora (Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio), because you have to be 16. We could race (the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series), it’s just we’d have to drop (Eldora’s Oct. 10-11 dates) from our schedule.”
When asked the likelihood of him campaigning on a national Dirt Late Model tour next year, Malone said he’s “a nice 90 percent sure.”
As far as long-term career goals go, Malone would like to carve out a touring career in Dirt Late Model racing or push toward the NASCAR ranks, similar to the path that California native Tyler Reddick took — the current NASCAR Cup star who competed on the Lucas Oil Series in 2012 as a 16-year-old.
Dabbling in the open-wheel world is also on the agenda for Malone, who in 2022 was the runner-up in micro sprint points (to Dale Earnhardt’s grandson Wyatt Miller) at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, N.C.
“Honestly, if I could just stick here with all the big guys, that’d be great. If I could make it to NASCAR or somewhere over there in that direction, I wanna take the Kyle Larson route,” Malone said. “If I could get into a sprint car, that’d be great.”
Malone made four asphalt pro Late Model starts in 2023, turning in a best finish of fifth twice, plus two more top-10 finishes. He hasn’t raced anything on pavement since and doesn’t intend on adding more races on pavement in 2026, but rather growing his portfolio with the busy schedule has planned on the dirt.
“I just really try to make sure my name is known out there by completing my goals,” Malone said. “Doing that will really help us. Honestly, I’m just trying to do what I do and it somehow works.
“(Sprint car star) Corey Day, he never really ran asphalt, only ran sprint cars, and he just got asked to race an Xfinity car (for Hendrick Motorsports in 2026). I’m hoping that could happen to me.”
