Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Hoffman lends a hand to Schatz's team
In a new feature appearing regularly on DirtonDirt, senior writer Kevin Kovac will offer readers five things worth mentioning from around the Dirt Late Model landscape (index to previous Take Fives):
No. 1: A few weeks after completing a three-win Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway, Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C., was back at the Barberville, Fla., track Sunday as a spectator for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series Bike Week special. Actually, though, he did more than just watch with his wife and kids, who were along to head out on a family vacation— a Disney Cruise — the next morning while Hoffman has a break in his schedule before the World of Outlaws Late Model Series resumes next weekend. Hoffman jumped in to offer crew help to his buddy Donny Schatz, including some time spent grinding tires for the WoO star. “Just paying my friendship dues,” Hoffman wrote in social media response to a WoO post featuring a photo of him swiping down Schatz’s wing.
No. 2: Hoffman also reported that he was offered an intriguing opportunity by former WoO sprint car regular and current team owner Jason Sides, who walked up while Hoffman was working on Schatz’s tires and he wanted to “give it a shot tomorrow” behind the wheel of a sprint car. While Hoffman had to decline because his vacation plans would prevent him from attending the second night of Volusia’s doubleheader, he noted it was “really cool for him to ask.” The 33-year-old Hoffman has never driven a sprint car.
No. 3: Volusia’s track-prep crew had extra manpower for the WoO sprint twinbill in the form of Dirt Late Model competitor and team owner Boom Briggs of Bear Lake, Pa., who drove up from his place in Clewiston, Fla., to join the team of brothers Larry and Eric Fink and World Racing Group CEO Brian Carter. Volusia general manager Tyler Bachman said Briggs, who last spring assisted the Volusia gang in laying down new clay, did a “very good” job. “He has a good working relationship with Larry, Eric and Brian Carter,” Bachman texted. When I asked Bachman if he had Briggs’s favorite Busch Light beer ready to offer him as a reward at the end of the racing programs, he said he did, but he also noted that “we only have cans and he only drinks bottles.”
No. 4: Among the drivers joining the field for March 4-7’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., will be teenager Brock Pinkerous of Ellenville, N.Y. A rising talent who celebrated his 16th birthday Feb. 25, Pinkerous tested Monday at Needmore Speedway in Norman Park, Ga., to tune up for Golden Isles. Pinkerous, who plans to chase the Jay's Automotive United Late Model Series title in 2026, has made three Lucas Oil feature starts (all at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.) in eight attempts over the past two years.
No. 5: According to a social media post by his brother Shane’s race team, Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., underwent successful cataract surgery on Feb. 26 and now is seeing well enough with both his eyes to be ready for his first competition since January’s Sunshine Nationals at Volusia. McDowell, 59, is planning to enter the March 13-14 WoO doubleheader at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., and Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn., as he continues his 45th season of racing — a milestone, by the way, that his team is marking by selling a neat throwback T-shirt that features one of McDowell’s old No. 17 machines on a rollback hauler.
