DirtonDirt Dispatches
Dispatches: Mills turns his eyes to Tennessee
Trey Mills (heathlawsonphotos.com)
Among the latest notes and quotes from Late Model action, primarily focused this weekend on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series weekend at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., and Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.:
Next up for Mills
After his eye-grabbing rollover wreck last week that knocked him out of the lead at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., Trey Mills of St. Augustine, Fla., goes back to work on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
The 17-year-old’s Saturday crash in the late stages of Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series competition at Golden Isles knocked him out of a chance at his first national touring event, but he’ll take a crack at WoO action this weekend at Volunteer and Smoky Mountain.
Mills wasn’t hurt at Golden Isles, but his thwarted Golden Isles bid drew lots of attention. By Sunday night, the team had to temporarily stop accepting merchandise orders due to the overwhelming demand.
“It’s been pretty crazy,” Mills said. “A lot of people have been texting, making sure I was OK first. The T-shirt orders have been going crazy too. To see all the support is definitely really cool. It was pretty cool to be out front leading that race, just unfortunate that I got up in the wall, then Hudson (O’Neal) had nowhere to go, and I ended up going over. Not the way we wanted to get publicity, but I guess it kind of worked out in a way. Got a lot of publicity, a lot of T-shirt orders, so we’ve been super pumped up to get back to the racetrack.”
Once the adrenaline of the night wore off, the team was left with a destroyed race car to load up with six days to turn around in advance of the resumption of his rookie season with the World of Outlaws.
“We have two other cars, so we plan on taking both of those to Tennessee,” Mills said. “The car that I wrecked at Golden Isles is totaled out, so we won’t be able to race that one no more. But Longhorn Chassis has got my back, they’ve already got us in line, they should have us a car done by the end of this week. So, we’ll have somebody picking it up this weekend to make sure that we’re fully prepared to run this Outlaw deal.”
Mills will be making his debut at Volunteer and returning to Smoky Mountain, where he finished 10th and 11th in starts on the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series.
“I actually really like Smoky Mountain, I like the shape of the track,” Mills said. “It’s really just a momentum-based track, and I feel like that’s kind of where I strive more. I’m really looking forward to going back to Smoky Mountain, and then I’ve watched a lot of film on Bulls Gap and I’m super excited to go there, too.
“I have a lot of confidence after our showing on Saturday, even though we didn’t finish how we wanted to. We had a lot of good speed, so I’m really excited to carry that momentum over to some of these tracks that I’ve ran good at in the past, and I’m just hoping to get that big win.” — Spence Smithback
Streaming schedule
Among upcoming Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events available via live streaming:
Friday, March 13
• World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. (DIRTVision)
• Midwest LateModel Racing Association at Springfield (Mo.) Raceway (RaceON)
Saturday, March 14
• World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn. (DIRTVision)
• MS Crate Late Model Series at Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Miss. (Crate Racin’ USA TV)
