Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Owens keeps options open for a ride
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: This weekend’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series doubleheader in Tennessee — Friday at Volunteer Speedway and Saturday at Smoky Mountain Speedway — is a big one for Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn. The 54-year-old standout is on home turf as he begins his 35th season of racing and he has a sharp-looking, one-off ride running both races in a CVR Race Car fielded by Vic Hill, the veteran racer and engine builder from Mosheim, Tenn., who also promotes Volunteer’s action. Mike Hayes, who runs Owens’s merchandise trailer, said he’s expecting brisk business from Owens’s fans, noting there’s “lots of hype” around Owens with the veteran competing in his backyard. According to Hayes, the team made a limited run of diecast cars for the blue-and-yellow No. 20 Owens will pilot, and fans have already swept them up, and interest is high for the special-edition 35th anniversary T-shirts that Hayes will be selling at the tracks.
No. 2: Hayes also pointed out that Owens is most definitely in the market for rides that might be available for the remainder of the 2026 season. His hopes of running the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series this season, and then perhaps a couple more, before shifting to an independent schedule didn't materialize as funding from his team owner Bobby Koehler and manpower for the grind were not sufficient; Koehler said during last month’s Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., that Owens’s interest in chasing the national tour came too late for him to budget his finances for such an effort. Hayes said Owens has two Rocket Chassis and two engines from Koehler still at his shop, but the powerplants need to be freshened and Koehler sold the hauler and trailer that Owens had been using, so Owens is uncertain about how active he can be this year. Koehler had said at Volusia that he would be agreeable to providing backing to Owens if he could land a regular ride; at that time Koehler specifically mentioned Owens finding a Lucas Oil Series deal, which of course can’t happen now, but Owens is certainly interested in putting his name out there for any opportunities that would allow him to race more and perhaps even defend his title on the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series that kicks off next Sunday at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala.
No. 3: After returning home to Parkersburg, W.Va., following a trying Wieland Winternationals with the Lucas Oil Series, aspiring 55-year-old tour rookie, Freddie Carpenter, posted a video on Facebook in which he addressed questions observers had after seeing photos of how his helmet shield was shattered by an apparent clod of mud during March 7’s program at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga. Carpenter was left stunned for a moment by the hard blow he took from the flying chunk while racing in a B-main; he received medical attention on the track but drove his car back to his trailer and dealt with a bloody nose and some facial cuts to his forehead and under his left eye. In the video, Carpenter defended the integrity of the Zamp helmet he wore and even included a video of safety testing the company does where three steel balls are shot at it. “So you can’t build these things indestructible, and if you did, it would be so heavy you couldn’t wear it, and it still wouldn’t be indestructible,” he said. “It’s a very nice, quality helmet with high safety ratings. We’re proud of their product.”
No. 4: Among the drivers set to make their season debut during this first post-Speedweeks weekend is Tanner English of Benton, Ky., who has his own racing program fired up and ready to go for Saturday’s $6,000-to-win Ultimate Super Late Model Series-sanctioned event at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn. The 32-year-old has his familiar No. 96 on a Rocket XR1 Chassis carrying Bilstein Shocks and a long list of sponsors, including backing from Riggs Fiber, the company owned by his former team owner, Scott Riggs.
No. 5: Dirt Late Model teams that competed at Speedweeks — especially those that spent more than a month on the road — found themselves spending more money to get their haulers home than they did to reach the Southeast tracks with the price of diesel fuel climbing significantly during the stretch. According to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the national average for a gallon of diesel was $3.53 on Jan. 19 (just before Speedweeks began) and $4.85 on March 9 (two days after the finale at Golden Isles). As I drove home to Pennsylvania from Golden Isles, I noticed most gas stations along Interstate 95 showing diesel prices of over $5 a gallon, adding a good chunk of change to the fuel budget for teams filling large hauler tanks
