Fast Talk presented by MD3 and Five Star Bodies
Fast Talk: Looking back at a sobering weekend
With action picking up, including Tennessee victories for Mike Marlar and Bobby Pierce on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, our roundtable checks in for the weekly feature presented by MD3 and Five Star Race Cars Bodies (edited for clarity and length):
Reflect on one of those weekends that reminds us of short-track racing’s inherent danger.
Kevin Kovac, DirtonDirt senior writer: Late Models, sprint cars, modifieds — whatever the division, or the surface, we’re all part of the short-track world, and a tragedy like Saturday’s collision of safety vehicles that killed one official and seriously injured another during a WoO sprint car race in Kennedale, Texas, hits home with all of us. We realize the dark side of the sport could happen anywhere, at any time. It was just a short time after the WoO sprint car medical emergency occurred, in fact, that Brandon Overton T-boned the spinning Dennis Erb Jr. at full-speed in the WoO Late Model feature at Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain, a crash with a ferocity that made everyone hold their breath until the drivers emerged stunned and sore but otherwise uninjured. For all the excitement and joy we get from racing, disaster is always lurking with all the sport’s moving parts. Everything is done to minimize the danger, but unfortunately sometimes the worst-case still happens.
Todd Turner, DirtonDirt managing editor: Obviously our hearts go out to the WoO sprint car family. Racing is essentially the entertainment business, but every night at the track can put folks in harm’s way with even the slightest thing going awry. I’d read about the Brandon Overton-Dennis Erb Jr. crash at Smoky Mountain before seeing it — and I’ve witnessed tons of wrecks in my time — but that one made me jump. I’m so thankful Erb’s passenger side took the brunt of it. We see some scary rollovers and such, but those are often when speed has been scrubbed. Wrecks between a maximum-speed car and a car at rest are rare but among the scariest.
Kyle McFadden, DirtonDirt staff reporter: Definitely a sobering weekend across dirt-track racing. First and foremost, my heartfelt condolences and prayers are with World Racing Group, the World of Outlaws sprint car family and all who knew Billy Hurt, the safety official who passed away while attending to an incident Saturday in Texas. Thankfully Brandon Overton and Dennis Erb Jr. both emerged unhurt from their vicious crash. I also saw several other incidents from the weekend that made me grimace. Winchester (Va.) Speedway had a nasty multi-car pileup in Crate action where, based on photos, multiple cars nearly rolled over the inside wall and into the infield. I also saw a violent rollover during a modified race in North Carolina. Weekends like this serve as a stark reminder that even in a sport we love so deeply, the risks are very real for everyone involved.
Aaron Clay, DirtonDirt weekend editor: This past weekend was a sobering reminder that racing is dangerous and nearly anything can happen at a racetrack. Thankfully, Brandon Overton, Dennis Erb Jr. and Chris Madden seemed to be OK after their extremely hard impact at Smoky Mountain. Sadly, not everyone emerged safely from Saturday’s WoO sprint car event in Texas. The tragedy among safety crew members serves as a reminder that everyone must maintain a heightened level of awareness while at a racetrack, especially while stationed in the pits and infield.
Discuss a weekend winner (or non-winner).
Turner: If you made a list of drivers needing a victory, Mike Marlar would’ve been near the top, so to see the Winfield, Tenn., racer winning at Volunteer Speedway — where he’s been successful in recent years — was a big one for Ronnie Delk’s team. I half expected him to follow it up at Smoky Mountain with another win, because Marlar tends to be streaky. The streaks go both ways, so we’ll see if he’s turned the corner or if he’ll have a strong spring with frequent competition in the Southeast.
Kovac: Marlar’s Smoky Mountain victory was an immediate rebound from an accident in his previous start (a slap of the wall during qualifying on March 4 at Golden Isles). Missouri’s Tony Jackson Jr. also went from wreck-to-winner, but his bounce back was even more dramatic. After destroying his car and escaping injury in a flipping crash on Jan. 3 at Oklahoma’s Arrowhead Speedway, Jackson returned to action Friday and Saturday with a new Longhorn Chassis and promptly swept the rekindled MLRA’s season-opening doubleheader at his home state’s Springfield Raceway. Jackson is a veteran who’s made his name winning championships on regional tours in the Midwest and his $10,000 weekend suggests that having the MLRA circuit back as an option after a year’s hiatus will suit him very well.
Clay: I’d like to give Tony Jackson Jr. a mention as well for his pair of March Madness victories at Springfield. Jackson outdueled Dillon McCowan to win Saturday’s 30-lap finale after he controlled the entire distance in Friday’s opener en route. The event was significant as it marked the first MLRA race since Oct. 12, 2024, after the Midwest tour took the entire 2025 season off before being revived this season by its former director Ernie Leftwich. Hopefully the event serves as the opener of a successful season for Jackson and the entire MLRA crew.
McFadden: I’ll touch on the heated exchange in Friday’s WoO heat race action at Volunteer Speedway between Kyle Strickler and Ethan Dotson. Most have probably seen the replay by now. I’m not saying one driver was more in the wrong than the other, but rather, instead of playing the blame game, how about we just accept the fact that hard-nosed, slide-or-die racing is part of the game nowadays? Of course, there’s a fine line between wrecking somebody intentionally and offering enough room for a driver to counteract when attempting a slider. But it’s no secret the intensity has ramped up in Dirt Late Model racing in recent years. As long as drivers admit their faults when they must and do their best to race hard yet respectfully, it’s OK to sometimes say a run-in between two guys is a byproduct of the pressure-packed racing Dirt Late Models often produce nowadays.
Any other news, happenings or results catch your eye?
McFadden: Tanner English picking up the Ultimate Heart of America Series victory Saturday at Tennessee’s Duck River Raceway Park caught my eye. Obviously we didn’t see the Benton, Ky., driver compete during Speedweeks with his family-operated team he’ll field this season. I do believe English is a national-touring caliber driver, but this year, I suspect he’ll base his schedule around high-paying regional events in the Midwest. Competing for another MARS title might be in the cards as well. With all the money to be won regionally in the Midwest, he can still rack up enough cash to pay the bills.
Clay: I’d also like to give a quick mention to Tanner English, who enjoyed early success in his new venture aboard a family-owned Rocket Chassis after winning Saturday’s $6,000 Winterfest at Duck River. He controlled all 40 laps in capturing the season opener for the Ultimate Southeast and Ultimate Heart of America Series. The win is likely especially rewarding for English as it’s his first since leaving Brett Coltman’s Coltman Farms Racing team during the offseason and hopefully marks the start of a successful campaign for him and his team.
Kovac: Bobby Pierce and Nick Hoffman finishing one-two in Saturday’s WoO 50-lapper at Smoky Mountain was certainly notable. While both drivers conceded that they were resigned to finishing third and fourth if not for the two-to-go crash that took out leader Brandon Overton and second-running Chris Madden, it was nonetheless telling that they were running right together near the front of the pack. The consensus opinion is that Hoffman has a real shot to challenge Pierce for the WoO title this year, and nights like Saturday, with the two drivers battling toe-to-toe on a red-clay southern track that isn’t either guy’s speciality, makes it clear they’re matched up quite well in 2026.
Turner: I was glad to see the Coltman Farms Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series get a boost with a new title sponsor in Brett Coltman, but equally alarmed to see the series draw a mere nine cars for Saturday’s event at Lancaster (S.C.) Motor Speedway. I know Lancaster is an engine-demanding oval, but let’s hope Coltman’s backing can play a role in raising the tour’s car counts after averaging fewer than 14 Super Late Model per event over the season’s first two races.
Preview a race this month as March (hopefully) goes out like a lamb.
Clay: I’m looking forward to this Saturday’s annual Ginger Owens Memorial March Madness event at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C. While the race has operated under the sanction of several different touring series — this year’s edition is co-sanctioned between Ray Cook’s Southern All Stars and Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals — the event always seems to kick off racing festivities in the Carolinas. This year’s March Madness competes directly with the World of Outlaws farther south in Mississippi but offers a lucrative $20,053 top prize, so I’m interested to see if any idle Lucas Oil Series teams may opt to compete with some of the best that the Southeast region has to offer.
Turner: I’ll stick with the World of Outlaws and the tour’s upcoming debut at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss. The Johnny Stokes oval — arguably producing some of the sport’s best racing over the last 20 years — is among eight first-time tracks on the WoO circuit, which hasn’t visited Mississippi since 2018 (and has had only nine completed events in the state in series history). The track’s typically at its slickest in warmer months, so I hope weather helps provide those conditions where the surface is most challenging, producing multiple-leader features.
McFadden: I’ve got my eyes on the Lucas Oil Series resumption March 27-28 at Atomic Speedway near Chillicothe, Ohio, and Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway, races I’ll be at. We’ve had some not-so-brutally cold days so far this March in Ohio — actually, some really nice ones, too, in the 60s — so perhaps the weather plays nice that weekend. Everybody will be chasing Hudson O’Neal in the series standings as he returns home to Brownstown, which should be fun to watch.
Kovac: March 21’s Spring 50 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., notably kicks off the fourth season of the Northern Allstars Late Model Series’s return under Lucas Oil Series announcer James Essex’s direction; the regional tour is set to continue its steady growth with 11 races scheduled in 2026 after two were run in ’23, six in ’24 and nine in ’25. The $10,000-to-win race also will provide Lucas Oil Series rookie Josh Rice his first opportunity this season to race on familiar turf with the JRR Motorsports team following a Georgia-Florida Speedweeks that was a rough-and-tumble learning experience. Competing at Florence should signal where Rice is as the Lucas Oil regular season arrives: Is he getting comfortable in Longhorn Chassis or will talk pick up that he needs a return to Rocket Chassis? How will his crew situation look with the post-Speedweeks departure of crew chief Randall Edwards?
Finding and keeping crew members is a constant struggle. What perks, existing or unusual, might improve retention?
Turner: The short answer — winning — seems reasonable, but there appears to be just as much turnover among successful teams. Higher pay is another obvious answer, but few teams can hit a standard where crew members aren’t looking for greener grass. Perhaps liberal time off — mostly for crew to be able to spend time elsewhere during racing breaks — would be most attractive. Long hours, frequent travel, the daily grind and disconnection with family make retention a continual challenge.
Kovac: Maybe asking the members of Mark Richards’s Rocket Chassis house car team — Danny White, Austin Hargrove and Joel Rogers — would provide some ideas. That trio has been together since the late-2010s (aside from one year when Hargrove spent more time in the shop than on the road), which seems to indicate that they’re being treated pretty well. I think Richards’s Rocket1 operation does do some things that help keep the crew members on board, including maintaining an organized work-flow and time schedule at the shop and setting up some planned breaks in the schedule so the guys can get some separation from their jobs. The grind of work and travel is real, and crew members need to have a semblance of life away from the shop, hauler and track to keep them from burning out.
McFadden: A good paycheck is usually the best solution. But of course only a very select few make a prosperous living in dirt racing. It also seems extremely difficult these days to find crew members committed to the grind — and I don’t blame them. The road life isn’t easy, especially for a husband or father trying to be present for his family. The hours are long and can be grueling, and living out of a tight-knit trailer week after week simply isn’t for everybody. Beyond that, the teams that keep people around are usually the ones that treat crew members like family — covering travel, feeding them well and making them feel like they’re part of something bigger than just another weekend at the racetrack.
Clay: Obviously a healthy salary seems like the best way to retain loyal and talented crew members, though many race teams often struggle with operating under a financial profit. Short of competitive pay, maybe a team could offer housing for its crew members, since rent/mortgage are usually the highest monthly obligation for most adults living in the United States. Sadly, even if a team offered lavish benefits, I feel like there would still be a rather quick turnaround for crew members. It’s a tough job that requires many late nights living on the road and, to put it simply, it’s not for everyone.
