105 Speedway
Fast Talk: Lucas recap and remembering Moore
By Kevin Kovac
With weather curtailing many special events but the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series completing two races, our roundtable checks in for our weekly feature presented by MD3 and Five Star Race Cars Bodies (edited for clarity and length):
Break down a weekend Lucas Oil winner from Delaware (Devin Moran) or Maryland (Brandon Sheppard).
Kevin Kovac, DirtonDirt senior writer: Want a perfect example of Devin Moran’s ascension to superstar level? Just look at Friday’s race at Georgetown. Moran’s primary car shuts off to make him miss hot laps, but his Chuck Kimble-led crew quickly but calmly unloads their second car and Moran promptly sets fast time. After a blown oil line causes a brief flareup at the conclusion of his second-place finish in the first heat, the team again doesn’t panic, cleans up the oily mess, and Moran goes out and wins the feature from fifth in dominant fashion. It was a night that didn’t go smoothly, but Moran and Co. handled it with aplomb. Only the absolute best can pull off victories under such circumstances, and it’s why Moran remains atop the Lucas Oil points chasing his second straight title and, with five triumphs, is this season’s winningest driver on the national tour.
Kyle McFadden, DirtonDirt staff reporter: It’s striking that Mark Richards and Brandon Sheppard — a powerhouse duo that’s seemingly won everywhere together — had never broken through at Hagerstown Speedway until Sunday. This is a track Richards has known since the 1970s as a crewman, yet success here with Sheppard had always eluded them. That changed emphatically with the dominant performance that left Richards beaming, recalling memories from the Maryland half-mile not far from his Shinnston, W.Va., home. Sheppard was untouchable, slicing through traffic with precision and sustaining momentum throughout, evoking the traits that once made Mark’s son Josh so formidable at Hagerstown.
Todd Turner, DirtonDirt managing editor: For Sheppard, it’s a reassuring sign of the continued steady progress in his return to the Rocket Chassis house car more than a year ago. The team last year had a single victory before the Fourth of July, while the Hagerstown rout marks Rocket1’s fifth victory. The Mark Richards-owned operation captured the 2023 Lucas Oil title with Hudson O’Neal (under the tour’s one-race playoff format), but hasn’t won a traditional national touring points title since 2021 (with Sheppard in World of Outlaws Late Model Series action). Can B-Shepp, now fourth in points, capture this year’s Lucas Oil crown?
Bryan Ault, DirtonDirt contributor: Devin Moran never seems to have a bad night, which is a big reason behind why he leads the Lucas Oil Series points. He has a single Lucas Oil tour finish outside of the top 10, a 14th-place run March 6 at Golden Isles. Moran owns two series victories in his four starts, Brownstown's Indiana Icebreaker and now a triumph at Georgetown. Combined with his fourth-place run at Hagerstown, he now leads Hudson O’Neal for victories on tour, extending his points margin. Much like the World of Outlaws, the tour’s championship is developing into a two-horse race, and it should be fun and exciting to see who comes out on top.
What’s another takeaway or two from Lucas Oil events.
McFadden: It was a real shame that BAPS Motor Speedway of York Haven, Pa., couldn’t be showcased to the broader Dirt Late Model world after rain washed out Saturday's Lucas Oil visit. I’d put BAPS inside the top 15 facilities in dirt-track racing across the country, if we’re being honest. It sits in the heart of Central Pennsylvania sprint car country, but the turnout likely would’ve been strong. Promoter Kolten Gouse is eager for the 3/8-mile oval on return on the Lucas Oil calendar next year, and that the weather cooperates when it does.
Ault: Ricky Thornton Jr.’s struggles continue. He posted a sixth-place run on Saturday, but came home dead last at Georgetown after breaking a driveshaft in the early laps. It feels like we’ve been waiting for RTJ to emerge from his relative mediocrity and get back to his winning ways that we’ve grown accustomed to in recent seasons, but that’s certainly not been the case. Still, it’s a long season with plenty of action left. I’m optimistic for Thornton’s chances at Lucas Oil’s doubleheader weekend at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis and the Ralph Latham Memorial at Florence, two tracks where he’s had success in the past.
Turner: I appreciate the new Steering Buddy-sponsored Dark Horse Winner bonus that will pay an extra $1,000 to any first-time tour winner in 2026. It will allow announcer James Essex to highlight potential first-time winners, for one. It’s also one of those sponsorships and awards that’s clearly defined as benefitting racers and understandable for fans. Too often tours have this or that sponsorship that gets lots in the shuffle because it doesn’t easily translate for racers or competitors.
Kovac: Max Blair is really on an impressive run of consistency. He pushed his Lucas Oil top-five streak to eight in a row with a third at Georgetown and hard-fought fifth at Hagerstown. I have to do a deep historical dive to figure out how many drivers have strung together similar top-five streaks in recent years, but I don’t think it’s a common occurrence. Top-fives are a barometer of a driver’s competitiveness, and Blair is showing he’s making some serious headway on the national scene with Centerline Motorsports. His first-ever full-field Lucas Oil victory has to be coming soon.
Detail a non-Lucas Oil driver, recent result or news item.
Turner: I’ll take the chance here to promote a few newish DirtonDirt features we’ve debuted the last few months, both aimed at turning news/results around more quickly for our readers. After the Checkers provides punchy analysis and reaction to staff-covered events. And Kevin Kovac’s Take Five is an evolution of his previous “10 Things” that tagged on the end of his weekly column with impressions, sometimes of the quirky variety, appearing several times a week. Let us know what you think of them (or how they can be better) via our social media channels. You can also email individual staffers (our email formats are todd.turner@flosports.tv).
Ault: Iowa’s Ryan Gustin scored a pair of weekend victories, backing up last weekend’s Northern Allstars series win at Paragon (Ind.) Speedway with an MLRA triumph over Tony Jackson Jr. and Hall of Famer Billy Moyer at Farmington (Mo.) Empire Speedway. After struggling to find victory lane in six months, Gustin ripping off three regional victories surely must give him a boost of confidence heading into the World of Outlaws trips to Independence Motor Speedway and Mississippi Thunder Speedway, two locales where he has logged plenty of laps in the modified division.
Kovac: I noticed that West Virginia’s Eddie Carrier Jr. drove Steve Weigle’s No. 75 to a Super Late Model victory on Saturday at his home state’s Tyler County Speedway. It was the second straight year that Carrier has won a Tyler County, but before that he had gone seven years without a checkered flag. I’m happy to see Carrier, now 55, back winning races. He’s one of the good guys of the sport. Carrier was the World of Outlaws Late Model Series Rookie of the Year in 2006 during my first year as the tour’s P.R. director and I came to know Eddie, his wife and his father as three of the nicest people you can come across in a Dirt Late Model pit area. He’s only raced sparingly since 2018, but he’s a driver who’s enjoyed high-level success — including a North-South 100 victory among his 10 career Lucas Oil Series wins — and I’m glad he’s still knocking around and having some fun.
McFadden: I found it interesting that Hudson O’Neal and Devin Moran both turned in their best finishes at Hagerstown Speedway on Sunday, finishing third and fourth, respectively. Moran had never finished better than fifth in four previous starts there, while O’Neal’s best had been eighth. By their own standards, the Maryland half-mile would likely be considered one of their weaker tracks. Sometimes, it’s not the flashiest performances that morph into championship seasons, but the ability to maximize results at places that don’t suit you. Moran and O’Neal likely walked away feeling exactly that.
Give your impressions of Hall of Fame driver Larry Moore, who died last week.
Kovac: I only spoke to Moore once — by phone for Eldora content a few years ago — and never had the opportunity to see him race in his prime, but I feel like I know him way more than other Hall of Fame drivers from his era because I read the 2014 autobiography he did with writer Dave Argabright. He had a heck of a career even beyond his three World 100 victories, and the stories he told made him sound like a guy that I would have enjoyed covering. And hearing from someone like Rocket Chassis co-owner Mark Richards that Moore was a superb setup guy as well as a driver, it’s clear that he deserves a place in Dirt Late Model history as one of the division’s all-time greats.
Ault: Anybody who captures three World 100s and finishes on the podium in half of his appearances at Eldora Speedway is certainly someone to be remembered. Moore raced at a time when Dirt Late Model racing was making technological advances, not quite to the level they are today, but definitely advancing in terms of technology and innovation. May the Buckeye State driver rest in peace, and condolences to his family.
McFadden: I never had the chance to watch Larry Moore race in person, nor did I get the opportunity to meet him, something I wish I could say differently today. But the reaction across the dirt racing community from his passing this past week said plenty. Drivers, fans and industry people alike all seemed to share the same sentiment of respect, admiration and an appreciation for what he meant to the sport. My condolences go out to those knew and loved him.
Turner: Thanks to historians and authors like Bob Markos and Dave Argabright, I know he was one of the best there ever was. I missed Moore's heyday, but I do remember particularly his 1992 season in Bobby Allen’s No. 55 when he was still winning at an impressive clip among much younger competitors. I loved the clean look of that red car and how he drove the car much straighter than competitors of that era. I didn’t know him well, but found him engaging in a story I wrote about him during his brief stint assisting Brandon Kinzer back in 1999.
Discuss the challenges for younger fans in recognizing the importance in the sport of Moore and drivers from earlier generations.
McFadden: Not to make anyone feel their age here, but I’ll need to be schooled on just how much of an impact Larry Moore had on the sport. I was fortunate to grow up watching now 71-year-old Gary Stuhler and drivers like Hall of Famer Denny Bonebrake, but even that barely scratches the surface of the generations that came before. That’s the challenge for younger fans. The further removed you are, the harder it is to fully grasp the impact of drivers like Moore. Unlike today, information on the sport’s pioneers isn’t always easy to find as much of it predates the internet and lives instead through stories, memories and word of mouth.
Ault: I’m not quite as young as Kyle, but I will say that it’s hard for me, as someone in his mid-30s, to relate to some of the drivers in the distant past. Primarily it's because of the lack of easy-to-find information outside of DirtonDirt's archives. That said, I love reading about history and I'll put Dave Argabright's "On Top of the World" book with Moore on my reading list. I'd also love to have a good all-encompassing book chronicling Dirt Late Model racing's famous drivers, car owners and innovators, from the sport's earliest roots through the modern era, to get myself and fans much younger than me up to speed about the past. I would buy that book in a heartbeat and probably reread it several times.
Turner: Especially in the glitz and glam of our wide-ranging streaming era, modern Dirt Late Model stars today seem like the best ever. But as I discussed with author Dave Argabright after Moore’s passing, today’s racers are standing on the shoulders of those bygone stars who manhandled the sport’s transition from stock-car style machines to the modern cars we know today. Sports nuts love to compare the greats — Babe Ruth vs. Shohei Ohtani or Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James, to name two — but instead of debating who’s best, our racing community should appreciate how far we've come thanks to open-faced helmet superstars who came before. Younger fans could do worse than asking older spectators to tell a story or two about those days often known only by random black-and-white photographs.
Kovac: Today’s coverage of Dirt Late Model racing is so much more immediate and in-depth than it was in the heydays of drivers like Moore that it makes our modern drivers seem larger than life. Fans under 40 almost certainly can’t recall seeing drivers from Moore’s era in person, so those racers largely exist in mentions of past winners, grainy video footage and social media posts of old trade-paper clippings. Books like Moore’s with Argabright and just stories that well-known veteran figures on the circuit today — like Mark Richards and Bob Pierce — can tell about Moore and his brethren are important to keep alive the legacy of the pioneers.
