Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Transplant brightens Rambo's future
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 nearly two-year wait finally ended for Dennis Franklin — the 51-year-old Dirt Late Model veteran from Gaffney, S.C., known as Rambo — on Saturday afternoon: he received a phone call that a liver match had been found for him. On a wait list for a donor since the summer of 2024 after being diagnosed with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a severe form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that led to him developing cirrhosis of the liver, Franklin immediately left with his fiancee, Dawn Sullivan, for MUSC Health University Medical Center in Charleston, S.C., to be prepped for the transplant surgery. The lengthy operation began around 9 a.m. on Sunday and his family members provided updates of his progress throughout the day. Doctors began by removing his liver and one of his kidneys with a cancer spot that they’ve been monitoring for the past year; the surgical team then transplanted the donor liver and had him in recovery by 3 p.m. All indications were that the surgery was successful: a final update posted by Franklin’s family at 7:30 p.m. Sunday said he was in the ICU “in a lot of pain and very groggy but he’s completely aware of everything and he’s still the Rambo we all know and love!”
No. 2: According to his family’s Sunday evening update, Franklin’s doctor said he was the first transplant patient in the history of the MUSC institution who went from surgery to recovery and then to ICU. “Every other patient they have ever had always had to go from surgery straight to ICU,” the post noted.
No. 3: I detailed Franklin’s health situation in an Inside Dirt Late Model Racing column published on July 24, 2025. His last start in his familiar No. 2 Dirt Late Model came on July 3, 2024, when he finished 15th after engine trouble at his hometown’s Cherokee Speedway, but he’s remained involved in the sport fielding Super, Limited and Crate Late Models for his stepson Layton Sullivan. The 26-year-old Sullivan, in fact, went racing Saturday with Franklin’s blessing and won Cherokee’s Crate Late Model feature.
No. 4: As a fan of themed victory lane props, I enjoyed seeing the cow that was brought in for the ceremonies following Saturday’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series-sanctioned Dairyland Showdown finale at Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Fountain City, Wis. Unfortunately, though, the 50-lapper’s $40,000 winner, Ryan Gustin of Marshalltown, Iowa, didn’t begin a new tradition by kissing the cow, like the victor of the annual Milk Bowl for asphalt Late Models at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt., has done for years. Gustin didn’t even take a swig from the bottle of milk that Mississippi Thunder’s weekend WoO winners were handed in victory lane. When I asked Todd Cooney, who fields Gustin’s equipment, about the postrace scene, he joked that Gustin “was afraid (the cow) was gonna bite him” and add that Gustin “hates” milk.
No. 5: Hall of Famer Gary Stuhler of Greencastle, Pa., came oh-so-close to winning his first Super Late Model feature in his 70s — he celebrated his 71st birthday on April 13 — in Saturday’s 25-lapper at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway. He led until Trever Feathers of Winchester, Va., slipped by on the final lap to steal the $4,000 top prize by 0.116 of a second. “Guess I got tired,” Stuhler jokingly responded to me when I texted him to ask about the heartbreaker. He added with a laughing emoji: “Made a rookie mistake.” It would have been Stuhler’s first victory since April 10, 2021, at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway, though he’s rung up eight runner-up finishes across four tracks — Port Royal, Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa., Winchester (Va.) Speedway and Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa. — since that triumph.
