Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Gordy calms down, talks out scrape
By Kevin Kovac
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: Gordy Gundaker of St. Charles, Mo., was steaming mad after Sunday’s first Show-Me 100 B-main at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. Losing the final transfer spot on the last lap to contact from another driver — Eli Ross of Muskogee, Okla., attempted a slider entering turn one that resulted in his car’s right-rear corner and Gundaker’s left-front banging together — will do that to a racer. Gundaker, who maintained control of his vehicle despite sustaining left-front damage but lost third place to Brenden Smith, pulled alongside Ross’s stopped car (it sported significant right-rear suspension and body damage) in turn two after the checkered flag to show his displeasure. Then, back in the pit area, Gundaker began marching around in search of Ross but was intercepted by Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series officials and encouraged to keep his cool; as the 33-year-old Gundaker noted later, he was reminded that Ross, a third-year Super Late Model campaigner who was last year’s Comp Cams Super Dirt Series Rookie of the Year, is just 17 so scrapping with him could lead to bigger problems. Plus Gundaker appeared in line to receive an event-points provisional to start the 100-lapper, which he soon learned was his. After calming down, Gundaker did visit the up-and-coming teenager at his trailer and discussed the incident. “We had a good conversation,” said Gundaker, who finished 16th in the Show-Me 100. “He doesn’t have a lot of experience yet and we talked about it and I think he learned a lesson. We’ve all been there and tried a move that didn’t work.”
No. 2: Speaking of Gundaker, prominently displayed on the quarterpanels of his No. 11 machine is JB’s Salvage, the family business operated by former Dirt Late Model regular Kent Robinson of Bloomington, Ind. Gundaker said Robinson joined his race team as a partner last year since they’ve “been good friends for a long time.” Robinson has made occasional appearances behind the wheel in recent years but Gundaker said there aren’t any plans for the 39-year-old to join him to run races this year. Gundaker remarked that Robinson had considered attending the Show-Me 100 but bypassed the event because he instead made a trip to Nashville, Tenn., with his wife to celebrate his birthday.
No. 3: I found a very frustrated Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., when I stopped at his Riggs Motorsports team’s trailer following his eighth-place finish in Sunday’s Show-Me 100. He started fourth but couldn’t stay there, doomed to running most of the distance in the gaggle of cars at the back end of the top-10. I just have no absolutely no traction,” Overton said, shaking his head in disgust. “But it ain’t just here. I do it everywhere, so I just literally sit there and ride around idling, because if I try to get my tires hot, everybody really drives by me. I could already tell as soon as I took off it was going to be a long night. But we’ve done went one way, we went another way … we went three ways this weekend. Obviously I haven’t hit on what I need to fix my problem. Like, I still have the same problem I had three years ago — no traction.” Overton has certainly improved this season in the win column, but it’s been more than a year since he’s been victorious on the Lucas Oil Series and finding the speed to end that drought is a reason he’s planning to run this weekend’s big $57,000-to-win World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Mansfield (Ohio) Speedway. “We have to run every race we can to try and figure out how to get better,” he said.
No. 4: Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., is another Lucas Oil Series regular who said he’ll enter Mansfield’s rich WoO weekend, but he’s going with the Rocket1 team in a more positive light. “We’ll be there, because when you’re running good, it don’t matter where you’re going, you want to go,” he said after his runner-up finish in the Show-Me 100 continued his recent strength. “I always want to go to Fairbury, Farmer City, places like that, but when you can come to Wheatland and you’re good like we were this weekend, you feel like you can go anywhere and be good.”
No. 5: While signing autographs at his pit stall following a fourth-place finish in the Show-Me 100, Garrett Alberson of Las Cruces, N.M., was approached by a fan carrying a blast from Alberson’s past: the No. F5 door from the car he drove for Haughton, La.-based Childress Racing a decade ago. The fan made the winning bid for the body panel at a charity auction earlier in the day and, according to Alberson’s father, went looking for the driver whom she thought was still running the same car. She came to discover that the door was Alberson’s from 2016 but he’s now, of course, driving the Roberts Motorsports No. 58, so she brought it to him to be signed. “Pretty cool. I haven’t seen that door in a long time,” Alberson said.
