West Virginia Motor Speedway
Hardy's focus angles toward West Virginia
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Kyle Hardy at West Virginia Motor Speedway. (Zach Yost)
MINERAL WELLS, W.Va. (June 13) — Kyle Hardy is racing in West Virginia more than ever this year, and there's good reason for that.
His car owner, Mike Hurley, now owns both West Virginia Motor Speedway and Elkins Speedway in Kerens, giving the Stephens City, Va., driver more laps on the pair of 3/8-mile ovals than perhaps anyone else in the country this season.
"Mike definitely wants us to be here — and it makes sense," the 33-year-old Hardy said. "He's trying to build these racetracks up."
Counting his third-place finish in Tyler County Speedway's April 4 Super Late Model opener, Hardy has made nine feature starts in West Virginia this season — as many as he's made combined in his traditional stomping grounds of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Despite another productive season — Hardy has captured 13 feature victories this year, giving him a whopping 144 multidivisional wins since 2021 — he admits West Virginia's dirt presents a different challenge than the tracks where he's built much of that success and entire race program around.
That was especially evident during the two-day World of Outlaws Late Model Series weekend at WVMS, where he failed to qualify for either feature.
"The dirt's really not my cup of tea right now," Hardy said. "My car really gets good when the track gets clean and slick and black, but trying to work on that. You know, how to get better on this kind of dirt. Definitely not my strong suit right now."
Three of Hardy's 13 victories this season have come at Elkins Speedway and West Virginia Motor Speedway — proof he's capable of winning in the Mountain State. But the contrast is especially stark for Hardy, whose success on Virginia racetracks has earned him DirtonDirt's Virginia Top Performer honor in each of the past five seasons. He's also won six times this year at his home track, Winchester (Va.) Speedway.
"There is no comparison, other than it's dirt, you know?" Hardy said. "Winchester reminds me of Tennessee. Tennessee racetracks, they get real black, shiny, slick. Sometimes they grip up when they're black. Yeah, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania dirt, they're definitely different."
Not every West Virginia track, however, presents the same challenge. Hardy believes Elkins Speedway's surface suits his driving style far better than WVMS.
"It kind of reminds me of how Portsmouth dirt used to be in Portsmouth, Ohio. A little bit of that," Hardy said. "Mixed in with, like, Roaring Knob. Those kinds of deals, but it's alright. It's all its own deal. It's definitely different."
Hardy opened the season by charging from the 10th starting spot to win Jan. 22's semifeature in Crate competition at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., on the undercard of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals.
Around that time, there were rumblings that Hardy and Hurley's team might commit to the World of Outlaws tour full time. Hardy, who followed the first 11 races of the 2019 tour with Viper Motorsports before pulling off the series, said they explored the possibility, but those plans never came together.
Hardy had hoped to make another run at Jim Bernheisel's Appalachian Mountain Speedweek title after finishing fifth in points in 2023 and suffering engine failures that derailed his 2024 and 2025 campaigns. But the World of Outlaws weekend at WVMS coincided with the final two AMS races at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway and Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa., taking a title run off the table this season.
"We were supposed to run the Speedweek deal," Hardy said. "You know, we were planning to do that, but we just weren't able to do it. It's unfortunate, but it's just part of it."
But all those extra laps around Hurley's new-and-improved WVMS short track have also given Hardy a firsthand look at its evolution. Since first racing at the reconfigured oval earlier this April, he's watched the facility make noticeable strides.
"From the first time I raced here, the surface is a lot better," Hardy said. "It seems like the racing is a lot better. I mean, that race (Friday) was absolutely unreal — now that you're able to run top, middle, somewhat the bottom, I guess if you're Dennis Erb. I think they'll get the bottom better eventually. … They'll get the track really good. Right now, from where it was, I think they've made a 110 percent gain."
Hardy failing to qualify for either World of Outlaws feature wasn't solely a product of unfamiliarity with the WVMS surface. He was also racing with his secondary engine, which he estimated produces "close to 800 horsepower," compared to his primary powerplant that tops 900 horsepower.
Friday, Hardy qualified 15th among 21 cars in his group before starting and finishing eighth in his heat. Saturday, an electrical issue before qualifying left him 19th of 20 in his group, and after starting and finishing 10th in his heat, he scratched from both B-mains to save equipment for the weekend ahead — Friday's $5,200-to-win Red Frederick Memorial at Elkins and Saturday's $5,091-to-win Jimmy Spence Memorial at Winchester.
"Electrical issue in qualifying, which caused it to not run," Hardy said. "Immediately I found it in the car. The switch was getting ready to come out. I had to fix that. Made one lap, ran dead-last, which is what it is. Someone has to run dead last. Then the heat race, couldn't go nowhere. I don't wanna tear the car up. I wanna race next week bad. At least get back to racing competitively."
Even after the frustrating weekend, Hardy remains eager to return for the Dirt Track World Championship on Oct. 16-17 with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series as he also figures to race Oct. 15's Burlile Ohio Valley Late Model Series that Thursday.
"Yeah, I'd like to get in the show," Hardy said of DTWC. "But it's not looking pretty right now. I know when we get our primary engine back, it'll be a lot better.
