Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Notes: Bright spot for Harris after struggles
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Clay Harris (heathlawsonphotos.com)
The frustrating slide of Clay Harris since his strong Florida-Georgia Speedweeks — dropping from fourth in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series standings after March 7's finale at Golden Isles Speedway to 11th — hasn't been for a lack of effort. | RaceWire
The 25-year-old from Jupiter, Fla., has cycled through three race cars, multiple engine packages and countless setup changes searching for answers. After finishing fourth Saturday at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio — his best Lucas Oil result since finishing fourth in the Golden Isles finale — Harris hopes his latest change is finally the remedy.
"I've been working my ass off, and I know these boys have been working their ass off," Harris said. "The car we got, I don't know what it is, it just has something on it where it don't wanna run right. We've spent a lot of time trying to figure that thing out. I'm done with it. So we brought out the backup car."
The Longhorn Chassis that Harris drove at Muskingum made just its third start of the season. It debuted with 11th- and 13th-place finishes at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn., two weeks earlier before showing its potential at the Tristin Moran-promoted 3/8-mile oval.
Combined with a fifth-place finish July 1 in Hay's Automotive United Late Model Series competition at Michaels Mercer (Pa.) Raceway — where Drake Troutman topped Mike Marlar — Harris has recorded back-to-back top-five finishes for the first time since closing Speedweeks with four straight top fives from Feb. 24 through March 7.
"It's been a good car," Harris said. "Ran it at Smoky and it was all right. We'd been down in the dumps."
Harris originally intended to save the newer chassis for later in the season, but with his team searching for answers, he decided it was time to put it into action. The move paid immediate dividends Saturday at Muskingum, where Harris led the opening lap and ran second behind Hudson O'Neal from laps 2-44 before eventual winner Max Blair and Devin Moran slipped by in the closing stages of the 50-lapper.
"It was definitely better than it has been," said Harris, whose decision to gamble on softer tires ultimately couldn't match Blair's harder tire compound over the final laps.
Harris is also searching for another race-day crewman after his operation dwindled to one full-time mechanic, Talan Carter, entering a demanding six-race stretch in 10 days on the Lucas Oil circuit. As for the racing itself, he's hoping the turnaround continues beginning Thursday at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa. After that comes two nights at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., followed by a return to Iowa at Corning's Adams County Speedway and Harlan's Shelby County Speedway.
"Historically speaking, 34 has never been great to me because I don't think I've ever finished a race there," Harris said. "The first year there, I broke a motor and then last year I broke a motor there. Historically, never been great there. I'm looking forward to Wheatland and Shelby County — I like Shelby County.
"Adams County, I've never been there, but I'm assuming it's a big black-dirt racetrack? It'll probably be fast. … I'm looking forward to Fairbury (in Illinois for the Prairie Dirt Classic) because it's the only place on the road I've been good this year. I was in second racing against (Brandon) Sheppard for the lead (in May 9's Lucas Oil race there). I was in contention at least."
Operational rhythm
Unfavorable weather has become a recurring frustration for Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series director Rick Schwallie and the tour this year, which lost Friday's return to Mansfield (Ohio) Speedway after a torrential downpour arrived during heat race action.
And although Saturday's Lucas Oil event at Muskingum County Speedway concluded before 9:30 p.m. — a testament to the program's efficiency — rain threatened throughout the evening.
"I'd like to see weather straighten up for us," Schwallie said before Sunday's program at Muskingum. "Since Speedweeks, all but two events have had weather impact of some sort, whether we bailed through and got them in or we've been rained out."
The forecast appears more encouraging for this weekend's three-race swing, although rain hasn't been ruled out entirely. Thursday's visit to 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa, carries a chance of showers and thunderstorms during the day, while Friday's opener of the Diamond Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., has only a slight chance of precipitation. Saturday's $25,000-to-win finale looks favorable, too.
Through the season's first 34 scheduled race nights, nine have been rained out or postponed — eclipsing last year's total of eight with 20 race nights still remaining. The Lucas Oil tour has fared better than some, however. Rain has disrupted 11 of 21 events on Malvern Bank Super Late Model Series East and West schedules and 12 of 27 events for the DIRTcar Summer Nationals.
"I feel like we've gotten to race maybe more than others. Maybe more fortunate than, say, the Summer Nationals. I know Joe Kosiski's Malvern Bank series has been really hit hard. But I think for the most part, we've had a really good year," Schwallie said. "It's just we haven't raced enough to, I feel like, have a rhythm yet."
That lack of rhythm extends beyond simply completing races. Schwallie believes the weather interruptions have prevented the Lucas Oil staff from settling into the routine needed to deliver every aspect of a race weekend at the standard they expect.
"Like, when you pull in and you pull out, we want to hit on all cylinders of our program," Schwallie said. "Whether we're doing them in time efficiency — our team — we're doing everything, you know, tech, of course, but just midway area, souvenir programs, autograph sessions, we're trying to do more, we have a new Jumbotron that we're using, trying to integrate that into the show more, and we're busy every week trying to build more content for it, you know, to make the at-the-racetrack experience better, because to me, that's our No. 1 goal.
"Yeah, sure we're on Flo, but we also need to fill the grandstands and make our racetrack experience better, and that I feel like is a No. 1 goal for us. So we just haven't raced enough to put all pieces of elements at full tilt yet."
O'Neal still searching
At the start of the 2026 season, Hudson O'Neal and his SSI Motorsports team could do no wrong. They opened the year with three victories, seven podium finishes and nine top-five results in their first nine starts — all during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks — before adding two more victories in May.
But since his May 14 triumph at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway, the 25-year-old from Martinsville, Ind., has gone nearly two months without a victory, a drought made even more frustrating after Max Blair overtook him in the closing laps of Saturday's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature at Muskingum County Speedway. Blair's harder tire compound proved to be the difference as O'Neal's softer tires faded over the final laps.
"I was dying really hard there at the end. I knew someone had to be coming," O'Neal said. "There's always that one guy who comes on at the end of the race. I was just a sitting duck. We went soft on tires and I just didn't have much left at the end. We just weren't very balanced.
"We'll go back and work at it a little bit, see if we can't get better the last 10 laps of the race. All in all, we had a great race car, just felt like we lacked a little at the end. You'll have that every once in a while."
The silver lining for O'Neal is that, despite an 18-race winless streak — his longest since snapping a 24-race drought that stretched from Feb. 6 to June 1, 2024 — he's remained firmly in contention. Saturday's third-place finish followed another podium effort in the June 27 Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway.
O'Neal also continues to lead the Lucas Oil standings by 45 points, though that advantage has been cut in half after peaking at 90 following his Eagle victory.
"We'll keep going. We're just disappointed," O'Neal said. "But that's racing and that drives you to work a little harder. We'll do that. And hopefully we'll go have us a good west swing next week."
