The Dirt Track at Charlotte
Notes: Francis-Reddick tangle spices WoO finale
By Joshua Joiner
DirtonDirt.com staff writer
Contact from Tyler Reddick sent Steve Francis (15) into the wall at Charlotte. (pbase.com/cyberslash)
CONCORD, N.C. (Nov. 9) — While Josh Richards’ dominance of Saturday’s World Finals finale may have kept things quiet at the front throughout much of the 50-lap race, there was sufficient action elsewhere among the top five add some spice to the World of Outlaws Late Model Series’ season-ending race.
Among the highlights at The Dirt Track at Charlotte was a back-and-forth battle between front-runners Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., and Tyler Reddick of Corning, Calif., that included contact between the two drivers on lap four and ended when more contact sent Francis into the turn-one wall on lap 24. | Richards wins finale
Francis’ pulled his heavily damaged car alongside Reddick under the ensuing caution but no further contact was made. It turned out that on-track retaliation wasn’t needed to end Reddick’s potential top-five run as he slowed just after the following restart and followed Francis to the pit area with a broken axel.
“I got spun by a little punk,” Francis said of the incident. “He just run in there and dumped me. It destroyed my race car, so I’m glad he didn’t get to finish.”
Reddick admitted the contact that sent Francis into the wall was intentional. He labeled it as payback for both the contact earlier in the race and other previous run-ins between the two drivers.
“I can understand him wanting to get around me if I was slow,” Reddick said. “But he got in the back of me once and turned me. Next time around in one and two, he door slammed me and drove straight through me.
“Things have happened there before. I was just mad that he decided to do it again tonight, so I decided to remind him that he can’t just push me around. I just finally had enough. Hopefully people understand that.”
Francis remembered the contact earlier in the race, but he didn’t believe it was enough to warrant Reddick’s payback.
“We run into (turn) one and he left the door open early in the race,” Francis said. “We barely touched wheels, but I let him get straight and made sure he was straight and passed him down the back straightaway. That’s nothing like they way he ran in there and dumped me.”
While Reddick intended for his actions to end a perceived problem between the two drivers, Francis doesn’t feel it’s over.
“I’ll talk to him. I have his phone number, so I’ll talk to him,” Francis said. “But plain and simple, he has one coming.”
Denied No. 5
After he drew the outside pole for Saturday’s World Finals main event, all signs were pointing toward another Jimmy Owens victory in the final night of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series doubleheader weekend at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
But instead of claiming his fifth straight victory during the Saturday night portion of the World Finals, Owens of Newport, Tenn., found himself virtually out of contention before a single lap was completed in the 50-lap race.
Owens was charged with jumping the start of the race when he fired before polesitter and eventual race winner Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., and was penalized a row restart.
Things went from bad to worse when Owens attempted to drive around new outside polesitter John Blankenship of Williamson, W.Va., in the first corner. Blankenship slid high, forcing Owens to check up and drop well back in the pack. He ended up sixth at the finish.
“We was at the end of the zone when I fired. He don’t fire, and they put me back,” Owens said of his penalty on the race’s first attempted start. “To come down here and get done like that on the take off, it’s just really frustrating and makes wonder what’s going on. But I guess that’s part of it. It is what it is.”
While Owens questioned the ruling of Outlaws officials on the race’s first start, he was later questioning his own decision on the second attempt.
“That was just a bonehead move,” Owens said of his attempt to drive around Blankenship. “I was pissed off. (Richards) pretty much did the same thing again, and I got a good run on the high side. Blankenship just didn’t know I was there. I probably shouldn’t even have been there.
“It’s definitely disappointing. Things kinda lined up nice for us there, but I guess they don’t always work out the way you hope.”
For the home team
The World Finals routinely attracts the top Dirt Late Model drivers from around the country, but for the most part, Carolina drivers often fair well in their home region’s biggest event. That wasn’t the case this year at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, when, if not for Chris Ferguson’s seventh-to-second charge in a Saturday heat race, Carolina drivers would’ve been shut out of both World Finals features.
“For us to step up for our local crowd here and make the show, it was pretty cool for us,” said Ferguson, the 22-year-old driver from nearby Mount Holly, N.C. “It felt good to make the show and run good for the home crowd. There wasn’t a lot of Carolina drivers that did good this weekend.
“It was surprising because you usually see guys like (Chris )Madden and (Jonathan) Davenport running up and with the way Rambo (Dennis Franklin) has been this year, I figured he’d be up there.”
Ferguson was almost on the outside looking in himself. After a disappointing performance Friday night, Ferguson wasn’t a lock to make the feature lineup through his heat race with Jimmy Owens, Darrell Lanigan and Shane Clanton all starting ahead of him. But he charged forward and used a nifty low-side move to overtake both Clanton and Lanigan in moving from fourth to second midway through the 10-lapper.
“I knew they were both aggressive drivers and they’d probably go into (turn )three and see who would let off the latest,” Ferguson said. “I knew when they drove off in there to hook the bottom and see what happened. Sure enough, they both slipped high and we snuck by them on the bottom.”
Correction: Fixes cause of Reddick's early retirement from the main event.
