DirtonDirt Dispatches
Dispatches: First U.S. victory for Canadian Haskell
Gregg Haskell in victory lane. (Attica Raceway Park)
Among the latest notes and quotes from around Dirt Late Model racing during the Fourth of July weekend, including DIRTcar Summer Nationals and other action (look for World of Outlaws coverage of Deer Creek’s NAPA Gopher State 50 elsewhere). Also find a listing of live-streaming video from specials around the country:
Canadian invasion
Gregg Haskell of Chatham, Ontario, has been crossing the U.S.-Canada border for most summer Fridays for a dozen years, but he’s never reach victory lane at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park until this week. But where is victory lane?
“I didn’t even know where to go or what to do after winning,” the 49-year-old Haskell said after leading all but the first two laps of the 25-lapper. Capturing his first stateside victory, Haskelll won the nonstop feature over Kyle Moore, the winner of Attica’s previous two features, and early leader Mike Bores.
“That was the longest last five laps of my life. I was waiting for Devin (Shiels) or Kyle (Moore) to fly by,” Haskell said. “I’ve been coming here for a long time and I vowed to keep coming here until I get a win.”
Without a caution flag, “the lapped cars seemed to be everywhere and I didn’t really know what I was doing,” Haskell added. “I was just letting the car go wherever it wanted to and hoping it would stick. Kyle Moore is not going to be happy that he told me one of his secrets last week. I think that really helped. I love this place and keep coming back.”
Haskell, who has more than 20 feature victories between Buxton Raceway and Ohswekend Speedway, captured his first U.S. victory, ironically on the Fourth of July. The victory “makes all the hassles of crossing the border to race so worth it,” he told DirtonDirt.
Haskell also dedicated his victory to longtime friend Jeff Drummond, who was diagnosed with cancer in December and died April 2 at the age of 48.
“We lost one of our good buddies this past winter to cancer and this one is definitely for him,” said Haskell, who grew up playing hockey and baseball with Drummond. — Brian Liskai and staff reports
Sheppard ends skid
Brandon Sheppard felt different during Friday’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series hot laps at Atomic Speedway. A good kind of different, a newfound comfortability, aboard the Rocket Chassis house car team that’s admittedly not been their best this season.
He wasn’t surprised, and wasn’t any more surprised when he finally found victory lane by the end of the night. The New Berlin, Ill., superstar reconvened with his Rocket1 Racing team this week, bringing a new setup to the table while Mark Richards and Co. provided a brand-new race car. It took 25 series races, but the result — both the victory and how the car performed — had finally been satisfying.
“Man, that feels so good. It’s crazy this place would be the first one that I get a win at,” said the 32-year-old Sheppard, the $25,000 winner at Atomic who led 46 of 50 laps. “It’s been a long time since I’ve won here recently. But I can’t thank my guys enough. Mark, Dan (White), Austin (Hargrove), Joel (Rogers), Steve (Baker), everybody back at the Rocket shop (in Shinnston, W.Va.) busting their tails this week, getting this new car ready for us and just everybody involved with this team.”
A candid Sheppard added in victory lane that, “truthfully, I’ve had the car messed up most of the year, myself, just because of some stuff I was feeling in Florida.”
“We changed some stuff and got messed up,” said Sheppard, who continued to say that he was “testing a bunch of stuff” on the DIRTcar Summer Nationals circuit June 22-29 “and found some pretty good speed with my car.
He then “told Mark what I did” during the stint he won the Week 3 Summer Nationals title that produced June 29’s victory at Clarksville (Tenn.) Speedway and five straight podium finishes.
“He was like, ‘Well, that’s kind of where we were supposed to be at the beginning of the year,’” Sheppard said of Richards’s feedback when telling him his setup specifics that worked. “And then I messed it up. But like I said, those guys stick behind me no matter what, and I appreciate them more than anything.”
Sheppard’s newly-built car not only had speed, but unmatched durability, too, on a rough-and-tumble night where six drivers who ran in the top-five at one point failed to finish. He didn’t need to make the pass for the lead under green as early leader Carson Ferguson parked his No. 93 under a lap-five caution period for engine issues.
Among other drivers with premature race exits: third-running Brandon Overton, who slowed on lap 10; fifth-running Garrett Alberson, who pulled off the track on lap 23; second-running Ricky Thornton Jr., whose engine expired on lap 24 and second-running Devin Moran, who slowed off the track on lap 46.
Fortunately for Sheppard, he didn’t have to worry about any such failures, and not even worry about which tire compound to use. Sheppard bolted on a softer right-rear compound than most drivers Friday.
“The experience of having a car owner as long as Mark Richards has, when it comes to tire choices, that’s what I dread the most when I go out and drive my family car,” Sheppard said. “When I drive this car, I put all my confidence in Mark and his choices, and you just got to stand behind them whether it’s wrong or right. You don’t know unless you try it.”
The series announced Friday that Sheppard had tied Josh Richards in all-time touring wins at 33, but two of those wins are split-field features. Still, Sheppard is honored to hear Richards and his name mentioned in the same breath.
“It’s cool. Josh is definitely somebody I looked up to my whole career, especially starting out,” Sheppard said. “He really took me under his wing there at the beginning, and helped me figure out how to get the job done. Rough and rugged terrain, that seems to be where me and him both stood out a lot so I knew we had a pretty good shot tonight.
“But this car was, from the drop of the green and hot laps tonight, I knew this car gonna be really good. … This gets us excited for the rest of the year.” — Series and staff reports
Peachy victory
Tyler Millwood of Kingston, Ga., who committed to the DIRTcar Summer Nationals for the first time this season, knows the day-after-day grind of the tour isn’t easy. “It might look easy sometimes, but it’s not,” he said.
He faced one of the toughest tasks of the grinding, 31-race tour Thursday at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway when the 10th-starting driver closed in on leader Jason Feger in the race’s final laps. Feger held the low groove and there was just one way around.
Said Millwood: “It took every ounce of my knowledge to say, ‘Can I move out and try to get by him there?’ ”
The resounding answer? Yes. In close quarters racing amid traffic, Millwood ran a car’s width higher than Feger and grabbed the lead on the 34th of 40 laps. Feger’s last-ditch effort on the high side couldn’t stop Millwood from capturing his first-ever Hell Tour victory.
“I don't know about y'all, but this is a bad-ass race from where I was watching,” Millwood said in victory lane, his voice cracking. “I gotta thank everybody at the track here for putting on a good show.”
Crew members Lance Bracewell, Brett Dukes, Junior Rodriguez and Jason Huskey watched Millwood discuss his exploits in victory lane after the $5,000 triumph. Millwood became just the second Peach State driver behind previous tour champion Ashton Winger of Hampton, Ga., to win on the Summer Nationals.
"First off, I gotta thank my beautiful wife and my son, Sam and Rush at the house, for letting me do this. Mom and Dad, all the guys at work, because, I couldn't do it without all them,” Millwood said. “Them four dudes standing right there. I couldn't do it without them.”
The 34-year-old Millwood, who took time off from his duties at the family’s Millwood Plumbing to tackle the Midwestern circuit, entered the race with two top-five finishes in a dozen feature starts, but he hopes to add to his success with nine races remaining.
“It's bad ass,” said the winner on the Southern All Star, Schaeffer's Spring Nationals and Ultimate Southeast circuits. “Hope we can do this a couple more.” — DIRTVision and staff reports
Tough decision
The news dropped earlier this week that the long-running Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout would return to Arizona after a four-year stint at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park. Miniseries co-promoter Chris Kearns called it a “very tough decision.”
Vado's winter racing was widely praised. The facility was state-of-the-art. The track struggled drawing large crowds and colder weather was a challenge (snow cancelled one of 2025’s events), but Vado track owner Royal Jones was unwavering in his WWS support. Jones offered the miniseries a landing place when the closure of Arizona Speedway left the miniseries temporarily without a venue.
“For me, the thing that people don't know about that I think about is that it's not just about how big our crowds are, how much (money) we're making it's not about all that. It was about — and I've talked about this a lot to other people — is that the day, the second I find out that Arizona Speedway was getting closed down by the state, I called Royal Jones and I said, ‘Hey, I need a place to take the Wild West Shootout,’ ” Kearns told FloRacing. "Within two seconds he said yes. And that actual moment four years ago, five years ago, weighed heavy on me on making the decision to even move out of there.”
But bringing the event back to Casa Grande’s Central Arizona Raceway — the site where Ernie Mincy’s Early Thaw in 2001 re-established a tradition of high-profile Super Late Model racing — returns the miniseries home.
“They knew from when we (to Vado) that the goal was always get back to Arizona. They knew that. Royal’s still gonna sponsor the event. He's gonna race the event. We still love Vado Speedway, but they understood that we needed to get back to Arizona, and he knew by seeing all the stuff, and we've all seen all the improvements (promoters) have made at Central Arizona that it was inevitable and probably needed to happen. And it's a great speedway now.”
The Brad Whitfield-promoted Central Arizona oval, which for three seasons has hosted lower-profile Early Thaw events for Late Models in January and February, is an improved facility than when it last hosted the Wild West Shootout in January 2013.
“They're nonstop. Yes, they put a wall around the place, they put more grandstands in, they've put some suites in, they're doing a scoreboard, they’re nonstop,” said Kearns, who co-owns the WWS with Matt Curl and Ben Shelton. “They're nonstop still doing improvements. They don't plan on stopping. They want it to be, not just a premier facility in Arizona because there's not a lot of racetracks there, they want it to be a premier facility and they're working hard to do it and it'll be nice.
“Going back there now, I mean, I'm super excited about just getting back there. We’re actually going out there in a couple weeks to do a site visit and see all the stuff that everybody's told us about that we've seen pictures of, so I'm pretty excited about it.”
The 2026 Wild West Shootout purses and details haven’t been announced for other Jan. 10-18 action, which includes modifieds and X-mods, but Kearns said the "destination vacation for racing” won’t disappoint.
“We've got a couple of what we consider big things planned, big announcements for the racers, which in turn, turns out well for the fans because more big racers come,” Kearns said, “but we'll get to that later on.” — Staff reports
Streaming schedule
Among upcoming Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events available via live streaming:
Thursday, July 3
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Model Series at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. (DIRTVision)
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway (DIRTVision)
• Wartburg (Tenn.) Speedway Limited Late Models (Dirt Rich TV)
• American Crate All-Star Series presented by PPM at Willard (Ky.) Speedway (Dirt Rich TV)
• American Crate Late Model Series at Hunt County Raceway in Greenville, Texas (RaceON)
Friday, July 4
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio (FloRacing)
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Model Series at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. (DIRTVision)
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, Ill. (DIRTVision)
• Ultimate Southeast Series at Tri-County Racetrack in Brasstown, N.C. (Pit Row TV)
• American Crate All-Star Series presented by PPM at Mountain Motor Speedway in Isom, Ky. (Dirt Rich TV)
• Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series at Sabine Speedway in Many, La. (RaceON)
• Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series at Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, Wis. (Dirt Race Central)
• Nutrien Ag Revival Super Dirt Series at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. (Start2Finish TV)
• Vanderlaan Northeast Crate Late Model Alliance at Ohsweken (Ontario) Speedway (G Force TV)
• Crate Racin’ USA 604 Series at Xtreme Speedway in Moulton, Ala. (Crate Racin’ USA TV)
• American Crate Late Model Series at Rocket Raceway Park in Petty, Texas
Saturday, July 5
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Model Series at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. (DIRTVision)
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio (FloRacing)
• Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series at Senoia (Ga.) Raceway (Hunt the Front TV)
• Iron-Man-DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind. (DIRTVision)
• Ultimate Heart of America Series at Rockcastle Speedway in Mount Vernon, Ky. (Pit Row TV)
• Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series at Super Bee Speedway in Chatham, La. (RaceON)
• Nutrien Ag Revival Super Dirt Series at Nevada (Mo.) Speedway (Start2Finish TV)
• Crate Racin’ USA 604 Series at Xtreme Speedway in Moulton, Ala. (Crate Racin’ USA TV)
• American Crate All-Star Series presented by PPM at Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside, Ky. (Dirt Rich TV)
• Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway Super Late Models (FloRacing)
• Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series at Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, Wis. (Dirt Race Central)
• American Crate Late Model Series at Grayson County Speedway in Sherman, Texas (RaceON)
• Elite Racing 602 Crate Late Model Series at Natural Bridge (Va.) Speedway (Dirt Rich TV)
Sunday, July 6
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn. (DIRTVision)
