SHINNSTON, WV – Josh Richards hopes his fourth-place finish in last Saturday night’s 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main at K-C Raceway in Alma, Ohio, provides the momentum he needs heading down the homestretch of the 2008 season.
The 20-year-old sensation from Shinnston, W.Va., sits third in the WoO LMS points standings entering this weekend’s tripleheader in Pennsylvania – a hefty 174 points behind cruising leader Darrell Lanigan, but only 30 points in arrears of second-place Steve Francis.
With less than a dozen events remaining on the WoO LMS schedule, Josh can see that a career-best points finish on the national tour is well within his grasp.
“Darrell has been so good all year so it’s obviously going to take something crazy happening for us to catch him,” said Josh, the 2005 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year whose personal-high points finish was sixth last season. “Now we’re just trying to gain points on Francis. It would be great if we could finish second.”
Josh will bring his Mark Richards Racing-owned Seubert Calf Ranches/Ace Metal Works/TSR-Tony Stewart Racing/Petroff Towing/MCB Motorsports/Ernie’s Auto & Hauling Rocket Chassis No. 1 to WoO LMS events this weekend at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway on Friday night (Aug. 29) and Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa., on Saturday and Sunday nights (Aug. 30-31). Just last month, on July 31, he finished third in a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series show at Bedford driving the Ernie Davis-owned Rocket No. 25.
Last Saturday night’s WoO LMS stop at K-C Raceway was one of mixed emotions for Josh. He was pleased with a top-five finish after managing only a pair of quiet 13th-place runs earlier in the week (Aug. 20-21) in the two 60-lap WoO LMS A-Mains that comprised the fifth annual ‘Scorcher’ presented by Alltel Wireless at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., but he felt he was in line to finish better if a couple caution flags hadn’t ruined his hopes.
After timing sixth-fastest and winning a heat race, Josh moved forward from the eighth starting spot to sit third when Shannon Babb spun out of the lead on lap 17. But he lost the position to Lanigan on the restart and stayed in fourth for the remainder of the distance, hampered by 40-compound Hoosier tires that changed for the worse after the caution period.
“I think if that didn’t happen to Babb (the spin) I could’ve gotten at least to second,” said Josh. “I wasn’t running real hard and my car felt real good, like it was just getting better and better. Then that caution came out and just killed us. My car was never the same again, just way too loose.”
