SHINNSTON, WV – Everyone keeps telling Josh Richards that he’s due to win a major dirt Late Model event.
The 20-year-old talent from Shinnston, W.Va., is hoping his time will come this weekend when he visits the famed Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway for the fifth annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals presented by SuperClean.
“I feel pretty good about Knoxville,” said Josh, who heads west on an off-weekend from World of Outlaws Late Model Series competition. “We’ve always had a fast car at that place, but we haven’t been able to do what we need to do to win a race. We’re going to try to apply things we’ve learned from racing there in the past and also try some other ideas and see if we can get it all to work.”
Josh will be behind the wheel of his familiar 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 for Knoxville’s three-day extravaganza of speed (Sept. 25-27). Preliminary programs on Thursday and Friday will be topped by 25-lap A-Mains paying $7,000 to win, and Saturday night’s finale will feature a 100-lap event with a $40,000 top prize up for grabs.
“Knoxville is actually one of the most fun tracks we race at all year,” said Josh, who appeared headed to victory in a June 2007 WoO LMS event at Knoxville when mechanical trouble knocked him from the lead. “It’s usually wide-open early so you can stand on the gas, and then by the feature it slows down and you really have to think about what you’re doing.
“Last year we missed the setup for the (100-lap) feature and didn’t run like we were hoping to (he finished 13th), so this year we’re hoping we can make the right decisions.”
‘Kid Rocket’ and his Rocket crew will also stay busy during the Knoxville Nationals fielding the Old Spice/Bass Pro Shops Rocket No. 20 for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Tony Stewart. The former Sprint Cup champion is scheduled to compete in the Thursday and Saturday programs at the half-mile oval.
Josh is coming off a strong-but-frustrating performance last weekend in the Pittsburgher 100 at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway in Imperial, Pa. He survived two flat tires to finish fifth in the event, which was part of the UFO series.
After scoring an impressive heat-race victory on Friday night from the last starting spot, Josh lined up 10th on the grid for Saturday night’s Pittsburgher 100. He moved up to second place before a flat right-rear tire forced him pitside on lap 38, and he was approaching the top five again when another flat right-rear sent him in for a new shoe on lap 56.
“I don’t know if we could’ve beat (eventual winner Steve Baker), but we definitely had a good car,” said Josh, who rallied from the rear over the race’s final 42 circuits to salvage a fifth-place finish. “We passed a lot of cars.”
Josh sent out his congratulations to Baker, a veteran driver who is a business partner of Josh’s father Mark. The $12,000 victory was the biggest of Baker’s career.
“I’ve known him all my life,” Josh said of Baker, “so I was real happy to see him win.”