Late Model Drivers Know How To Adapt To Ever-Changing Conditions

Column By: RUSTY RHOADES / RPW – TAMPA, FL – The Lucas Oil Late Model Series has always been known for the high level of talent and experience in their car counts every season.

That level is raised even higher every February in the Southeast corner of the country with a two-night opener in Georgia on Super Bowl weekend before an extended residence begins at the little Florida bullring just outside Tampa known as East Bay Raceway.

The week long Winternationals run in the Sunshine State also brings very high-caliber talent from other touring series that haven’t started yet in addition to several regional heavy hitters that normally stick to a weekly track or tracks in their area once those seasons begin.

Well, here we are with both the Super Bowl of Racing and one-third of Winternationals in the books. I think it’s safe to ask anyone having a chance to witness any or all four of these shows only one question that should be similar to the one I asked a Lucas Oil official after…“Are you guys going to have any bad races this year?”

Each A-Main has seen plenty of movement throughout the field. Certain segments of each race broken apart by cautions that featured a different driver really hitting on the setup and / or choice of line on the wide, yet racy, surface. By the time each show took the checkers, at least one pilot had put together an outstanding overall climb through the field and firmly into Hard Charger-worthy status.

Night one at Golden Isles saw Hudson O’Neal almost steal away a dominating performance by defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion Josh Richards with a huge run from 15th to a white flag lead battle that was sadly erased by a caution. The following night, it was Richards doing all the passing, taking his back-up #1 machine from dead last to the point in jaw-dropping fashion!

A different track and state only provided more hard-charging action, but from different key players and race stages.

The first night of the Winternationals showcased “Black Sunshine,” Scott Bloomquist, rocket from 18th to fifth, only to have his thunder stolen by Brandon Sheppard, who took the win on the last turn after starting 9th.

The following evening, everyone wanted in on this trend of different guys dominating different segments. At the finish, the standout big gainers were an exciting Bobby Pierce, who also took a backup car to the cushion early and blasting from 25th to sixth, while Richards and Brandon Overton did their damage late. Josh went from 17th to fourth and Brandon starting 10th, treaded water around the top five through most of the race, and then exploding in the last segment. He nearly stole the “W” from Jonathan Davenport very late.

Pierce was absolutely putting on a show up top in his own zip code from the gate…that was, until the first caution around the one-third mark. Much like Richards showed a few days before at Golden Isles, having to go to a backup car nowadays doesn’t automatically handicap your potential for the same success or ability to move through the pack as your primary does.

“The backup car was fast, handling just like I wanted it to,” Pierce told me after the race. “I think a lot of times I was in the right spot at the right time, but also being able to run that consi just before the feature really helped me with knowing where I had to be on the race track.”

He also added that his main job often times when racing around the depth of talent that a week like Winternationals brings in is to make quick decisions and act on them as fast as possible or it’s going to be too late. Other than that, he gave all the credit to his team.

“These guys really had to change a lot of stuff in a short amount of time to get this backup ready,” he said. “The cars are very similar. There’s a little difference in motor size, but how we set these shocks up gives us very little time to work on them. However, the way we pulled them out of the box really worked pretty good.”

Another young hot shoe was the one to watch in the second half of the race, as Brandon Overton and his team seemed to be the last one to hit on the combination of the split-second driver decision-making that Pierce spoke about. Along with that was ever-changing track trends and things that are working for other cars that the crew locks in on.

“Most of the guys coming from the back with provisionals are the ones that have a lot of experience,” Overton said about the regularity of these hard-charging displays. “Even if the track threw them for a curveball early, by the end of the night, they have it all figured out. That’s kind of what we did tonight as well. We kept scratching stuff off…this didn’t work…this didn’t work…and then in the feature we ended up kind of hitting on it.”

He also echoed Pierce’s thoughts about how quickly a track like East Bay evolves.

“Here, you definitely have to have somebody watching and telling you where people are coming from because the way this place changes,” he said. “From the bottom being fast to the top being fast and dirtying up quickly and then cleaning off, that’s a lot more important here than other tracks.”

Pierce, Overton, and the rest of the heavy hitters and hard chargers will be back at it tonight for the third race of the week-long Winternationals festivities in Tampa.