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Outlaws World Finals’ Provide World of Outlaws Late Model Series Stars Rare Chance To Rub Shoulders With Sprint Car Counterparts
CONCORD , NC – Oct. 26, 2007 – The stars of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series rarely cross paths with their counterparts on the World of Outlaws Sprint Car tour.
But the unique ‘Outlaws World Finals’ on Nov. 1-3 at The Dirt Track at Lowe’s Motor Speedway will give the Late Model boys a chance to rub shoulders with the open-wheel set and spend some time enjoying a little different style of dirt-track racing.
You can call the ‘World Finals,’ which will pair the WoO Late Models and Sprints on the same program for the first time in history, a big family reunion for World of Outlaws brethren. The players from both sides of the Outlaws aisle will be able to visit, bench race, swap stories from the road – and try to top each other on the track.
“It’ll be cool to watch those Sprint Car guys race and hang out with them for a few days,” said WoO LMS star Rick Eckert of York , Pa. , who sits fifth in the tour points standings entering the ‘World Finals.’ “They’re racers just like we are.”
Eckert is easily the WoO LMS regular with the most links to the Sprint Car side of the pit area. For starters, he spent about a year-and-a-half in the early ‘90s actually driving a Sprint Car on a regular basis, campaigning a family-owned winged machine at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown , Pa. , until he abandoned weekly double-duty to focus on dirt Late Model racing. He’s also known to attend WoO Sprint Car events whenever his schedule allows and maintains friendships with several personalities from the Sprint Car trail, including former WoO champion Danny Lasoski.
During their long highway hauls between races, Eckert and Lasoski will often dial each other’s cell phones and eat up some miles chatting about their racing and other topics.
“A few weeks ago Lasoski called me when I was on my way home from Knoxville (the Late Model Nationals in Iowa ) and he was coming home from Williams Grove (the WoO Sprint National Open in Mechanicsburg , Pa. ),” said Eckert. “Just the other night I talked to (Tony Stewart Racing crew chief) Jimmy Carr.
“That’s the way it usually goes. We don’t see each other at a track a lot, but we’ll talk on the phone.”
Eckert’s home, of course, makes him a little more Sprint Car-oriented than the rest of his WoO LMS traveling partners.
As top ’07 WoO LMS winner Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., said, “Eckert knows a lot of those Sprint Car guys because he lives right there in Sprint Car country. He’s just down the road from Williams Grove, so it’s easy for him to go to an Outlaws show when they’re there.
“I’ve met (Terry) McCarl and some other Sprint Car guys, but we have to travel pretty far if we want to see an Outlaw (Sprint) show,” added Frank. “We’re definitely not in Sprint Car country (living in Northwestern Pennsylvania ).”
Neither are the other top-10-ranked WoO LMS racers. Points leader Steve Francis and Darrell Lanigan live in Kentucky; Clint Smith and Shane Clanton hail from Georgia; Josh Richards is from West Virginia; 2007 Rookie of the Year Tim Fuller calls upstate New York home; and rookie standout Brian Shirley and five-time ’07 tour winner Shannon Babb are from central Illinois. None of those locales would be considered Sprint Car hotbeds like Eckert’s native central Pennsylvania, so it’s no surprise that seeing the WoO Sprints at the ‘World Finals’ will be a treat for them.
“I’ve only been to one World of Outlaws Sprint Car race in my life,” said the 19-year-old Richards, who has recorded a career-high four WoO LMS victories this season. “I saw them race a couple years ago at Hagerstown ( Md. ), so I’m looking forward to running with them at Lowe’s. It should be exciting to have both crowds there.”
While some fans might hold an unyielding allegiance to either the Late Models or Sprint Cars, the WoO LMS stars have no aversion to taking in a Sprint Car race. They are certainly stock-car racers through and through, but they relish an opportunity to catch some open-wheel Sprint Car action in between their fender-rubbing exploits.
“Hey, if it has a motor, I think it’s cool,” pronounced Eckert.
Clint Smith, who sits third in the WoO LMS points standings, would obviously second Eckert’s motion. Earlier this year, during a weekend off from Late Model competition, he was a spectator for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car show at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock , Ga. , not far from his home.
Francis is another Late Model traveler who never fails to check out the WoO Sprints when he has a chance. He’s spent some nights as a Sprint Car fan, watching the Winged Warriors when they visited K-C Raceway in Alma , Ohio , in the past and even joining Eckert in an excursion to an Outlaws show in Tulsa , Okla. , a few years ago when they were following the UDTRA/Xtreme DirtCar Series and had an off night in the Midwest .
Francis also has some friends in the Sprint Car pit area. He knows Randy Hannagan quite well, speaks often with Paul McMahan and Jimmy Carr – and several years ago he spent a good bit of time with the former WoO Sprint championship team of Mark and Karl Kinser when they were all part of the same Mopar program.
Last week, the 40-year-old Francis even experienced some hot laps behind the wheel of a Sprint Car for the first time in his career. He hung around the day after the Dirt Track World Championship at K-C Raceway and made about 20 circuits around the oval in a local Sprinter.
Francis’s open-wheel “debut” was set up by K-C promoter/Sprint Car veteran Jimmy Nier, who took some laps in Francis’s Valvoline No. 15 dirt Late Model during a K-C test session a couple weeks earlier. Nier ran into trouble during his Late Model stint, however, driving under a cable in the track’s infield and ripping the air cleaner and carburetor off Francis’s car – bringing Nier incessant ribbing from Francis and his crew, and prompting Francis to be very careful during his Sprint Car laps so he wouldn’t suffer the same fate as Nier.
It’s Francis’s belief that the ‘World Finals’ will help bridge the gap between Late Model and Sprint Car diehards, making fans who have long stuck with one division appreciate the other side like he and his Late Model buddies already do.
“I think there’s gonna be some cross-over fans,” said Francis. “There’s gonna be some Late Model fans who say, ‘That was a heckuva Sprint Car show and I’m gonna go see ‘em race the next time they run close to me,’ and vice-versa with the Sprint Car fans after they watch us race.”
Eckert, meanwhile, thinks the WoO Late Model and Sprint Car regulars should do more than just talk and watch each other race during the ‘World Finals.’
“On Thursday night after time trials are over, we should swap cars and go out for some more hot laps,” Eckert said with a smile. “I know there’s Late Model guys who have never run a Sprint Car and Sprint Car guys who have never run a Late Model, so if we swapped cars it would give everybody an idea of what the other car feels like.”
The Thursday-night portion of the three-day ‘Outlaws World Finals’ program includes practice and qualifying for the WoO Late Models and Sprint Cars. Each division will have two time-trial sessions, with the first round determining lineups for Friday night and the second round setting the Saturday night card.
Full racing programs are on tap for both divisions Friday and Saturday, with each night highlighted by $10,000-to-win main events for both the Late Models and Sprint Cars.
The Saturday-night program will be broadcast live nationally on SPEED from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
Tickets for the Nov. 1-3 ‘Outlaws World Finals’ can be purchased online at www.lowesmotorspeedway.com or by calling the Lowe's Motor Speedway ticket office at 1-800-455-FANS. Camping spots can be reserved by calling (704) 455-4445. |
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