Josh Richards Collects First Lucas Dirt Win of 2021

TAMPA, FL – Josh Richards joined both Tyler Erb and Stormy Scott as drivers who started ninth but came home with the win at East Bay Raceway Park. The 2017 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion started inside of the fifth row to score a feature win this week.

Richards took the lead on lap seven from Mark Whitener and then proceeded to lead the rest of the way to score his 32nd career win on the LOLMDS tour and his eighth career triumph at East Bay Raceway Park. Brandon Overton crossed the finish line a little over a second behind the winner, in second. Hudson O’Neal finished in third followed by Brian Shirley and Devin Moran.

Whitener was looking for the biggest win of his super late model career and bolted to the lead at the start on the second main event of the night. Richards quickly went to the front and was second by the fourth circuit. Richards made his move on Whitener, grabbing the lead with seven laps scored.

Overton moved to second on lap nine while Whitener remained in the top three until he suffered a flat tire with five laps to go. A caution with one lap to go set-up a dash to the finish with Richards holding off Overton for the victory.

Richards went to Lucas Oil Victory Lane piloting a brand new race car. “I was really frustrated in that first race. I felt like we had a really good car, but we had to take a provisional and we moved up a little and then we just ended up destroying our primary car in a wreck. I can’t thank the Mason Zeigler crew enough for all of their help in getting this thing ready for the second feature. I felt like in then first few laps it was going to be critical to get to the front and it paid off.”

Overton is the current series Point Leader heading into the final two nights of racing this week. “I tried to not make any mistakes and then had to hope we still had enough air in the tires to make it to the end. I was worried about my left rear tire, we went soft on it, but it held up. I was scared to death I was going to get a flat. So, I just eased up on the restarts to try and save them.”

O’Neal earned his second podium finish for Double Down Motorsports so far this week. “I was very concerned about my tires. You try to drive it straight and keep my tires underneath of me for a good part of the race. We didn’t have a very good first feature tonight, but we rebounded nicely in the second round.”

The winner’s Clint Bowyer Racing Rocket Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and is sponsored by iRacing, Rush Truck Center, Big River Steel, Cometic Gasket, and Ford Performance.

Completing the top ten were Ricky Thornton Jr. Frank Heckenast Jr., Kyle Bronson, Brandon Sheppard, and Jimmy Owens.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Race Summary
Wrisco Industries 45th Annual Winter Nationals – Presented by Lucas Oil
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL

Allstar Performance Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Brandon Sheppard / 14.385 seconds
Fast Time Group B: Mark Whitener / 14.236 seconds (overall)Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer):  1. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[2]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 4. 0E-Rick Eckert[3]; 5. 12D-Doug Drown[5]; 6. 22-Gregg Satterlee[7]; 7. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[8]; 8. 14G-Joe Godsey[6]; 9. 6S-Blake Spencer[9]; 10. 27J-Joe Denby[11]; 11. 0G-Deshawn Gingerich[10]; 12. (DNS) 2X-Devin Dixon; 13. (DNS) 3W-Brennon Willard

Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 14-Josh Richards[1]; 3. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[3]; 4. 1ST-Johnny Scott[6]; 5. 11H-Spencer Hughes[4]; 6. 2S-Stormy Scott[7]; 7. 16-Tyler Bruening[5]; 8. 81-Jason Riggs[10]; 9. 94M-Jason Miller[8]; 10. 40C-Joel Callahan[9]; 11. 18S-David Seibers[11]; 12. 8-Kyle Strickler[12]

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 00H-Wil Herrington[2]; 2. 99B-Boom Briggs[4]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 4. 14B-John Baker[3]; 5. 311A-Ashton Winger[5]; 6. 54-David Breazeale[8]; 7. 157-Mike Marlar[6]; 8. 24D-Michael Brown[9]; 9. 2D-Dan Stone[7]; 10. 1G-Ryan King[12]; 11. 14R-Jeff Roth[11]; 12. 17D-Zack Dohm[10]

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 385-Mark Whitener[1]; 2. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 3. 9-Devin Moran[4]; 4. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[3]; 5. 111-Steven Roberts[5]; 6. 51-Dean Carpenter[8]; 7. 311-Ken Monahan[7]; 8. J8-Jadon Frame[12]; 9. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[11]; 10. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[6]; 11. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[9]; 12. 51B-Brandon Carpenter[10]

MyRacePass Heat Race #5 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 71-Hudson O’Neal[5]; 3. 18J-Chase Junghans[7]; 4. 81E-Tanner English[2]; 5. 111M-Matthew Lux[8]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 7. 20B-Todd Brennan[9]; 8. 66C-Matt Cosner[3]; 9. 995-Manny Falcon[11]; 10. 4B-Richie Edwards[6]; 11. 29-Larry Grube[10]; 12. (DNS) KB0-Kerry King

Fast Shafts Heat Race #6 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 4. 7R-Ross Robinson[2]; 5. 00S-Jesse Stovall[9]; 6. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[3]; 7. 8A-Rob Anderzack[7]; 8. 36-Matt Irey[6]; 9. 4S-Danny Snyder[10]; 10. 48-Colton Flinner[11]; 11. (DNS) 212-Josh PutnamLINE-X B-Main #1 Finish (12 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[7]; 2. 0E-Rick Eckert[1]; 3. 22-Gregg Satterlee[5]; 4. 11H-Spencer Hughes[4]; 5. 2S-Stormy Scott[6]; 6. 81-Jason Riggs[10]; 7. 12D-Doug Drown[3]; 8. 6S-Blake Spencer[11]; 9. 16-Tyler Bruening[8]; 10. 18S-David Seibers[16]; 11. 27J-Joe Denby[13]; 12. 14G-Joe Godsey[9]; 13. 0G-Deshawn Gingerich[15]; 14. 3W-Brennon Willard[19]; 15. 40C-Joel Callahan[14]; 16. 1ST-Johnny Scott[2]; 17. 94M-Jason Miller[12]; 18. (DNS) 2X-Devin Dixon; 19. (DNS) 8-Kyle Strickler

UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (12 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[2]; 2. 14B-John Baker[1]; 3. 111-Steven Roberts[4]; 4. 54-David Breazeale[5]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[16]; 6. 311-Ken Monahan[8]; 7. 24D-Michael Brown[9]; 8. 1G-Ryan King[13]; 9. 14R-Jeff Roth[15]; 10. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[12]; 11. 311A-Ashton Winger[3]; 12. 157-Mike Marlar[7]; 13. 2D-Dan Stone[11]; 14. 51-Dean Carpenter[6]; 15. J8-Jadon Frame[10]; 16. 51B-Brandon Carpenter[18]; 17. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[14]; 18. 17D-Zack Dohm[17]

Wrisco Industries B-Main #3 Finish (12 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 81E-Tanner English[1]; 2. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[6]; 3. 00S-Jesse Stovall[4]; 4. 48-Colton Flinner[14]; 5. 111M-Matthew Lux[3]; 6. 7R-Ross Robinson[2]; 7. 20B-Todd Brennan[7]; 8. 4S-Danny Snyder[12]; 9. 36-Matt Irey[10]; 10. 8A-Rob Anderzack[8]; 11. 4B-Richie Edwards[13]; 12. 19R-Ryan Gustin[5]; 13. 66C-Matt Cosner[9]; 14. 995-Manny Falcon[11]; 15. 29-Larry Grube[15]; 16. 212-Josh Putnam[16]; 17. KB0-Kerry King[17]

Lucas Oil Feature Finish (40 Laps):

Race Statistics
Entrants: 73
Lap Leaders: Mark Whitener (Laps 1 – 6); Josh Richards (Laps 7 – 40)
Wrisco Feature Winner: Josh Richards
Arizona Sport Shirts CJC – Presented by DirtOnDirt Feature Winner: n/a
Brandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: Josh Richards
Margin of Victory: 1.115 seconds
Cautions: Bobby Pierce (Lap 1); Brandon Sheppard (Lap 2); Devin Moran, Tanner English, Tyler Erb, Chase Junghans, Blair Nothdurft, Kyle Strickler, Wil Herrington (Lap 5); Tony Jackson Jr., Kyle Strickler (Lap 8); Tim McCreadie (Lap 29); Mark Whitener (Lap 35); Tyler Erb, John Baker, Chase Junghans (Lap 37); Tanner English (Lap 39)
Series Provisionals: Earl Pearson Jr., Kyle Strickler
Fast Time Provisional: n/a
Series Emergency Provisionals: Mike Marlar, Ricky Thornton Jr.
Track Provisionals: n/a
Berry Barn Pole Award: Mark Whitener
Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Josh Richards, Brandon Overton, Hudson O’Neal
Penske Shocks Top 5: Josh Richards, Brandon Overton, Hudson O’Neal, Brian Shirley, Devin Moran
Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Ricky Thornton Jr. (Advanced 22 Positions)
Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: n/a
Hot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Josh Richards (34 Laps)
Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Josh Richards
Eibach Springs Rookie of the Race: n/a
Dirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Josh Richards (Lap #32 – 15.087 seconds)
Fast Shafts Tough Break of the Race: Mark Whitener
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Brian Leonberg
ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Cornett Racing Engines
Miller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket Chassis
Dirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Brandon Overton
Time of Race: 45 minutes 57 seconds