Josh Richards: “If we would’ve won at Knoxville, it would’ve been an awesome trip”

joshrichards

Shinnston, WV
Jun 20, 2007

Josh Richards was just a dozen laps from making his five-race World of Outlaws Late Model Series swing through the Midwest a very memorable one.

That’s how close ‘Kid Rocket’ came to winning the 50-lap Mediacom Late Model Shootout on June 15 at the famed Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway.

Josh dominated the first 37 laps of Knoxville’s first-ever WoO LMS event, but with victory in sight he suddenly slowed as lap 38 was about to go on the board. A cracked right-rear axle tube caused his Mark Richards Racing-owned Seubert Calf Ranches, Ace Metal Works, TSR-Tony Stewart Racing, Petroff Towing, MCB Motorsports Rocket Chassis No. 1 to fall off the pace. He limped to a disappointing 16th-place finish, three laps down to winner Darrell Lanigan.

“If we would’ve won at Knoxville, it would’ve been an awesome trip, ” said Josh, who finished no worse than 11th in the week’s other four WoO LMS shows. “I’m glad to see Darrell win, but to win at Knoxville would’ve been awesome. It’s one of the most famous racetracks in the country. ”

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The 19-year-old sensation’s grueling trip through North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas had its high and low points. It began on June 12 with an 11th-place finish in the 50-lap event at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.Dak., then improved on June 14 with a sixth-place run in the Featherlite Trailers ‘Gopher 50’ at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn.

After coming oh-so-close to his second WoO LMS victory of the season at Knoxville, Josh scored finishes of eighth in the 50-lap A-Main on June 16 at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kans., and fifth in the 40-lap tour finale on June 17 at the historic Belleville (Kans. ) High Banks.

“Overall it wasn’t a bad trip for us, ” said Josh. “A couple of nights we chose the wrong tires, and at Lakeside we started strong (got as high as third) before our tires just sealed over and we went straight backward. ”

Josh started third in the Sunday-evening event at Belleville, but a slight miss on setup caused him to settle for a fifth-place finish.

“I think we might’ve been a little too much on the free side for the feature, ” said Josh. “If we had tightened it up, I think we might’ve had something. ”

Josh moved up to fourth in the WoO LMS point standings at the conclusion of the swing, trailing leader Clint Smith by 62 points after 21 events.

Next on Josh’s agenda is the five-race ‘Great Northern Tour’ for the WoO LMS, on June 20 at Port Royal (Pa. ) Speedway; June 23 at Quebec’s Auodrome Drummond; June 24 at Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport, N.Y. ; June 27 at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y. ; and June 29-30 for the $30,000-to-win ‘Firecracker 100’ at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.

Josh is especially excited about the huge Firecracker event at Lernerville.

“Lernerville is one of my top-three favorite tracks, ” he said. “I think we’ll have a legitimate shot at the win. ”