Josh Richards provided a simple summary of his performance in last weekend’s inaugural ‘Outlaws World Finals’ at the Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N. C.
“Overall, we had a decent weekend, ” said the 19-year-old star known as ‘Kid Rocket. ’ “We weren’t great, but the car’s in one piece and we’ll just put the weekend behind us and get ready for next year. ”
Josh’s final scheduled dirt Late Model appearance of 2007 was highlighted by a fifth-place finish in Friday night’s 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main. He registered a quiet 11th-place finish in the 50-lap event that headlined the Saturday-night portion of the ‘Outlaws World Finals, ’ which saw a huge crowd turn out to witness the WoO Late Models and Sprints racing on the same program for the first time in history.
A second-place finish in a heat gave Josh the ninth starting spot for Friday’s A-Main. He climbed as high as fourth before settling for a fifth-place finish in his Mark Richards Racing-owned Seubert Calf Ranches/Ace Metal Works/TSR-Tony Stewart Racing/Petroff Towing/MCB Motorsports Rocket Chassis No. 1.
“We were way too loose, ” said Josh. “I was just hanging on for most of the race. The car was really a handful to drive. ”
After another second-place heat-race finish put ninth on the grid once again for Saturday night’s 50-lap A-Main, Josh managed to move up to sixth place by the time the race’s third and final caution flag flew on lap 24. But on the ensuing restart he caught the cushion slightly in turn two and got out of shape, causing him to fall to ninth. He never recovered and settled for an 11th-place finish in the event, which was broadcast live by the SPEED cable network.
“We switched back to a four-link (suspension) right before the feature and it was a little hard to get used to, ” Josh said of his Saturday-night setup. “It took me the first couple laps of the feature to get comfortable, but we set it up wrong anyway. We were kind of in between being too tight (to run) the top, and a little bit too free for the bottom.
“By the end of race, I was pretty much holding on. ”
Josh entered the weekend with a chance to reach fourth place in the WoO LMS points standings, but he wasn’t able to fulfill his pre-season goal of a top-five points finish on the tour. He ended the season ranked sixth in the standings – still a career-high for the tour’s 2005 Rookie of the Year.
A winner of four WoO LMS A-Mains in 2007, Josh will receive his points-fund money during the tour’s awards banquet on Dec. 6 in Orlando, Fla. He will also attend the annual Performance Racing Industry trade show in Orlando that same weekend.
With his 2007 campaign complete, Josh will announce his plans for ’08 in the coming weeks.
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