![\"\"](\"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Josh-Richards.jpeg\" "\\"Josh")
<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nCONCORD, NC \u2013 Aug. 16, 2012 \u2013\u00a0HE\u2019S BACK: <\/strong>Josh Richards has watched from afar this season as Darrell Lanigan has supplanted him as the most winning driver on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series since 2004.<\/p>\n This weekend, though, Richards will return to the national tour that made him a star with hopes of dulling Lanigan\u2019s domination \u2013 and maybe even reclaiming the number one spot on the alltime win list.<\/p>\n Absent from the WoO LMS since deciding in April to pursue a NASCAR career by running the Nationwide Series, Richards, 24, of Shinnston, W.Va., will drive one of his father Mark\u2019s Rocket Chassis house cars in NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored events on Friday night (Aug. 17) at Winston Speedway and Saturday evening (Aug. 18) at Merritt Raceway. The pair of 50-lap, $10,000-to-win events in Michigan will mark Richards\u2019s first WoO LMS starts since March 31 when he finished sixth in the Illini 100 at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to getting back out there and running some Outlaw shows,\u201d said Richards, who captured one WoO LMS A-Main this season (Feb. 17 at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla.) before moving south. \u201cIt\u2019s been so long since I\u2019ve been to an Outlaw race, so it\u2019ll be fun to see everybody and do some racing with all the Outlaw guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Considering Richards has raced in only three dirt Late Model shows \u2013 all in Ohio \u2013 since March 31 (June\u2019s \u2018Dream\u2019 at Eldora Speedway and two DIRTcar Summer Nationals events last month), he\u2019s downplaying any talk that he\u2019ll be the guy to snap Lanigan\u2019s record six-race win streak.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t expect to just come out here and whoop up on him,\u201d Richards said with a smile when asked about Lanigan. \u201cI hope we can be quick right out of the box, but with not being in a Late Model for this long a period, it may take a little bit to get everything figured back out. It does take time to get comfortable with your car and get all your adjustments figured out.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what Darrell\u2019s been able to do this year,\u201d he continued. \u201cHe has everything figured out. He hasn\u2019t been changing a whole lot of stuff. He\u2019s just been going out, week after week, with something he\u2019s comfortable with, and he\u2019s driving hard with a car that he knows what it\u2019s gonna do.\u201d<\/p>\n Richards admits to being awed by Lanigan\u2019s spectacular season, which includes a single-season record of 13 wins (and counting), an enormous 170-point lead in the standings with 12 events remaining and $269,400 in earnings. Lanigan also now has 39 career wins, putting him one ahead of Richards on the alltime list.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first I was kind of bummed out,\u201d Richards said when asked for his thoughts on being overtaken by Lanigan on the WoO LMS career win list. \u201cThen I realized that it took me sitting out most of this year and for him to win 12 just to tie the record.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a Darrell Lanigan year. It\u2019s awesome what he\u2019s done. People can say what they want about the competition maybe being down from previous years, but he\u2019s still been really, really good. It showed when everybody was there at Cedar Lake (Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., for the USA Nationals on Aug. 4) and he still whooped up on \u2018em (for a $50,000 victory).<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been close these last couple years to winning races like this, so it was just a matter of time. In 2008 he only won two races but was way ahead in points. Now he\u2019s been able to do both \u2013 win races and run away with the points. It\u2019s just been an incredible year for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Richards will compete this weekend as a Rocket Chassis house car teammate of Brandon Sheppard, the 19-year-old talent from New Berlin, Ill., whom Mark Richards tapped in May to replace his son. Richards will drive a car he steered to three WoO LMS victories last season while Sheppard will be behind the wheel of a brand-new machine that the Rocket crew built in the wake of Sheppard\u2019s hard qualifying-heat crash on Aug. 3 at Cedar Lake.<\/p>\n And of course, Richards will race at two tracks that treated him pretty well last year. He won the WoO LMS A-Main at Winston after taking the lead early in the distance from Lanigan, who went on to finish fourth, and the next night at Merritt he placed fifth \u2013 one spot behind Lanigan \u2013 after battling his way forward from the 12th<\/sup> starting spot.<\/p>\n Richards, who chatted with Lanigan on Wednesday when the Kentucky driver stopped by the Rocket Chassis shop to pick up a new car, is especially enthused about defending his first-place laurels at Winston. He thoroughly enjoyed his march to the checkered flag there last year.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought Winston was awesome,\u201d said Richards, who is idle from NASCAR Nationwide Series action this weekend because he doesn\u2019t have a ride for the tour\u2019s road-course event at Montreal\u2019s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. \u201cThat place reminded me a lot of Attica, Ohio. I love both of those racetracks. It was just a lot of fun to race on.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what the conditions are gonna be this time or what the racing\u2019s gonna be like because the tires will be a little different. We\u2019ll be on the (DIRTcar Hoosier) LM tires this time, so I\u2019m sure it\u2019s gonna race a little differently. But I\u2019m pretty excited to go there and see if we can do what we did last year.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically, this will be a weekend to just go out and have fun,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s no pressure at all. We don\u2019t have to worry about points or anything. We\u2019re just gonna come in, go race and try to have some fun. Hopefully it goes well.\u201d<\/p>\n HOPING TO REPEAT:<\/strong> Brady Smith has a perfect career record at Merritt Raceway. Keeping it intact, however, will be a tall order when he returns to the quarter-mile oval this Saturday night (Aug. 18) for the WoO LMS NAPA Auto Parts Merritt 50.<\/p>\n Smith, 35, of Solon Springs, Wis., might have swept last year\u2019s inaugural WoO LMS program at Merritt, setting fast time, winning a heat race and dominating all 50 laps of the A-Main to capture his first victory in over a year on the national tour. But he knows duplicating that effort will be a major challenge \u2013 especially with a streaking World of Outlaws driver named Darrell Lanigan making life miserable for series regulars and invaders alike.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to going back (to Merritt),\u201d said Smith, who will drive more than 500 miles \u2013 over 10 hours \u2013 from his northern Wisconsin home to compete in this weekend\u2019s WoO LMS doubleheader in Michigan. \u201cWe were so good there last year and we\u2019ve been running good this year since June or July, so I feel like our program is close to being where we want it to be. I don\u2019t know if anybody\u2019s<\/em> program is good enough to run with Lanigan right now, but on any given night he can be beat and we\u2019re gonna give it a shot.<\/p>\n \u201cLanigan has such unbelievable consistency right now wherever he goes, but I think we\u2019re certainly good enough to compete if we hit everything right. On that (WoO LMS) Wild West (Tour) swing (last month) I felt like we were good enough to run with him a couple nights but just had bad (A-Main) redraws, so we\u2019re confident.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s sterling 2011 performance last year at Merritt stamps him as a driver with the chops to threaten Lanigan\u2019s throne. He was simply unbeatable that evening, controlling the action in his first-ever visit to the northern Michigan facility. His victory marked the second time he won a WoO LMS event in his first start at a track, mirroring his 2008 score at Estevan (Saskatchewan) Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n \u201cMerritt was just awesome for us,\u201d said Smith, who owns four career WoO LMS A-Main wins (though interestingly, none came in 2009 during his lone season as a tour regular). \u201cFor some reason we were just dialed in all night. The track didn\u2019t really remind me of any place I\u2019ve run before, but I just felt really comfortable in the car right from the start of the night. We made the right choices with tires and car changes and just carried it through the whole night.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is neat when you can pull off something like we did last year, because it is a challenge to go to a place you\u2019ve never been before and figure out the right set up and the different lines on the racetrack \u2013 especially when you\u2019re competing against a real tough field of drivers like at a World of Outlaws show. Maybe we got a little lucky, but everybody gets lucky once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith will enter his Team Zero by Bloomquist machine in this weekend\u2019s action with a solid performance history on this year\u2019s WoO LMS. He\u2019s entered 13 events and started 12 A-Mains, with five top-five and eight top-10 finishes to his credit. He has a season-best finish of third, on June 29 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.; July 12 at Red River Co-op Speedway in Winnipeg, Manitoba; and July 13 at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D.<\/p>\n THE TRAVELERS: <\/strong>The only WoO LMS regular who has previously won at either of this weekend\u2019s Michigan tracks is Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., who captured the special \u2018Who 55\u2019 event at Merritt in 2008.<\/p>\n McCreadie didn\u2019t have an enjoyable WoO LMS trip to the Wolverine State last year, however, placing 10th<\/sup> at Winston (after starting 23 rd<\/sup> with a provisional) and 20th<\/sup> at Merritt (slid off the track on the final lap). He\u2019s also been struggling recently on the tour, but his three victories this season ranks second to Lanigan\u2019s lofty total.<\/p>\n Including Lanigan and McCreadie, nine of the 12 drivers who have entered all 30 events on this year\u2019s WoO LMS competed in last year\u2019s races at Winston and Merritt. Lanigan was the only Outlaw with a top-five finish in both events.<\/p>\n Defending WoO LMS champion Rick Eckert of York, Pa., registered finishes of third at Winston and 16th<\/sup> at Merritt (one of his worst outings of the \u201911 season). Shane Clanton of Fayetteville, Ga., was fifth at Winston and sixth at Merritt; Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., was sixth and 12 th<\/sup>; Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., was seventh at both tracks; Vic Coffey of Caledonia, N.Y., was ninth and eighth; Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., was 21st<\/sup> and 11th<\/sup>; and Pat Doar of New Richmond, Wis., was 22nd<\/sup> and 13th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Rookie of the Year contenders Bub McCool of Vicksburg, Miss., Kent Robinson of Bloomington, Ind., and Jack Sullivan of Greenbrier, Ark., have never raced at either track.<\/p>\n THE CHALLENGERS: <\/strong>The group of drivers hoping to unseat the Outlaws this weekend will include such talents as Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa; Illinois standouts Sheppard, Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville (second in last year\u2019s WoO LMS event at Merritt), Jason Feger of Bloomington (third at Merritt last year), Frankie Heckenast Jr. of Orland Park and Mike Spatola of Manhattan; and Michigan racers Jeep VanWormer of Pinconning, Eric Spangler of Lake City (points leader at Merritt), Tom Sprague Jr. of Muskegon (points leader at Winston), Curt Spalding of Hartford, Curtis Roberts of Coleman, Dona Marcoullier of Houghton Lake, Alan Vochaska of South Haven, Adam Thrush of Farwell, Brandon Thirlby of Traverse City, Rich Neiser of Fruitport and David Hilliker of Midland.<\/p>\n World of Outlaws Late Model Series Michigan Swing Event Information:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Fri., Aug. 17, at Winston Speedway in Montague, Mich.: <\/strong><\/em>Pit gates are scheduled to open at 4 p.m. and the grandstand gates will be unlocked at 5 p.m. Hot laps are set to begin at 6:30 p.m. with time trials to follow and the first race scheduled to hit the track at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Admission is $30 for ages 12-and-up and $15 for children 11-and-under. Reserved seats are available for $35 (including a pit pass) and $20 for children 11-and-under.<\/p>\n Winston\u2019s racing program will also include action for the track\u2019s Street Stocks, Factory Stocks, Mini-Stocks and Warriors.<\/p>\n For more information visit www.winstonspeedway.net<\/a> or call 231-726-2988 or 1-800-582-8141.<\/p>\n Sat., Aug. 18, at Merritt Raceway in Lake City, Mich.: <\/strong><\/em>Gates will open at 4 p.m. and hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., followed by time trials and the first race at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Tickets are $35 and include admission to the grandstand and an all-access pit pass.<\/p>\n More info can be obtained by visiting www.merrittraceway.com<\/a> or calling 231-328-RACE.<\/p>\n For both events, fans can receive a $5 discount on general admission tickets by bringing a receipt from a NAPA Auto Parts store and presenting it at the ticket window.<\/p>\n For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fans can also follow the WoO LMS on Twitter at Twitter.com\/WoOLateModels <\/a>and Facebook at Facebook.com\/WorldofOutlaws <\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CONCORD, NC \u2013 Aug. 16, 2012 \u2013\u00a0HE\u2019S BACK: Josh Richards has watched from afar this season as Darrell Lanigan has supplanted him as the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,71,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-late-models","category-racing-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13014"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13020,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13014\/revisions\/13020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}