{"id":15494,"date":"2013-01-30T22:48:37","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T22:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=15494"},"modified":"2013-01-30T22:48:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T22:48:37","slug":"lanigan-ready-to-pick-up-where-he-left-off-last-year-on-world-of-outlaws-late-model-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/lanigan-ready-to-pick-up-where-he-left-off-last-year-on-world-of-outlaws-late-model-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Lanigan Ready To Pick Up Where He Left Off Last Year On World of Outlaws Late Model Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20130130-174140.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Defending Champ Has Plenty Of Motivation, Including Bid For Elusive WoO Victory During UNOH DIRTcar Nationals by Summit
\nCONCORD, NC \u2013 Jan. 29, 2013 \u2013 Think Darrell Lanigan spent some time kicking back to savor his spectacular 2012 World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship season?<\/p>\n

Well, guess again. The ultra-competitive superstar from Union, Ky., basically put his record-smashing season in his rearview mirror as soon as he picked up his $100,000 points-fund check at the national tour\u2019s awards ceremony in early November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never took a day off,\u201d Lanigan said of his off-season itinerary. \u201cRight after the (WoO LMS) banquet we were in the shop and right back at it. We never had any down time.\u201d<\/p>\n

There simply was too much work on Lanigan\u2019s docket for the 42-year-old to rest \u2013 even for a few short days \u2013 on his well-earned laurels. He determined that any break in focus would hinder his preparation for February\u2019s season-opening burst of WoO LMS action, which includes the \u2018Winter Freeze\u2019 doubleheader on Feb. 8-9 at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga.; the Bubba Army Late Model Winter Nationals on Feb. 15-17 at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla.; and the three 50-lap, $10,000-to-win programs on Feb. 21-23 that comprise half the dirt Late Model portion of the 42nd UNOH DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Summit Racing Equipment at Volusia Speedway Park.<\/p>\n

From readying a new hauler to assembling new cars for himself and members of his \u2018Club 29\u2019 posse, Lanigan had plenty to keep him busy in the wake of his second career WoO LMS title.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as the (2012) season ended we sold our truck so that one had to go and I had to go pick up my new one,\u201d said Lanigan, who likes to replace his sharp black race car rig with a new model roughly every two years. \u201cThen we had to work on getting the new truck ready to go and building race cars. We sold two cars (from \u201912), built two new ones for myself and redid the car I ran most of the (\u201912) season, and built a couple cars for (Club 29) customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty short off-season, so if you don\u2019t work hard the whole time you\u2019re not gonna be ready to go racing in February.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Lanigan realizes he can\u2019t slack off \u2013 not if he expects to have any shot at reliving 2012, a year-for-the-ages that saw him establish numerous WoO LMS records (15 wins, six consecutive victories, three 100-lap triumphs, 228-point championship margin, points leader from start-to-finish) and earn an amazing $426,700. With the drivers he vanquished in \u201912 hungry for redemption and two-time WoO LMS champion Josh Richards reportedly planning to return as a regular after spending last season on the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Lanigan just might have to be even better in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely gonna be tough to duplicate last year, but we\u2019re gonna try,\u201d said Lanigan, who enters \u201913 as the alltime winningest WoO LMS driver, with 41 career victories. \u201cDoing what we did last year definitely puts your goals a little higher. I know there\u2019s a lot of guys who are gonna come back stronger to try and beat us, but we\u2019re gonna be as ready as we can be for \u2018em.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not changing anything. Our cars (Rocket Chassis), our motor program (Cornett Engines), our crew (Jason Jameson and Adam Logan) \u2013 everything is pretty much the same. We\u2019ll just have to see what happens this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Lanigan needs any extra incentive, he\u2019ll have some when he enters the UNOH DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Summit. While he\u2019s won WoO LMS A-Mains in the past at the two tracks that kick off this year\u2019s tour \u2013 he captured last year\u2019s inaugural Winter Freeze lidlifter at Screven and has been victorious once in each of the last three years at Bubba Raceway Park \u2013 he\u2019s never triumphed in a World of Outlaws event at Volusia.<\/p>\n

Lanigan has certainly enjoyed his share of success at Volusia since tackling the D-shaped, half-mile oval for the first time in 2002. But he\u2019s shined mostly in DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned shows, winning a pair of features (2007 and \u201910), scoring three runner-up finishes (twice in \u201909, twice in \u201912) and placing third on two occasions (\u201906 and \u201909). He owns a pair of second-place finishes in WoO LMS action at Volusia (\u201905 and \u201909), but, in 16 other UNOH DIRTcar Nationals by Summit World of Outlaws A-Mains since 2004, he\u2019s registered just three top-five finishes (fifth in \u201905, fourth in \u201906 and \u201912).<\/p>\n

This year Lanigan will have three chances to add Volusia to his list of WoO LMS conquests; after the dirt Late Model portion of the UNOH DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Summit begins with DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned events on Feb. 18-20, the WoO LMS takes center stage for three consecutive nights on Feb. 21-23. The driver known as the \u2018Bluegrass Bandit\u2019 is eyeing that World of Outlaws tripleheader.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to win every race, but not having won an Outlaw show (at Volusia) makes you want to get one a little more,\u201d said Lanigan. \u201cI know we can do it, because we\u2019ve won UMP shows there before and we like the track. It\u2019s probably one of the better tracks we go to down south \u2013 the surface is pretty decent, and it\u2019s usually pretty racy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s definitely always one of the toughest weeks of the year. It\u2019s a long week because there\u2019s already a lot of wear-and-tear on your equipment before you even get there, and there\u2019s a lot of good cars there. Everything\u2019s gotta go right to get a win there, and so far we\u2019ve never had one of those nights on an Outlaw night. Hopefully we\u2019ll have one this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanigan could have as many as five WoO LMS A-Main starts on his ledger by the time he pulls into the Volusia pit area. Screven\u2019s Winter Freeze has been restructured this year to include two separate programs (40 laps\/$8,000 to win on Feb. 8 and 50 laps\/$10,000 on Feb. 9), and the Bubba Army Late Model Winter Nationals features a 35-lap headliner paying $7,000 to win on Feb. 15, a 50-lapper for $10,000 to win on Feb. 16 and the inaugural 75-lap \u2018Super Sunday Showdown\u2019 offering a $20,000 top prize on Feb. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cScreven, (BRP) and Volusia should be three good tracks for us to start the year,\u201d said Lanigan, who ended last season\u2019s six-race swing to the three facilities with $42,700 in earnings and a 28-point lead over Richards in the WoO LMS standings. \u201cWe run good at all of \u2018em, so we just need some luck with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to that that big show (Super Sunday Showdown) at Ocala. I\u2019m definitely glad to see they\u2019ve put it a $20,000-to-win race on the schedule this year. It should be a real good show for the fans. Ocala definitely can be racy. It\u2019s one of those get-up-on-the-wheel-and-go tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the Winter Freeze at Screven Motor Speedway and the Bubba Army Winter Nationals at Bubba Raceway Park, visitwww.screvenmotorsportscomplex.com and www.bubbaracewaypark.com.<\/p>\n

The UNOH DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Summit at Volusia Speedway Park is a 12-night short-track blockbuster that features nightly doubleheaders. Joining the WoO LMS and UMP Late Models on the schedule are the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series (Feb. 15-17); the UNOH All-Star Sprint Car Series (Feb. 13-14); UMP Modifieds (Feb. 12-19); and the Super DIRTcar Series for Big-Block Modifieds (Feb. 20-23).<\/p>\n

Gates will open nightly at 5 p.m. with racing getting the green flag at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

For more information on the UNOH DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Summit \u2013 including special pricing on advance-sale tickets and details of the \u2018Free Pit Pass With Every Ticket\u2019 offer that allows fans to get up-close-and-personal with the race teams every night of the DCN \u2013 visit www.DIRTcarNationals.com or call 704-795-7223 or 877-395-8606 (ticket hotline).<\/p>\n

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.<\/p>\n

Fans can also follow the WoO LMS on Twitter at Twitter.com\/WoOLateModels and Facebook at Facebook.com\/WorldofOutlaws .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defending Champ Has Plenty Of Motivation, Including Bid For Elusive WoO Victory During UNOH DIRTcar Nationals by Summit CONCORD, NC \u2013 Jan. 29, 2013 \u2013 […]<\/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":[22,3,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-lucas-oil-late-model-dirt-series"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15494","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=15494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15495,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15494\/revisions\/15495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}