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Josh Richards Racing
SHINNSTON, W.V. (April 29) - Josh Richards enjoyed a great run in Sunday night's inaugural Unified Force Race Championship (UFO) series event at Challenger Raceway in Indiana, Pa.
The 20-year-old star from Shinnston, W.Va., would have loved his visit to the Keystone State, however, if he could have pulled off a victory in the 'Area 51' special. He fell just short of that honor, placing second to Titusville, Pa.'s Robbie Blair.
Josh had the Ernie Davis-owned Rocket No. 25 rolling all night, charging from the 11th starting spot to win a heat race and advancing from the ninth starting spot in the 51-lap feature to take the lead on lap 23.
The race's second half featured a titanic battle for the top spot between Josh and Blair. Josh lost the lead to Blair on a lap-31 restart, but then regained command on lap 45 and appeared primed to score his first career win at the one-third-mile oval.
Blair slipped underneath Josh's car off turn four with two laps remaining, however, and sped on to snare the $5,000 first prize.
"It was definitely a good race between me and Robbie," said Josh. "I think we went with a little bit too soft of a tire, though, and I pushed a little in (turns) three and four (with two to go) and that let Robbie get by me."
The Challenger program came after Josh's attempts to race close to home were foiled by Mother Nature for two consecutive nights. Josh had planned to take advantage of an off weekend from World of Outlaws Late Model Series competition by running the Davis mount in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events on Friday (April 25) at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway and Saturday (April 26) at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway, but both shows were rained out after teams had already signed in.
Josh's agenda will be full this week, beginning on Thursday night (May 1) with his first-ever start in a DIRTcar big-block Modified at Virginia Motor Speedway. He is slated to drive a Madsen Motorsports Modified as a teammate to division superstar Brett Hearn in Thursday's Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series season opener - the 60-lap Paul Sawyer Memorial that pays $10,000 to win.
The mid-week VMS card also includes a $5,000-to-win dirt Late Model show, so Josh will enter the event in Davis's No. 25.
Josh will then fly to the Midwest on Saturday morning (May 3) to meet his team in Missouri, where WoO LMS events are on top for Saturday night at Lebanon I-44 Speedway and Sunday night (May 4) at Monett Speedway.
Josh, who will stay in the Midwest following the weekend to enter the $40,000-to-win SuperClean Diamond Nationals on May 9-10 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., enters the WoO LMS Show-Me State swing ranked second in the points standings, 26 points behind leader Billy Moyer.
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