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Josh Richards Racing
SHINNSTON, W.V. (June 10) - Josh Richards got a chance to climb the catch fence as a winner last week at Eldora Speedway.
That post-race celebratory maneuver, however, didn't result from Josh's exploits behind the wheel. It came in Josh's role as crew chief for NASCAR star Tony Stewart, who won Wednesday night's 30-lap Old Spice Prelude to the Dream event in a car prepared by Josh and the Rocket Chassis team.
Josh was hopeful that he could duplicate Stewart's victorious effort when he climbed into his familiar Mark Richards Racing-owned Seubert Calf Ranches/Ace Metal Works/TSR-Tony Stewart Racing/Petroff Towing/MCB Motorsports/Ernie's Auto & Hauling Rocket Chassis No. 1 for the weekend's Dirt Late Model Dream event at the half-mile oval, but Lady Luck didn't allow that to happen. He was involved in a heat-race tangle and failed to qualify for the $100,000-to-win spectacular, ending his extended stay at Eldora on a down note.
"It was really disappointing to miss the Dream, especially after winning the Prelude with Tony," said the 20-year-old sensation from Shinnston, W.Va. "We felt like we had a car that could win the Dream, but we had some bad luck so we'll have to try again."
Josh qualified fifth-fastest among the 122-car field in Friday night's time trials, showing his car's speed. But his hopes were derailed on the first lap of Saturday night's fifth 15-lap heat race, when he clipped the crashed car of Brad Neat in turn three and was left with significant damage to the right-rear of his machine.
Though Josh restarted the prelim at the rear of the field after his crew attempted to patch up the car's thoroughly bent rear deck, he struggled to move forward and ultimately retired on lap 11 when the bodywork came loose and cut his right-rear tire. With Josh missing the cut to transfer to the C- or B-Mains and two drivers ahead of him on the time-trial sheet grabbing the pair of fast-time provisional spots for the Dream, 'Kid Rocket' had to watch the rich A-Main from the sidelines for the second time in his four attempts at the race.
"I got a little bit of a bad start (in the heat) so it took me until the backstretch to get back in line," said Josh. "I followed Neat into the corner, but I couldn't really see him that well because of the glare of the sun. When he came off the wall I tried to avoid him the best I could and I actually thought I didn't hit him that bad, but my right-rear must have gotten caught on his car and it just ripped the whole rear deck off.
"The car was still good even with the deck all bent up as long as I could roll the top, but it was just so hard to pass with guys running side-by-side in front of me."
Josh was certainly happy with his machine's performance before the incident, boosting his confidence for Eldora's upcoming World of Outlaws Late Model Series event (July 25) and the World 100 (Sept. 5-6).
"You couldn't ask for a better car," said Josh.
Josh will jump into the Ernie Davis-owned No. 25 this weekend for events on Friday night (June 13) at Winchester (Va.) Speedway and Saturday night (June 14) at Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, Va. The VMS program is sanctioned by the Mid-Atlantic Championship Series.
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