Chris Madden
It has long been known that Chris Madden is a very tough competitor in the southeastern region of the country. After all, the Gray Court, SC native has piled up five Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals championships over the course of his stellar career to confirm that. But there is much more to this 46-year-old driver than feature wins and regional championships earned close to home.
Over the past several seasons in particular, Madden has shown that he can succeed in locations far from his base of operations as he has competed successfully with the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series at a high level. Over the last three years in which he has raced full-time with that national touring series he has scored two runner-up finishes in the final standings(2017 & 2021) and a third-place effort(2018). He did not run with that tour in 2019 and 2020.
Furthermore, the driver known as ‘Smokey’ has not only won in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee but has also visited victory lanes in prominent races all over the country. Just this past season he picked up a win valued at $22,500 at the Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Wisconsin along with a pair of triumphs at Pennsylvania’s famed Port Royal Speedway.
The veteran driver can count wins in the Firecracker 100 at Pennsylvania’s Lernerville Speedway, the USA Nationals at Wisconsin’s Cedar Lake Speedway, the Topless 100 at Batesville(AR) Speedway and the North-South 100 at the Florence Speedway in Kentucky as major wins outside of his home region.
Even though he did finish second to Brandon Sheppard in the final WoO Late Model Series standings despite missing two starts during the early part of the season, Madden’s 2021 campaign did prove to be a bit streaky. Of those seven total wins and his four victories on his primary circuit, they tended to come in bunches. The No. 44 Rocket Chassis pulled into victory lane twice in the early portion of the season with a Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series win at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, SC this past February followed by a WoO win at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, TN in early March.
Madden didn’t find a checkered flag again until May when he reeled off three consecutive WoO victories at Mississippi Thunder then back-to-back first-place finishes at Port Royal.
But it will no doubt be the end of the 2021 campaign where Madden and his team will look for inspiration when they hope to get their 2022 season off to a successful start. The No. 44 Rocket Chassis team finished out the racing year with consecutive wins in the Peach State Classic at Senoia(GA) Raceway, which doled out $52,052, and the driver’s seventh career victory in the historic Blue-Gray 100 at Cherokee Speedway to collect another $10,000.
So with 2021 closing out on such a strong note, which not only included those two wins but also four consecutive top-10 efforts in the final four WoO Late Model races of the season, the question of whether or not Madden can carry that late season momentum into 2022 has to be considered. While it may not yet be known what sort of schedule the South Carolina-based team will pursue next season, Madden and his crew could still very well see the benefit of ending this most recent campaign on a positive note whenever it’s time to kick off the next one.
Chris Madden in his No. 44 Rocket Chassis
Madden has traditionally been a fast starter by scoring at least one win during the first three months in each year since 2017. Following his win in the Blue-Gray 100, the driver was already looking toward the next season.
“We weren’t where we needed to be, I felt like, about middle or two-thirds way through the season so we went to work on our Rocket Chassis,” he told InsideDirtRacing.com. “We definitely have got some speed in it and I’m really proud of it right now and where I’m at. I’m excited to get next year kicked off.”
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