Billy Ogle, Jr.
Just over a year ago, Billy Ogle, Jr. found himself at a crossroads in his racing life. The Knoxville native made the decision to leave one of the top regional Dirt Late Model rides in the country without any solid plans for his future. But after having completed a successful 2015 campaign, the driver feels as if he is now in the best situation of his career.
Ogle had driven successfully for Blount Motorsports until September of 2014 when he parted ways with the Larry Garner owned operation. Soon after, however, he found himself paired with veteran racer Stacy Boles as part of a two car effort for Advanced Motorsports.
“It’s been good this year,” Ogle declared in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “Last year, that was a tough decision to leave a team like Blount because that’s a top notch team. It was a lot of pressure over there, maybe I couldn’t handle the pressure. I always will appreciate driving for them. David Bryant(crew chief at BMS) taught me a lot and I’m still using what he taught me. And we’re still pretty good friends. I like Donald McIntosh and I think he’s a good driver. I wish them the best of luck and we’ll just compete and see how it goes.”
And Ogle adds that his new situation with the Boles owned team has proven to be one of the most satisfying times he has experienced in racing.
Billy Ogle, Jr.(201) racing with Donald McIntosh
“Overall, I’m definitely happy where I’m at and already looking forward to next year and trying to improve on it,” the 51-year-old driver said. “I think we can. Ever since we’ve been in the Longhorn, we’ve definitely picked up some. We’ve just got to get it figured out a little more and learn what I like in the car. I’m definitely happy where I’m at and I hope I can stay there as long as possible.”
The 2015 season proved to be a productive one for Ogle as he put the No. 201 car in Victory Lane three times, most notably executing a last lap pass on Josh Richards to win the World of Outlaws Late Models event at the Tazewell Speedway in April. He also added a Spring Nationals victory at Tazewell in May and a Southern Nationals triumph on Virginia’s Wythe Raceway in July. In all, a total of 19 top-5 results were posted by the east Tennessee fan favorite.
“I think it was an overall good year,” Ogle pointed out. “I felt like we could have had a couple more wins. We had a possible win at Tazewell(SoNats Bonus) that would have been a good win but we had a flat tire with about three to go. Then I felt like we might have won Duck River(Deep Fried 75) if we wouldn’t have got thrown out for rough driving on that deal, I felt like that was a bad call. I didn’t consider it rough driving, it might have been a little aggressive. But I think we could have come around with three more wins but I know there’s no such thing as a guarantee with those could’ve and should’ve deals.”
Ogle’s No. 201
Ogle hopes that the successes of 2015 will lead to even more top finishes next season.
“I think it may be pretty similar,” he said of his planned schedule for 2016. “We’re not sure we’re going to run all the Spring and Southern Nationals, we’re still talking about that. But it’ll be close to the same as we’ll be picking and choosing. Stacy told me he may not race quite as much. He bought him a new motor home and he’s going to explore the country, I think. He’s going to be my crew chief some and he’ll be racing some too.”
