Casey Roberts drove for Blount Motorspots in 2018
Up until two years ago, Casey Roberts was in a very stable situation in terms of his driving career in Dirt Late Model competition. For fourteen years the Toccoa, GA native drove for car owners Jim and Ann Cushman which proved to be a winning combination as feature victories and championship titles were amassed during that time period. But at the end of the 2017 season the Cushmans decided to get out of racing leaving Roberts to search for a ride elsewhere.
Soon after his separation from the Cushman team it was announced that the former Southern Nationals champion would take the wheel of Larry Garner’s Blount Motorsports ride with veteran crew chief David Bryant turning the wrenches on their Vic Hill Racing Engines powered Rocket Chassis race cars. BMS was in need of a new driver following the departure of Donald McIntosh who hoped to race on a national tour with his own team.
On paper, the new pairing looked like a perfect match as the accomplished driver would be joining an accomplished team. And while BMS did in fact have success in 2018 as Roberts added a second Southern Nationals title along with a $10,000 feature victory that fell their way in the fall at North Carolina’s Tri-County Race Track, the match did not quite meet the expectations many had placed on them.
Roberts, who had always worked on his own equipment while driving for the Cushman team, was never able to get comfortable working for an operation that had crew members doing most of the setups and preparation.
Finding himself without a ride at the beginning of 2019 when BMS brought McIntosh back into the fold, Roberts was ultimately contacted by Wynn Motorsports about the possibility of driving for that operation. Wynn employs the Longhorn Chassis which is what Roberts drove when with the Cushman team. The No. 101 machine is powered by Jay Dickens Racing Engines.
“This year feels more like I’m back at home like I was with Mr. Cushman while I’m here,” Roberts explaned in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “They let me keep the car at my shop and kind of do my own thing and keep up the work on them and the maintenance. It fits me a lot better than what I had there last year. This feels more like the way I’m used to racing for all the years with the Cushmans. I’m able to run where I want to and Ricky and Robin Wynn are so good to me about kind of letting me do whatever I want. They’re just so laid back and they’re super nice people. I’m blessed to have them to race with.”
Success has come quickly for Roberts and the Wynn crew. Feature wins in a Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series sanctioned event at Florida’s Southern Raceway and an Ultimate Southeast Series triumph in his home state at the Dixie Speedway have highlighted a spring that has seen the No. 101 car accumulate a total of nine podium finishes in 13 starts. That includes a current streak of four consecutive results of third or better.
“We’ve been running pretty good so far and hopefully we can keep it going and make smart decisions on where to go race,” Roberts commented. “You know, if we need to take off a week we can take off a week and see how it goes. They told me to race as much or as little as I want to. They’re just so easy to work with so hopefully we’ll keep having good luck and get some more wins here soon.”
Casey Roberts now wheels a Longhorn Chassis for Wynn Motorsports
Does going through a tough season as was the case in 2018 cause a driver to question his abilities?
“It does, I guess,” the 42-year-old racer replied. “But it’s just frustrating. We had a lot of rain outs last year, and like I say, we had a lot of things to break. There were a couple more races we had won, I felt like, but circumstances didn’t work out. But I think it’s better off for them guys and myself too for us to split up. I think they’ll do better with Donald back in there because they gel together better than me and David did, I guess. It was just so hard for me after 15 years of working on my own stuff to go to just showing up at the track. It’s just not me. It looked good on paper but it just didn’t work out. It was no one’s fault so hopefully everything worked out for the best for all of us.”
For Roberts, working on his own stuff has been a key to success. But the veteran pilot says there are different formulas for success in racing.
“There are definitely a lot of guys who have success by just showing up and racing. It’s just a matter of what you get used to doing. I’m just so used to wrenching on my own stuff and knowing where things are when I get to the race track. As far as some of these young guys coming up they may not know how to do some stuff, but at the same time, if they get in a car that’s well prepared, they go out and win races. I don’t know if there’s a right or a wrong way, it’s just what you get used to.”
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