Donald McIntosh found success driving for Blount Motorsports
Donald McIntosh came from a racing family as his father, David, drove drag racing cars. At the age of five, the youngster began to follow in his father’s footsteps when he first strapped himself into a driver’s seat. But unlike his dad, Donald tried his hand at oval track racing on dirt, and there, he found his passion.
In the years that followed, Donald McIntosh grew into a formidable Dirt Late Model pilot ultimately finding his way into a Rocket Chassis prepared by Maryville, Tennessee-based Blount Motorsports. His stint with that operation began with a bang as he won almost immediately with his new team in a race held at Boyd’s Speedway near the end of 2014.
Steering that highly regarded regional ride owned by Larry Garner, the Dawsonville, Georgia native won numerous features along with the 2015 and 2016 Schaeffer’s Oil Spring Nationals championships as well as the 2016 and 2017 Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals Bonus Series titles.
But by the end of the 2021 season, the passion for racing had begun to fade for McIntosh even after winning the Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals championship. As a result, the now 29-year-old driver decided to step away from full-time racing holding out the possibility for an occasional start if and when the situation was right.
On Friday night in Valvoline Iron-Man Late Model Series-sanctioned Stars and Stripes 40 at the Boyd’s Speedway in Ringgold, Georgia, the situation was right. In only his second start of 2022, McIntosh drove to victory lane earning a $5,000 payday in a Longhorn Chassis owned by Lamar Scoggins.
“It’s too cool,” McIntosh told InsideDirtRacing.com following his victory. “I can’t thank Lamar enough for letting me drive this thing. To come out and win, hell, we just came out to have fun so to be able to get a win on top of it is super special. It’s cool. I’ve got to thank Tyler Breshears, I’ve been talking to him about these Longhorns, and he gave me some pointers and he was pretty spot on.”
The key moment in the race came on a lap 14 restart. McIntosh had been running third behind leader Vic Hill and second-place Sam Seawright. When Seawright chose the inside on a Delaware Double-file restart, that put McIntosh exactly where he wanted to be.
When the green flag waved, the No. 32 car bolted immediately alongside Hill and eventually into the lead. From there, he was able to keep his distance from those in pursuit.
“I was really surprised Seawright gave that option to me, but when he did, I was excited because I knew he was going to try to protect the bottom because that’s where we had been running,” McIntosh explained. “I figured I would Hail Mary it and if the Hail Mary worked then good. But if it didn’t, I figured I could still drop in behind Sam but it worked.”
Donald McIntosh drove a Lamar Scoggins-owned Longhorn to victory at Boyd’s
Although McIntosh didn’t show any signs of rust in Friday’s feature, he was quick to give credit to his ride.
“This race car was really good,” he stated. “I’ll be honest with you, anymore nowadays, the race car has got to be good and we just happened to hit on it. This race car was really good and I wouldn’t say there was a lot in the seat.”
McIntosh’s Southern Nationals title earned him a perk that would ultimately lead to his opportunity with Scoggins. That led to a 14th place result in an Ultimate Southeast Series event at Boyd’s back in March.
“I actually met him on a Cruise with the Champions and he called me and said ‘I’ve got this race car if you want to race it’ and that’s when we raced earlier this year,” he described. “We’ve been talking back and forth, and he just got back from another cruise.”
So what has McIntosh been doing with so little racing on his agenda?
“Building shocks, just working, spending time with family, just trying to enjoy things in life. I’ve raced since I was five-years-old and I’ve never taken a break. It got to where with Blount, and I love them to death, it got to where it was a job and I got to where I was ‘Damn, I’ve got to go to the race track’ and I hated that. When it’s not fun, it was just time to be done before I just really hated it. That’s what happened there. I was taking time off then I went to the (Eldora)Million to watch and I got the itch after that. I wanted some.”
Please consider also reading:
Donald McIntosh storms to Boyd’s victory lane in return to racing
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