Double Down Motorsports well equipped for Lucas Oil run

Morristown, Tennessee based Double Down Motorsports is heading into the 2019 season with big plans and big goals. The Roger Sellers-owned operation that fields Dirt Late Model cars for drivers Shanon Buckingham and Robby Moses looks to hit bigger races and perhaps even a major touring series with one of its teams while the other will continue to compete on a regional basis.

Later this week the team will depart from east Tennessee to head for the Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, GA and then on to East Bay Raceway Park in the Tampa, Fla area for several days of testing before returning next month to officially compete at those venues with Buckingham behind the wheel as the No. 50 team begins a run at the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.

“We’re going to go down with Tim McCreadie and a couple of other guys to Brunswick and to East Bay to do some practice,” Sellers explained in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “After a week down there we’ll turn around and come back to get ready for Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks. We’ll start out SpeedWeeks by running at Brunswick then we’ll go to Tampa for that week and then we’ll go to Ocala(Bubba Raceway Park). We might even go back to Ocala for the crate race later on. We’re going to stick with Lucas up until Brownstown and see how it works out for us.”

Double Down hasn’t settled on a definite schedule beyond the LOLMDS race in Brownstown, Ind. on March 16th. If things go well, the crew could very well decide to stay with that national touring series.

Sellers points out that his team is still in the process of gaining experience. Their first full year of operation together was in 2016 with Buckingham returning to driving after a hiatus. And more, most of the driver’s experience had been in Crate Late Model cars prior to he and his father, Tom Buckingham, joining up with Double Down.

“We haven’t made any type of commitment to run a series or anything like that,” the team owner stated. “We still want to get out and get our feet wet. We’ve made a lot of improvements and toward the end of last year we started showing a lot of progress. People think that Shanon has run a lot in a super but he really hasn’t. He ran a lot in crate and did really well with that but he hadn’t run a whole lot of super races.”

In October of 2018 Buckingham captured a $7,500-to-win Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series win at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn. along with a 5th place result in one of the preliminary races held at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway leading into the World 100. And more, the No. 50 machine twice cruised into victory lane following wins in Crate Late Model events at Smoky Mountain and the Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. last fall.

Sellers credits Double Down crew chief J.C. Crockett with much of his team’s recent success. Also, the former owner of the highly successful Tennessee RV dealership believes Double Down has all the people and equipment in place to make a run at earning even more checkered flags.

“We got J.C. on board and I think it’s pretty promising for us because we found some stuff with the cars and we have a little better understanding of the cars,” Sellers pointed out. “We’re sticking strictly with the Longhorn Chassis and we’ve got a couple of Vic Hill engines and we’ve got some Andy Durham engines as well. The Longhorn guys, Justin Labonte and them, have been really good to us.”

And it’s not just a matter of engines and chassis that lead to good results.

“Ronny Crooks with Penske Shocks has been really good for us. J.C. is a master on shocks and Ronny has been a big help to us on that part of it,” Sellers added. “We believe that if you’re going to succeed at this you’ve got to remain consistent with what you’ve got in the engine program, the chassis program, and the shock program. And Shanon and J.C. have gelled really well and we have Tom Buckingham to help us out with anything we need him to do. We have also brought on a new crew member in J.C.’s brother Shane and that will be a big help to us. It’s a promising year and we’re looking forward to it.”

Further, the team has all the latest assets needed to compete on a major touring series. But perhaps more importantly, the team has a good mix of personalities that will serve them well during the long days on the road.

“I don’t think we’ll have a lack of equipment,” Sellers insisted. “I think we’ll be successful and I’m not one to give it up easily. It’s got to be fun, you’ve got to enjoy it and have a good time at it, and then you want to be able to do good too. We all get along good and we work together well. That makes it fun to go to these events. I’ve always said that if you’re going to do it, you’ve got to do it right. I’ve tried to provide them with everything they need. We got a pull down rig last year and I think that helped us a bunch. We picked up on a few things that we changed ourselves that other teams are interested in.”

Sellers is looking to expanded his racing operation after selling his RV dealership near the end of last year to Lazydays RV. Not only will he have more time to spend with his racing crew, but he also hopes to travel more and enjoy watching his grandson Conor Moses grow up.

“The thing about that is that I’ve been very fortunate,” Sellers explained. “I had been in the RV business for 38 years and I felt like I had taken the business to its peak and we did real well. I turned 60-years-old last year and it was an opportune time to sell it because there’s a lot of things that I want to do, places I want to go, and things I want to get done while I’ve still got my health.”

After selling the dealership, the businessman was able to land Lazydays as a sponsor his team’s efforts in the coming season.

As for the second Double Down team, Sellers points out that son-in-law Robby Moses has work and family obligations that will keep him closer to home during the upcoming racing campaign.

“Our plans are a little bit different this year,” he pointed out. “We’re going to have to split up a little bit this year between Shanon and Robby because Robby now has Conor and he works in Oak Ridge. He can still run a lot of regional stuff so he’ll probably run more regional but join in with us at some of the bigger events. With me selling the dealership the timing is good for me and the opportunity is there for us to do it with the Lazydays RV sponsorship.

The love of racing dates back to the time when Sellers was still very young. And that love has only grown over time.

“I started drag racing when I was about 15-years-old and my mother told me I would outgrow that one day. I’m 60 now and it’s gone just exactly the opposite of that. This gives me drive and it keeps me going. And all this racing kept me on top of my business because the faster I wanted to go the harder I had to work so I kept digging in both directions and it’s worked out great for me.”