Josh Richards sets eyes on even more career success

Josh Richards

The 2017 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion has, in many respects, picked up right where he left off early on in the 2018 campaign. Josh Richards won the series title last year in the most dramatic of fashions as he captured the season ending Dirt Track World Championship to not only collect a massive $100,000 paycheck but also to beat out Scott Bloomquist and Tim McCreadie for the coveted national touring series crown.

Richards and his Best Performance Motorsports team have survived some early challenges to place themselves second in the current LOLMDS standings just five points behind leader Jonathan Davenport. Along the way, the No. 1 Rocket Chassis car powered by Durham Racing Engines collect two victories(both on the opening weekend at Georgia’s Golden Isles Speedway) to go with a pair of second place efforts as well as two fourth place results.

“We had a great start,” Richards declared in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “We’ve won a couple and I feel like we were in contention for a few more. We had that little deal at Ocala but we had speed. Yeah, I feel pretty good.”

One of those early season victories was particularly impressive. After suffering mechanical trouble in his heat race during the Saturday night show at Golden Isles, Richards rolled out for the B-main race later that night in a backup car. Suddenly, smoke began to boil from that car as well. After diagnosing the problem as a loose power steering hose, the issue was rectified, but after the last chance race had ended.

As a result of all that trouble, Richards was forced to take a provisional starting spot and take the green flag in the feature from the rear of the field. Quickly the No. 1 car began to move forward, finally taking the lead for good on lap 47 of the 60-lap affair.

So what did it feel like from the driver’s seat to come all the way from the tail of the field to win the $12,000 first prize?

“It was neat,” Richards stated. “You know, we had everything go wrong it seemed, no matter what we did. We had issues with the primary car then more issues in the backup car when we first went out. It was a crazy night but it made it that much more fulfilling when we won it.”

And the 30-year-old native of Shinnston, WV believes his team will be cable of once again carrying the success achieved at Golden Isles throughout rest of the year.

“That’s been a pretty good track for us but hopefully we can keep it going in a few other places,” Richards said.

Richards in the Best Performance Motorsports Rocket

However, the Best Performance operation did have issues coming out of Florida. As a matter of fact, the team left Florida early after a second set of mechanical gremlins struck while competing with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Volusia Speedway Park.

But time has been on the side of the Ohio-based organization as scheduling and rain outs essentially provided a second off-season from mid-February to late March when the Lucas Oil Series returned to action at Boyd’s Speedway.

“We’ve really just been rebuilding from Florida,” Richards explained in an interview conducted prior to the event at Boyd’s. “We had some equipment that was down so we just spent that time rebuilding everything and just really getting prepared for the season. The off-season is really short the way that it is so we try to do all the work that we can getting spare cars and everything together so that when we go out in the summer we’ll be ready.”

With this weekend’s LOLMDS sanctioned Bad Boy 98 at Batesville(AR) Motor Speedway, the real grind begins as the tour will be in action for several consecutive weeks.

“It does for sure,” Richards agreed. “I really don’t know why anyone schedules anything in March because the weather is always so iffy. But once it starts, we’ll be full bore.”

Last year, Richards, a four-time WoO Late Models champion, joined Bloomquist as the only drivers to have won season-long points titles in both of the current national touring series.

“It’s pretty neat,” Richards said of the accomplishment. “I’ve just always had my head down and worked hard my whole life in racing. We’ve had a lot of success, obviously with great teams and a lot of great people behind us. To look back and see what’s been accomplished is unreal. To have that is really neat. I love to race and that’s what’s cool for me but it’s cool that we were able to accomplish that together as a team.”

After having accomplished so much in the sport of Dirt Late Model racing, what goals motivate Josh Richards each week?

“The goal is easy. It hasn’t changed from the first day I sat in a car until now. You get in and just enjoy what you do. When you strap in and and go, you just try to have fun, most importantly. You just do the best that you can every time you strap in.”

 

Won the first two LO races at GIS

East Bay- 6th, 4th, 2nd, 4th, 2nd, 4th

Bubba- 16th

Boyd’s- 17th

EAMS – 9th

2nd in points just 5 behind Davenport

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