Eric Wells
Eric Wells has had his turn as a national touring series racer. From 2013 to 2017 the Hazard, Kentucky native competed on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series with a degree of success as he finished in the top-10 of the series standings in each of those campaigns. However, the time spent on the road took its toll and the 29-year-old decided to leave that life behind at the end of the 2017 season.
Instead of continual touring, Wells has opted for a schedule that will keep him closer to home. But because of the frequent rains that fell throughout the spring season, the No. 18 team did not begin racing until the Spring Nationals mini-series hit the track on March 30 at the Senoia(GA) Raceway.
Initially there was no plan to follow any series but after scoring a pair of sixth place results in those opening features in Senoia, Wells and his team opted to run the full contingent of races on the Ray Cook-promoted Spring Nationals.
“At the beginning of the year I told myself I wasn’t going to commit to anything,” Wells explained in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “Then we tried to race several times and wound up having to go to Senoia just to get a race in. We went down there and ran good in both races and I was going to run in six of the ten races anyway so it just worked out. We kept running good, and when we got halfway through it, it just made sense to finish it out. It feels good to be on top. Even though it’s a regional deal, there’s still a lot of good cars that show up. It’s not been easy by no means. The racing has been good, we haven’t won one but we’ve been in the hunt.”
Wells believes that much of the reason for his early season success in 2018 has come from his team’s preparation. And that was an ingredient that had been missing over the past few season while following the WoO Late Models.
“It says a lot about what we do at the shop,” Wells insisted. “We’ve completed every race we’ve entered this year which is something we hadn’t done over the last couple of years. We had a lot of failures that we’re maintenance related from a lack of attention to the cars. We’re not racing as much but we’re more prepared for the races we show up at. When we show up and have some things go our way we know we have a shot at winning. We haven’t won one yet but if a couple of things had gone a little different we could have done it.”
Eric Wells won the 2018 Spring Nationals championship
Wells further stressed that maintenance has been the key. Further, a change in the way they do their business on the team owned by David and Connie Wells has been impactful. And more than that, the driver knows that he owes his success to others.
“Over the winter we made some maintenance lists and we’ve got a routine we do every week,” Wells pointed out. “Everybody that helps with this – may dad, my friends – plays a big role. I don’t do this by myself and I definitely couldn’t do it without them. I can’t give them enough thanks for sticking with me because there’s no one here getting paid. They’re doing it just for the love of the sport and because they like being a part of what we’re doing.”
Apart from the racing success, Wells has found another benefit from the changes he has made in his life.
Wells racing with Dakotah Knuckles at Tazewell
“I have two young daughters who are three and five years old and I missed them when I was on the road,” he said. “We’d be gone for two or three weeks and I’d be homesick. I’d want to be home with them. With this deal here I get to spend a lot more time with them and that’s what I enjoy doing most. We race one or two nights a week, we’ll race as much as we can, and they enjoy coming and I enjoy having them here. And I enjoy being home with them.
“When I’m not racing I don’t want to be driving two days to the next track,” Wells continued. “It took the fun out of it for me. We talked about that at the end of the season last year and it had almost gotten miserable so we were either going to quit or do something different to bring the fun back. I feel like every race we’ve entered we’ve had fun and everybody has left with a smile on their face.”
So what’s the plan for the remainder of 2018?
“We’re going to race as much as we can but I’d say a four hour radius is what we’ll be looking at. We’ll race one or two times a week and we’ll do whatever we’re prepared for and whatever we feel like as it comes. We’re not committed to anything for the rest of the season. We’re going to pick and choose and have fun with it.”
