The 2016 Favorite: Josh Richards
Sunday, September 11, 2016
by Mike Ernst
In four of the last five Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals that he has competed in, Josh Richards has finished as runner-up. After each race the Shinnston, West Virginia native has had to crawl out of his Rocket Chassis #1 machine and watch the victory lane celebration from afar before joining the winner for the pictures and post-race press conference featuring the top three finishers.
Richards finished runner-up to Tim McCreadie in 2008, ran fifth in 2009 and has finished runner-up to Billy Moyer (2010), Darrell Lanigan (2013) and again last year to Jared Landers. Richards returns to the Marion County Fairgrounds and Knoxville Raceway this weekend hoping to become the center of attention in the post-race celebration.
“We’ve been really good there the last five times we have been there,” Richards said a couple of weeks ago while taking a break from preparation for the Labor Day weekend event at Lernerville Speedway. “We’ve won four preliminary features but just have never been able to finish the 100-lapper up front. Driver error lost the last two races, so hopefully the circumstances will be a little different this year.”
Richards has always liked big tracks and thinks some of his success at Knoxville can be traced back to racing at his favorite race track. “Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Motor Speedway is my all-time favorite track and Knoxville really reminds me a lot of there,” Richards said. “Its shape, speed and banking are almost identical and I think that has really helped me at Knoxville.”
Richards did not compete at Knoxville in 2011 and 2012 and then missed nearly the entire 2014 season, including Knoxville, with a near career-ending nerve injury to his hands. He returned to the seat of the Mark Richards Racing machines in 2015, and had a solid year winning 11 races. This year Richards has re-written the Craftsman World of Outlaw Late Model Series record books.
As of September 1st, Richards had 24 total wins in 2016 and dominated the WoO season, capturing a series record 17 wins. In all Richards had 51 starts and had only finished outside of the top 10 once. The 17 wins in 2016 have given the 28-year old Richards 74 career WoO wins, which puts him back atop the WoO all-time wins list.
“This sport changes so fast, if you miss two weeks you can really fall behind,” Richards said. “So when I missed almost all of 2014, even though we won some races last year and had a decent year, I really fell behind in some of the technology stuff in the sport and felt like late in the year last year we started to catch back up.
The season has really been a lot of fun,” Richards understated. “The new XR1 Rocket Chassis has been even better then we could have ever imagined. I ran it for the first time in Charlotte at the end of last season and could tell the car had a lot of potential but I never imagined it would be like this.”
A mid-summer hot streak saw Richards pick up wins in the $27,000 to-win Prairie Dirt Classic in Fairbury, Illinois and the $50,000 to-win USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin. Both those events drew the top drivers from across the country, including the WoO regulars as well as most of the Lucas Oil Late Model Series regulars.
This weekend’s event is again sanctioned by the Lucas Oil Late Model Series. Richards competes sporadically in the series, but has won four Lucas Oil Series events this year.
“There are a lot of great drivers in both series and I’ve raced with those guys throughout the season, mostly at our races so far, so from that standpoint it’s not really a big deal,” Richards said. “The two biggest differences are when we go race with them we don’t have a guaranteed starting spot (provisional) but the biggest thing is the tire rules are a little different. When preparing to go to these races we really don’t worry about which series it, we go to every race to win and that is what our focus is and the weekend at Knoxville is no different.”
One driver not at those two WoO events and who has been as equally impressive with the Lucas Oil Series, as Richards has been with WoO, is dirt late model legend Scott Bloomquist. The two-time Late Model Knoxville Nationals champion had won 12 races heading into Labor Day weekend and like Richards was well on his way to a series championship. The two dominators are set to square off for the first time since late June this weekend at Knoxville.
“Scott has had a great year as well,” Richards said. “We beat him a couple times early in the year and then he won the Firecracker 100 (at Lernerville) and we ran second. I really think he is going to be the guy to beat. But there are so many great drivers and teams you can’t get caught up just worrying about one guy. But I would expect him to be right there late in the race on Saturday and hopefully we are as well.” And this time Richards is hoping the victory lane celebration is focused on him.
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