Josh Richards celebrates in victory lane after winning Saturday night’s Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series season finale at Portsmouth Raceway Park. Photo: LODLMS Media/Twitter
Josh Richards completed a dream night at Ohio’s Portsmouth Raceway Park on Saturday night.
The West Virginia native won his first-career Rhino Ag Dirt Track World Championship, worth $100,000, and the 2017 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Championship, worth $75,000.
Richards became the fourth different leader of the race when he passed race leader and defending winner, Brandon Sheppard, for the lead after a lap 46 restart. Richards led the rest of the way to take his tenth series win of the season over Sheppard, Jonathan Davenport, Mike Marlar, and Jared Hawkins.
Blairsville, Georgia’s Jonathan Davenport started on the pole and led early on. Sheppard took over the point on lap 36, and then began pulling away from the field until a caution on lap 46 slowed his pace. On the restart, Richards, who was running third, went around Sheppard to take over the lead and stayed in front until the checker flag waved.
Tim McCreadie entered the race as the series point leader by 40 points over Richards and 75 ahead of Bloomquist. During the race McCreadie suffered two flat tires and Bloomquist had a tire go down while running second to Richards. Bloomquist finished the race in 12th and McCreadie was credited with a 17th place finish.
“I have to collect my thoughts right now,” Richards said. “I can’t thank everyone enough for this opportunity. I made a tough decision last year to switch teams. We didn’t know what was going to happen. We started the year off well, and then we went to a bunch of new tracks and kind of fell off a little. We struggled a little bit, but so did those other guys. We got on a hot streak in July though.
“Coming into this weekend we felt pretty good and I know Scott (Bloomquist) and Timmy (McCreadie) did too. Thanks to Best Performance Motorsports, Eric and Kelly Brock for giving me this opportunity.
“It’s been a crazy year. Randall Edwards has done such a great job as crew chief. There are so many people behind this team and that supported me. I felt everything in the last four or five laps. I have been through this scenario enough to know. I knew the tires were slipping away, but fortunately they held up to the end.”
Sheppard came home in second.
“We had a pretty good car. Josh got around me on that restart and he did a good job out in front. I look up to him a lot. I drive for his dad. It’s been a dream come true driving for Mark (Richards), we have had a great year. Being able to learn from Josh has been great. We would have liked to get the win tonight, but there’s nobody else I’d like to finish second to than Josh.”
Davenport came home in third.
“Congrats to Josh and Brandon on their run tonight. We were good early on. I just don’t have this place down pat yet for some reason. We keep getting closer.”
Zack Dohm, Chub Frank, Brandon Overton, Darrell Lanigan and Dennis Erb, Jr. rounded out the top ten.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Portsmouth Raceway Park – Portsmouth, OH
RhinoAg Dirt Track World Championship – October 21, 2017
| FINISH | START | CAR # | DRIVER NAME | HOMETOWN | EARNINGS |
| 1 | 5 | 1R | Josh Richards | Shinnston, WV | $100,800 |
| 2 | 4 | 1S | Brandon Sheppard | New Berlin, IL | $20,000 |
| 3 | 1 | F1 | Jonathan Davenport | Blairsville, GA | $10,000 |
| 4 | 9 | 157 | Mike Marlar | Winfield, TN | $7,000 |
| 5 | 14 | 11H | Jared Hawkins | Fairmont, WV | $5,000 |
| 6 | 15 | 17D | Zack Dohm | Cross Lanes, WV | $3,500 |
| 7 | 16 | 1* | Chub Frank | Bear Lake, PA | $3,200 |
| 8 | 11 | 116 | Brandon Overton | Evans, GA | $3,000 |
| 9 | 23 | 14 | Darrell Lanigan | Union, KY | $3,500 |
| 10 | 21 | 26 | Dennis Erb, Jr. | Carpentersville, IL | $3,200 |
| 11 | 20 | 28C | Tyler Carpenter | Parkersburg, WV | $2,450 |
| 12 | 6 | 18 | Scott Bloomquist | Mooresburg, TN | $3,400 |
| 13 | 10 | 71R | Rod Conley | Wheelersburg, OH | $2,350 |
| 14 | 24 | 71HU | Hudson O’Neal | Martinsville, IN | $3,100 |
| 15 | 28 | B1 | Josh Bocook | Wheelersburg, OH | $2,250 |
| 16 | 22 | 18E | Eric Wells | Hazard, KY | $2,200 |
| 17 | 8 | 39 | Tim McCreadie | Watertown, NY | $2,950 |
| 18 | 27 | 81F | Brandon Fouts | Kite, KY | $2,100 |
| 19 | 18 | 22F | Chris Ferguson | Mount Holly, NC | $2,075 |
| 20 | 7 | 71 | Don O’Neal | Martinsville, IN | $2,860 |
| 21 | 13 | C9 | Steve Casebolt | Richmond, IN | $2,050 |
| 22 | 2 | 20 | Jimmy Owens | Newport, TN | $2,840 |
| 23 | 3 | 28 | Earl Pearson, Jr. | Jacksonville, FL | $2,830 |
| 24 | 17 | 6T | Tim Dohm | Cross Lanes, WV | $2,020 |
| 25 | 26 | 15 | Steve Francis | Bowling Green, KY | $810 |
| 26 | 25 | 22 | Gregg Satterlee | Rochester Mills, PA | $800 |
| 27 | 19 | 1G | Devin Gilpin | Columbus, IN | $2,000 |
| 28 | 12 | 240 | Doug Drown | Wooster, OH | $2,000 |
| 29 | 29 | 4B | Jackie Boggs | Grayson, KY | $2,000 |
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