The name of this blog signals that I'm not typically an optimist when it comes to Dirt Late Model racing.

The highway miles and time away from home can be long. The racing isn't always as fun as it should be. And events that keep you at the track until after midnight quickly get old.

But then you run into an event like the Wild West Shootout, and it's rejuvenating, even just a few weeks after the conclusion of what seemed like a never-ending season. USA Raceway's January miniseries in Tucson, MORE

While the eastern half of the country spent the week thawing out from the winter storm that dropped snow from New England to Alabama, drivers and fans that traveled to Arizona for the Wild West Shootout at USA Raceway in Tucson enjoyed warm weather and some pretty darn good racing.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go to Arizona, but the DirtonDirt.com guys who were lucky enough to make the trip did a good job of keeping the rest of us updated on all the happenings in the desert.

In short, Billy MORE

For those that have seen the move Office Space, you recognize the headline. For those few who haven’t seen it, rent it. It is a classic. Essentially, the movie is about a software company that hires a couple of consultants to review the company’s business with the ultimate goal of downsizing. The consultants are known as “the Bobs” because they share the same first name. In the movie, no one wants to meet with “The Bobs” as they know their job is ultimately to lay off workers, and no MORE

Superlatives from the fifth annual Wild West Shootout, where more than 60 drivers competed in the six-race miniseries at USA Raceway:

Best race: There wasn't a bad one, but the finale topped them all with the top three bunched at the line while taking the white flag. Three-race winner Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., stalked Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., for 38 laps before taking the lead going for the white flag, and hometown hero R.C. Whitwell nearly snuck past both of them.

Best finish: I MORE

Crossing the line second after Jan. 15's last-lap clash between Bub McCool and Ronny Lee Hollingsworth at Tucson's Wild West Shootout, Billy Moyer had no doubt he was runner-up. After all, Moyer reasoned, the checkered flag follows the white flag at every dirt track in the country, and he's seemingly raced at all of them.

But when the 53-year-old Hall of Famer was told that, at least twice earlier in the week at USA Raceway, white flags interrupted by caution flags meant a race was restarted a MORE