I stood in the infield pit area at Cherokee Speedway looking at the deck on my Warrior Race Car, tiny cracks beginning to show in the corners of each carefully bent piece, evidence of the wear and tear of a season’s worth of use.

Every piece wasn’t like that of course. Last September I replaced probably 75 percent of the car’s decking, leaving only two or three of the older, salvageable, pieces on the car before we ever raced it.

But as I studied the deck, which was showing the stress of MORE

It doesn’t seem like Jonathan Davenport has set the Dirt Late Model world on fire this season, but you’d he hard pressed to find a driver who had a better first three months of 2021 than Superman. Quizzed by a colleague this week to name my Driver of the First Quarter, it didn’t take me long to name the Blairsville, Ga., driver as my pick.

He may have had a terrible Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. He may be winless through the first 10 races on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. And he may MORE

No one expected Brandon Sheppard to go winless this season. That hasn’t happened in more than a decade.

Naysayers may have hoped for more struggles — that’s what happens when you’re uber-successful for longer than most can remember — but everyone knew that Sheppard and the Rocket Chassis house car team couldn’t be kept out of victory lane.

Of course I doubt anyone expected Sheppard’s first victory to come after nearly 20 starts, either. That’s how long it took before Sheppard MORE