Seeing the Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series open its rulebook to allow American Racer Tires — at least for the rest of this season — brought a smile to my face.

The May 8 announcement went relatively under the radar and really won’t affect a ton of drivers, but in the South, where the SAS tour — America’s longest-running Dirt Late Model series — had long been a Hoosier-only series, it’s a big deal. I wish they’d done it 30 years ago, but Southern All Stars founder B.J. Parker MORE

I often say that I’m no mechanic. Working on race cars isn’t mechanic work. In fact, it’s far from it. I should specify that I mean Dirt Late Models. For people out there racing mini-stocks or true factory stocks or pure stocks, I don’t envy you because I suspect it’s actually a lot more work than running a Late Model.

Times have definitely changed in that it used to be mandatory for a race car driver to be a pretty good mechanic, too. Things aren’t that way anymore. I don’t know MORE