It was Monday morning following the Paul “Butterball” Wooldridge Memorial and I was plenty tired. Getting back into the grind of a 6 a.m. departure to work was a little tough after Saturday's late race at Richmond Raceway, which kept me from getting to sleep until 5:30 a.m. Sunday.

It was the first time in several years that I’d had such a late evening at the races, but as I texted my buddy Michael “Spanky” Despain later in the day: “While I’m not used to it, it does feel strangely MORE

It’s hard to forget the first time. And yes, that goes for racing, too.

A year ago, we made a four-hour trek across Tennessee and attempted to qualify for the UMP DIRTCar Summernationals race at Clayhill Motorsports in Atwood. Heading over there, we knew it would be a tough chore. Making a Summernationals race is no easy task. But if we could somehow get in the show, we knew that it’d be a good pay day. A broken brake line – combined with the always-tough Summernationals crowd – kept us MORE

When I was considering the request to write a blog for DirtonDirt.com, I joked that I felt like an old frame that Hall of Fame chassis builder C.J. Rayburn pulled from the weeds behind his shop. Once successful in its days of glory, now refreshed and ready to race again.

As the story would usually go, a racer with a bent-up race car and equally damaged mindset about the sport he loves would arrive in Whiteland with hopes of patching up his car in time for the next weekend. And Rayburn, being MORE

June 7 seems so long ago. It was the day before the Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway and until Sunday, the last time I saw home.

That fateful Tuesday was the beginning of a month-long trip that had me crisscrossing the Midwest from one side to the other and back again ... and again and again. It all started at Eldora for the Prelude and the Dream XVII and continued through the 16th race on the UMP DIRTcar Summernationals July 9 at Clarksville Speedway.

Thirty-four days, 17 races and an MORE

So, you want to quit school or work and join the circus, following Dirt Late Model racing as a profession? Be careful, because sometimes you get what you wish for.

I was thinking about all this in the wee hours of Sunday morning as I rolled along U.S. 45 in Mississippi, driving through the night to Memphis International Airport. We had just finished producing the Clash at the Mag featuring the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, a show that will air on Speed on July 31.

It was a tough outing for MORE