The Dirt Track at Charlotte
'Blessed' Leach soaks up key Longhorn expertise
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Michael Leach in the Charlotte pits. (Zach Yost)
CONCORD, N.C. (Nov. 7) — For a full year, Michael Leach had everything a Dirt Late Model driver could dream of in his backyard.
Need engineering insight? Kevin Rumley was in the building next door. Need advice from a veteran crew chief? Anthony Burroughs was often within shouting distance. Need shock expertise? Just walk down the end of the block and Matt Langston answered those questions. Need anything else? Steve Arpin’s office was right around the corner.
The 21-year-old Leach still has access to all those Longhorn Chassis higher-ups — it’s just he can’t walk outside living quarters and have them right at his disposal almost instantaneously. He couldn’t have been more immersed in the day-to-day operations of Longhorn than he was in his first partial season as a Dirt Late Model racer in 2024.
“I lived in the parking lot of Longhorn Chassis for a year just trying to make it happen,” said Leach, who packed up his belongings from his Sun River, Mont., home February 2024 to take residence in a camper in the backside property of the China Grove, N.C., chassis enterprise.
Leach, who now rents a house 20 minutes from the Longhorn headquarters, is trying to take full advantage of his rare opportunity and privileges as the son of Longhorn co-owner Paul Leach. At The Dirt Track at Charlotte of late, the second-year Super driver is doing just that.
Last Saturday, Leach captured the headlining portion of the World Short Track Nationals at the 4/10-mile oval, pocketing $8,000 in Crate Racin’ USA non-touring competition over a 57-car field.
He followed that with Thursday’s “best run of my life,” an eighth-place finish in the World Finals opener, on the World of Outlaws American Beer Late Model Series. By virtue of that finish, he’ll start third in Saturday’s first six-lap dash to determine the inside starting row of the 50-lap, $25,000-to-win feature.
“That’s why I always reminded myself — stupid blessed,” Leach said of his heavy involvement at Longhorn Chassis. “It’s hard to put into words how blessed we are, my family, man. I go to bed tonight grateful for it. Not a lot of guys have that opportunity.”
Above all else, Leach never wants to be seen as some silver-spoon-fed racer who’s entitled to the abundance of resources at his fingertips. So he’s done his everything to maintain a respectful countenance and reputation.
“I keep my head down, work hard, be respectful, and everything’s good, you know what I mean?” Leach said of how he’s tried handling himself. “You have to pay your dues. You do. But that’s where I think am probably the luckiest. Not that any of this is a guarantee, you know what I mean? It’s not guaranteed I could race next year, but it’s a lot more guaranteed than a lot of other guys.
“I don’t have that stress on my back all the time to perform and keep a car owner happy. I mean, I do have to perform, but it’s a family decision, not a business decision. There’s a lot of business in this, don’t get me wrong. My dad is a helluva businessman. He knows how to run all that. I’m just blessed.”
Leach rise to the Super ranks came quicker than anticipated. From 2018-23, he racked up 15 victories in the modified. Before transitioning to Late Models at the end of 2023, he worked as a fabricator at Longhorn, learning the ins and outs of the business while developing a deeper respect for the tedious work that goes into building race machines.
By the end of 2023, he’d won five Dirt Late Model features in western WISSOTA country, prompting Leach to get moving on a full-fledged career in the discipline. That’s when he moved south to live out of a camper in the parking lot of the Longhorn headquarters in February 2024 where he stayed through Georgia-Florida Speedweeks this winter.
Fast forward to the end of 2025 and Saturday’s World Finals program marks the 100th race night Leach and his No. 09 team have competed this year. He’s traveled all across the country in his free-lance pursuits, from contesting all of Georgia-Florida Speedweeks to the sport’s biggest events while squeezing in competitive regional action with the MARS Late Model Series and Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series.
He’s raced in more B-mains this year than he’d like, but as Leach often says, “you have to pay your dues.”
“I’ll put it this way, and this is the best way to put it. Everyone asks me if I miss racing the modifieds all the time, full time. I tell them, ‘I miss winning. I miss running good,’ you know what I mean?” Leach said. “Nowadays, we don’t run good a whole lot. It’s tough. I really miss winning and being up front. Yeah, we’ve got our ass kicked 70 times this year. But dude, this is the best way to end the season. It’s been humbling this year, but I’m blessed to do it. It’s been awesome.”
Leach actually had an opportunity to play Division I college football on scholarship for Montana State University in the FCS ranks, a step below the premier FBS ranks. But Leach ultimately chose to race full-time out of high school in 2021 instead.
“I’m not gonna lie, I was damn close to playing college football at running back,” Leach said. “You wouldn’t tell now, but I used to be a little bigger. … Pretty much when I got into high school I knew I wanted to be a race car driver. We had everything we needed to do it. I was at a crossroads for sure, but I think it’s always been my plan.
“Deep down, as soon as I graduated, I waned to get down here and get onto this team and try to make something happen. You’re not going to do it up north, so had to come down here and have all the resources.”
Oftentimes, when Leach’s team travels to the same event as the Longhorn Factory Team, he’ll park alongside the Burroughs-led No. 76 team and serve as Brandon Overton’s direct teammate on a given weekend. Having an alliance, so to speak, with the Longhorn Factory Team has done wonders for the young Leach.
Longhorn has also been assembling a new shock package behind the scenes that Leach is all for.
“They’ve been working on some new stuff in the shock room and it’s been stellar,” he said.
Leach has a strong race-day road crew himself, with 24-year-old Dawson Cook as his crew chief and 28-year-old Austin Cobb as a general mechanic and tire specialist. He’s hoping he can keep that very core of his crew for years to come as next year he'll run another pick-and-choose schedule before targeting a national tour in 2027.
“If I was dialing in the car and if I have all this information coming in, it’s easy to get yourself out of whack. Dawson, man, he talks with Matt and the Longhorn Dynamics guys all the time. And Rumley. Actually, he’s Rumley protege. He worked with Rumley for a few years before he came over and worked for me.
“We have the best of the best. The best cars. The best engineers, the best people. Shock guys. We have the best of everything. It’s a little overwhelming at times, I’m not gonna lie to you. There’s a lot of different angles. You have to find what you like. But I’m stupid blessed and I tell myself that everyday.”
