All-Tech Raceway
Harris ‘not gonna hold back’ in Lucas Oil pursuit
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Clay Harris contended in Lucas Oil's opener at All-Tech Raceway. (mikerueferphotos.photoreflect.com)
ELLISVILLE, Fla. (Feb. 19) — Settle for a podium finish and valuable points on opening night of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series season? Or throw caution aside in a last-ditch bid to run down Brandon Sheppard for the win at All-Tech Raceway?
Running second and within striking distance of Sheppard in the closing laps of Thursday’s 40-lap, $10,000-to-win feature, Clay Harris faced that exact decision. He had little interest in playing it safe.
“I did not want to ride,” the 25-year-old Harris said as the laps wound down. “You know, as soon as I got to second … it’s hard. I didn’t want to run second.”
Pushing his No. 6 Longhorn Chassis to the limit, the Jupiter, Fla., driver charged into turn one along the half-mile’s notoriously treacherous top side in search of one final challenge for Sheppard. On lap 30, he quickly knew a slight lapse in precision had cost him. Missing the groove, Harris couldn’t rotate through the corner, triggering a slide up the racetrack and hard collision into the outside wall, ending his opening-night gamble with a thud.
“I entered, like, a tire width too low, and it just four-wheel slid to the wall,” Harris said. “I couldn’t get back in the gas fast enough to get it sideways — it was already too tight.
Even in hindsight, Harris felt the gamble was worth taking. While every point matters toward the season-ending points fund, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series counts only a driver’s best five finishes across the nine Georgia-Florida Speedweeks events: Feb. 19-21 at All-Tech Raceway, Feb. 26-28 at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway and March 5-7 at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga.
That makes Harris’s 22nd-place finish Thursday one of four mulligans he can afford during Speedweeks.
More importantly, Harris believes he’s positioned for his strongest Speedweeks showing yet, backed by deeper resources and more manpower than he’s ever had. A year after nursing a single serviceable open-competition engine through Speedweeks, Harris arrived in Florida with five race-ready engines, plus a sixth on order.
He’s equally well covered on the crew side. Josh Raymond and Kameron McGauley return full time this season, joined by Chad Dishman through March 7’s Speedweeks finale at Golden Isles, with Hunter Peacock assisting through Saturday. Together, the four make up the wrenching unit on Harris’s Florida Peanut Federation-backed No. 6 this weekend.
That level of insurance has Harris energized entering his third season on the Lucas Oil tour, looking to improve upon his 13th-place points finish last year on the circuit.
“I got plenty of crew help, so thank God,” Harris said. “I think we have a good piece to work with. Good first night out with the Super. … I told my sponsors, I told my dad, ‘I’m pumped about this year.’ I think we have something figured out.
“We got enough equipment this year. We got two race cars. We got some motors, so I’m excited. I’m not gonna hold back. I’m gonna give it all I have. I always liked to, but last year I didn’t have the opportunity. Now I’ve got the opportunity — and I’m not gonna hold back.”
Thursday’s incident ending up breaking the J-bar, steering rack and right-front spindle, among all the other cosmetic damage that came with pounding the wall between turns one and two. Harris is thankful the damage wasn’t worse.
“It didn't get the rear end, thank God,” Harris said. “But when we got it back together almost, it didn't take us long.”
Harris showed speed from the outset Thursday, charging from his fourth-starting spot into third in the opening laps. From laps 7-12, he hounded second-running Hudson O’Neal before slipping around him amid traffic on lap 13, moving into second just ahead of the lap-14 caution with Brandon Overton leading. Harris briefly slipped back to third on the ensuing restart as Sheppard surged forward on what became his race-winning charge. But Harris quickly regained momentum, and second, on lap 21 when he drove around Overton.
From there, Harris thought he had began reeling Sheppard in, trimming the leader’s advantage from 2.2 seconds to nearly a second-and-a-half before his late-race miscue ended his night.
“I probably should have tried to get to the lead faster. I felt like I had the faster race car there,” Harris said. “The track was really demanding there. I got up on the wheel. I felt like I didn't know what I was doing, but, you know, I was trying as hard as I could, man.
“When I got in a second, I was riding there, I was pretty good at the bottom in three and four, and really good on the high side. In one and two, I was good top to bottom. I just didn’t want to run second. I didn’t want to run second. I was trying to run down Sheppard. I think I was for a little while.”
Having grown up racing across the Sunshine State, Harris is well-acquainted with All-Tech Raceway and its unforgiving nature. He finished fifth in a Lucas Oil Series feature there in 2024 and added a 10th-place result last season.
It’s a track Harris has always enjoyed, even if it’s one drivers tend to have a love-hate relationship with given how technical and demanding it can be. This year, however, All-Tech features a slightly different surface after new clay was added, and Harris said the changes were apparent almost immediately. So far, he’s adapted well.
“The track is really great tonight, though. I had fun. I like it when it’s like that,” Harris said. “I mean, it's obviously a good bit different from last year. It held the moisture a lot longer, I thought, like, 2 or 3 o’clock today, I looked at the track and it was hard and dusty, and I'm like, ‘It's gonna be a lot slower tonight.’
“And then, come practice time, we were running pretty good. Like, time-wise, we weren't too slow, and (the track) wasn’t too fast. So, I mean, they did the track pretty good. Hopefully, it's like that again tomorrow so we’ll have a shot.”
