Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Frields joins Rice's JRR crew
In a new feature appearing regularly on DirtonDirt, senior writer Kevin Kovac will offer readers five things worth mentioning from around the Dirt Late Model landscape (index to previous Take Fives):
No. 1: On second thought, Zach Frields won’t spend the 2026 away from the grind of a working for a national touring team. The 44-year-old native of Davenport, Iowa, departed Mount Airy, N.C.-based Koehler Motorsports and driver Ricky Thornton Jr. in March and returned to his home state to wrench for his longtime friend Jason Rauen, but he’s switched direction again before running a single Dirt Late Model event with Rauen to link up with JRR Motorsports and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series rookie Josh Rice. Frields, who has worked in Dirt Late Model racing for his entire adult life and won World 100s with Thornton and Brian Birkhofer, accepted an offer to fill JRR’s third full-time crew member spot that’s been open since Randall Edwards parted ways with the team following Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. Thursday’s Show-Me 100 opener at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., marked Frields’s debut with Campbellsville, Ky.’s JRR operation, which also employs Keir “Big Snack” Hoover and Daniel Clark to support the efforts of the 27-year-old Rice, who won a heat race and will start fifth when the rained-out 45-lap feature is contested following Friday’s regularly scheduled program.
No. 2: On May 14, former NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacted to a FloRacing video of Brandon Overton talking about his Lucas Oil Series heat race win that night at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway with a comment on Overton’s Dale Jr.-themed Budweiser Dirt Late Model. “I thought this was maybe just a one race deal but I love seeing this car in my timeline every week,” Earnhardt posted to his 2.3 million followers on X. I asked Overton at Wheatland about Earnhardt’s interest in his special wrap and he noted that he’s been in contact with the motorsports titan. “He’s just been messaging me on Instagram,” said Overton, who has pledged to send a door panel from his car to Earnhardt. “I’m trying to like hell to win a race for him, but it’s just cool to get any kind of feedback from him. You know what I mean? He’s been super cool, super nice, messaging back-and-forth. It’s crazy what racing will do, right? It brings you into all kinds of different avenues and lets you meet a lot of cool people.”
No. 3: If you’d like some entertainment during a rain delay at a Lucas Oil Series event — the situation that occurred Thursday at Wheatland — hang around the circuit’s operations trailer in the pit area when series director Rick Schwallie and other officials are there. Throughout the hour-plus period that the precipitation fell before the decision to postpone the feature was made, a steady stream of drivers and crew members stopped by for updates and to, well, offer their own thoughts on what should happen. First Hudson O’Neal’s crew chief, Jason Durham, visited. Then Ricky Thornton Jr. popped in on his pit bike. So did Devin Moran. And Thornton’s crew chief, Anthony Burroughs, walked up, though his mind was on more than the weather. “Let me have some Tootsie Rolls,” said Burroughs, who received a handful of the chewy treats from a series official.
No. 4: Here’s something you don’t see often: a Lucas Oil Series regular standing at the checkout counter in a Casey’s General Store still dressed in a firesuit. It happened after Thursday’s Wheatland rainout at the convenience store that sits nearly adjacent to the Lucas Oil Speedway property. Right there in front of me paying for his items was Clay Harris of Jupiter, Fla., in his full racing regalia. “I didn’t have a chance to change before coming over here,” he said.
No. 5: This weekend is the ninth Show-Me 100 I’ve covered for DirtonDirt since 2014, but Thursday was the first time I watched on-track action from the two-tier viewing platform that’s atop the backstretch grandstands. I decided to go up there for the heats and I must say it’s a pretty darn good vantage point. It’s even better when the wind is blowing from behind you to keep the dust away.
