Florence Speedway
Rattliff faces national stars at Florence
By Bryan Ault
Special to DirtonDirt
Justin Rattliff after winning Florence's Spring 50. (Dallas Reihle)
UNION, Ky. (Aug. 6) — Racing on a limited schedule is difficult in today’s Dirt Late Model world, especially when national tours come to your home-state tracks. Lining up next to full-time drivers who race multiple times a week guided full-time crew chiefs with all the latest technology can leave a part-timer feeling behind outgunned.
It’s a reality Justin Rattliff of Campbellsville, Ky., keenly feels, yet the 38-year-old driver hopes to make a little noise this weekend at Florence Speedway for the three-day on the Sunoco North-South 100 on Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. He enters the action with his family’s JRR Motorsports team along teammates Jason Jameson of Lawrenceburg, Ind., and Josh Rice of Crittenden, Ky., a Lucas Oil regular.
“I just, if I could get in, it would be good for me,” said Rattliff, who finished 24th at last year’s century grind won by Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill. “And then these other two guys, they're really good here. So hopefully one of them can have a good run. I know we have some good equipment, so that's really not a problem. Most of the time, the car's faster than I am, so I’ve just got to do the right thing in the seat.”
Rattliff doesn’t race as much as he’d like with fewer than 10 starts this season, but he's made his appearances count in 2026. He kicked off this season with a win at Florence during the Northern Allstars-sanctioned Spring 50 on March 21 and posted a third-place run at Richmond (Ky.) Raceway on April 25.
“I've just done it for a long time,” Rattliff said with a smile when asked how he’s managed to find success on a part-time schedule. “It's kind of like riding a bike. We're just going to pick and choose. I'll probably race five, six, seven more times, just kind of here and there.”
Once upon a time, Rattliff was a national touring driver, running the Lucas Oil Series full-time in the mid-2000s. After climbing into the full-fendered division following a stint in the modified ranks, he earned Lucas Oil Rooke of the Year honors in 2007, and recorded his first national touring win at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway.
“It was pretty neat,” Rattliff said. “There was a lot of traveling. It was a pretty neat deal. I wouldn't want to travel that much now. It was a pretty fun, being young like that and getting to go out and do something like that. We got to win the first year that we raced on that deal, so it was kind of neat. We just we raced it one more year and then we just kind of started racing regional stuff again.”
He took an extended break from racing but resumed as a part-time driver in 2018. Today, he’s found deeper meaning in life now with his wife and children. His son Jett is already interested in racing, so Rattliff won’t be racing on a national level again. And he’s just fine with that.
“My kids, (Jett will) be able to race a gokart pretty soon, so I probably will be doing less of this,” Rattliff said of his son’s desire to race. “He's still only getting ready to be 3, but pretty much, I would say so, for sure.”
Rattliff is well-aware that testing his mettle against a star-studded field of drivers like Pierce is far different than a weekly or regional show.
“It was pretty competitive then, but I believe it's more competitive now,” Rattliff said. “Everybody's got the same stuff. You know, you can buy all the stuff now and it seems like everybody's got pretty much all the same stuff.”
Even though Rice and Jameson are teammates, they are much different drivers, with Jameson and Rice pounding the cushion and Rattliff preferring a slick-and-smooth surface on the bottom.
“They drive way different than me, so really what they do really doesn't apply to what I do,” Rattliff said. “I’m a little more smooth and reserved and they're wide open. We've just raced here a lot and we just kind of know how to get around here.”
JRR Motorsports crew chief Tim Tungate works with all three drivers, and acknowledges Rattliff’s laid-back style leads him to be more level-headed no matter what the result of a night may bring.
“He wants to run good when he's here, but if he don't, it's OK, and he don't put a lot of pressure on himself,” Tungate said.
“He does it for a hobby and that's probably the best way to approach it,” Tungate added. “You know, if Jason runs good, he’s great. If (Jameson) runs bad, he's pissed. (Rattliff) kind of like walks in with no pressure. I mean, if he runs good, he’s happy. If he don't, he just goes home.”
