Inside Dirt Late Model Racing
Column: Rice family still soaks up unreal victory
After a raucous victory lane and the obligatory time spent at postrace technical inspection near the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series operations trailer, Josh Rice hopped back in his car and made the short drive over to his pit stall in the Florence Speedway pit area. He was greeted by a loud throng of supporters anxiously awaiting his arrival to join him in celebrating his epic $75,000 victory in Saturday’s 44th annual Sunoco North-South 100 at the Union, Ky., track.
Standing a few feet to the side of the conglomeration, taking it all in, was Jerry Rice, the father of the winner. He was with his wife, Danielle, and a circle of other people, trying to grasp a moment almost beyond imagination.
“Yeah, it’s cool,” Jerry said when he was asked about the moment, but then the words stopped. He voice cracked and he brushed his hand underneath his eyes to wipe away some tears, which had flowed when Josh took the checkered flag following a dramatic late-race battle with Jonathan Davenport and kept returning periodically seemingly every time he spoke.
A 59-year-old former standout Dirt Late Model racer from nearby Verona, Ky., Jerry grew up at the half-mile oval. He said he’s seen every North-South 100 since its launch in 1983 and, after starting his own Dirt Late Model driving career in the late ‘80s, he was an annual entrant in the event and made 12 starts in the feature from 1989-2010, finishing as high as second in ’06. His sons James, 32, and Josh, 28, have carried on the family racing tradition — and connection to Florence — with their own racing careers.
Watching Josh at long last claim Florence’s crown jewel event for the Rice family just put Jerry over the edge.
“I’m sorry, man,” Jerry said, apologizing unnecessarily for his tearful reaction. “It’s just emotional.”
Who could blame a father for struggling to hold it together upon witnessing the biggest triumph of his son’s burgeoning racing career? What Jerry saw Josh accomplish was absolutely amazing, a rally and race for the ages topped by an outpouring of joy from the partisan Florence crowd that was so pro-Josh Rice that it resembled a sports team’s fans communally celebrating a championship.
The unrestrained backing Josh received from the Florence faithful was no surprise to Jerry. He fully comprehends just how popular Josh, and the Rice family itself, is at the track in their backyard.
“When we ran second here that time (in the North-South 100), you could hear the crowd over the engines, as crazy as that sounds,” Jerry said, recalling the intense support he received from the home crowd during his racing days. “And the crowd’s way bigger now, so …”
So yes, the roar for Josh’s exploits — charging back after three pit stops and four tire changes, trading sliders for the lead with Davenport in the final laps, stopping on the backstretch afterward and climbing on the roof of his car to pump up the fans — was immense. It made Jerry realize that while Florence Speedway is owned by the King family, its favorite son is Josh Rice.
“Bobby can say, ‘Pierce Y’all’ or whatever and all that stuff,” Jerry said, referring to the T-shirts four-time North-South 100 winner Bobby Pierce released with the slogan playing off the famed “Florence Y’all” water tower a few miles north of the track. “This is ‘Rice Brothers Y’all.’ This is our turf, our hometown.”
Amid all the mayhem at Rice’s JRR Motorsports trailer after the race, James Rice acknowledged how special Florence is to the family.
“We’re very blessed to call this place home, because I don’t care what anybody says, maybe Eldora, but otherwise, obviously, there is no place like this place,” James said. “There is no place like Florence Speedway, and this crowd … like, it is unreal.”
James Rice’s eyes were moist with tears after Josh’s victory as well. He’s no longer at his brother’s side as often as he’s been in recent years with Josh now a Lucas Oil Series rookie racing full-time for James Rattliff’s Campbellsville, Ky.-based team, but he provides extra manpower at some events alongside Josh’s three full-time crew members – Keir “Big Snack” Hoover, Daniel Clark and Zach Frields — and also stops in at the shop to help because, since March, Josh has housed Rattliff’s equipment in his own garage by his home in Crittenden, Ky., rather than nearly two hours south in Campbellsville.
The spectacular drive Josh authored mesmerized James.
“The gameplan, we talked, all the guys were like, ‘Look, just ride and stay patient,’ and he did (early),” James said. “Even when he moved up (on the track), he was patient on the top. He wasn’t ripping it, you know?
“Then he had the deal with J.D. (contact battling for second on lap 48), and we made pits stops and changed tires … and he just kept digging, man. He’s a hell of a wheelman.
“When he got back to J.D. (in the final circuits), I had confidence that he was gonna do whatever it took to win it,” he continued. “And, like, J.D.’s one of my heroes, and him, too. Like, we idolize that dude, so to race him for the win …”
James paused. Remarking that “we wanted this our whole life,” he praised his sibling’s ability.
“Like literally, that was 100 percent driver,” said James, an occasional competitor who has entered the North-South 100 a total of 10 times but never cracked the starting field. “Don’t get me wrong, (Rocket Chassis co-owner) Mark Richards got us here and built us a badass piece, but with the right-front shock being busted, it’s like a basketball up there … he just never quit digging. He just drove his ass off.
“It makes me a little mad because (the racing talent) is in my DNA somewhere, but I ain’t found it yet,” he added with a laugh. “But it ain’t even about that. At this point in my life, in my career, I have more fun and more enjoyment going racing with them when I can. Man, I’m just so damn proud of him.”
No one was prouder of Josh, of course, than his father. Much of Jerry’s emotional response resulted from his knowledge of the determination to be great that lies inside his son.
“I mean, people don’t understand what it takes, you know what I mean?” Jerry said. “The money, and just the talent that kid’s got. I usually don’t look at Facebook (comments) or whatever, but it’s like, you know, how do you dog the kid? I mean, he’s working his ass off.
“Like Mark Richards was over at the shop and they went through (the new Rocket Chassis) Tuesday and Wednesday, and then Wednesday night Josh texts me at 1:30 in the morning and he’s still out working on it. People don’t see that.
“I’m telling you, nobody’s going to outwork that kid. I know everybody works hard in the pit area, but that kid, he’ll put the hours in or whatever. He’s always been like that. Ever since a little kid, he works really hard at it.
“Between him and James, and then the Rattliff team … I mean, what can you say about them guys?” he added. “For them to give Josh an opportunity, you know … James (Rattliff), Tim Tungate (team manager), Justin (Rattliff, James’s son and Josh’s teammate), they took a pretty big chance. They got really nice stuff, you know, to put this local kid in it, you know what I mean? But they’ve seen what we’ve all seen.”
Jerry summed up Josh’s run with one more comment: “We was here for a mod race one night (years ago), and it wouldn’t go into gear and he had to go the tail. He came back and won, and that was probably the best race I’ve ever seen him drive until tonight. Tonight tops everything.”
The postrace celebration at the JRR Motorsports trailer also surpassed any the Rice family has had. They savored the victory until early Sunday morning, drinking beers, soaking in the atmosphere, not wanting the moment to end.
“My usual group, like the buddies that I raced with last couple years and like my mom and my immediate buddies, they were there till like 5 or 5:30,” Josh Rice said when asked by phone at midweek to reflect on the win. “But hell, I didn’t get a break with the fans until like 3:30 in the morning. I stood there taking pictures and singing autographs until 3:30.”
Rice finally changed from his uniform into shorts and a Jason Jameson T-shirt — his JRR Motorsports teammate — a little after 4 a.m. That’s when he sat on the back of the trailer with his brother, the giant North-South 100 trophy and the $75,000 check for a photo that was soon posted on social media.
Around “5:10 or something, I’m like to James, ‘Can you get our race car in the trailer?’” Rice said. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, I think so,’ and they got loaded up at like 5:30 in the morning. I got a ride home at 6 o'clock in the morning.”
After some sleep, Rice awoke on Sunday and his long-sought victory began to truly sink in.
“When I woke up and started watching the replay and the (postrace) interview, I was like, ‘Holy s---,’ ” Rice said of experiencing the race and his achievement away from the crowds and racetrack adulation. “I teared up a little bit watching that.”
Rice had to review his interview with FloRacing pit reporter Ben Shelton to remember exactly what he uttered.
“I’m telling you, when they first stuck that mic in front of my face, I couldn’t even get nothing out,” Rice said. “I was cussing up a storm and everything else, and then I was like, ‘Ah, I gotta calm down and give them a decent interview.’ It was nuts. I’m telling you, I was in shock for a while.”
The days following the North-South 100 triumph produced more memories for Rice. His phone was “absolutely insane” Sunday with calls and texts, including one from fellow racer Hudson O’Neal that he called “probably the coolest, most heartfelt” message he received. He did an interview with a local radio station. And even when he made some stops around town, his reputation proceeded him.
“I’ll tell you what was really cool is, I just went and seen my tax lady and she wasn’t there (at the race), but one of the girls there working was, and she was like, ‘You know, we talked about Steve Cauthen forever because he won the Kentucky Derby. Now we got something else to talk about,’” Rice said, referring to the champion jockey who hails from Rice’s hometown. “And that was like, ‘Holy s---, that’s really cool.’ Now we can say we got two big winners in Verona.
“And I walked into UPS Monday to send them shocks back to Mark (Richards), and I walked in there and got a like a standing ovation. There was people in the back, they coming out, they’re like, ‘Josh is here!’ It was so cool.”
It wasn’t all fun for Rice in the aftermath of the victory. His new Rocket Chassis might have carried him to the promised land but it also took a pretty good beating, and the machine had to be reconditioned for this weekend’s Topless 100 at Batesville Motor Speedway in Locust Grove, Ark.
“I mean, basically the whole front end was wiped out,” Rice said. “Both spindles were bent. The right-front upper ball joint was bent. The right-front shock was obviously blown out, we already knew that. The left-front shock mount, the top was broke; the bolt was broke and it literally wedged itself in the shock mount. How in the hell it didn’t fall off, I have no idea.
“And honestly, when me and J.D. hit, it kind of knocked the steering off because my steering wheel tape moved to the left a little bit, and then when me and Terbo (Tyler Erb) hit (on lap 60), it was a shot. When I pitted, I took my steering wheel off and re-centered it and just rolled with it. Hell, it was toed out probably 3 inches. When me and Terbo hit, he hit me in the left front and my right-front hit the wall and my whole front end was above the wall. It was a lick. One of my guys said they thought the lower (control arm) was going to come down on the wall. I mean, it was bad.”
The repairs were made to make the car like new again in time for the team’s planned late-Thursday departure for Batesville. Rice admitted, though, that he might not have been the biggest help in the work because his mind was still taking in all the North-South 100 hype.
“I haven’t been worth a damn this week because I’ve just been trying to find all the replays,” Rice said, referring specifically to individual reactions videos that people posted on social media. “There was like one point where I thought I’d seen everything, everybody’s reaction, but then I found a video where my buddy, Noah, I could see his interaction, and I’m like, ‘Oh s---, Jason Jameson’s standing beside him,’ and I could see his reaction, too.
“It’s cool to see all that stuff and hear everybody’s story about how they watched it with their family and friends. It’s a night I’ll never forget.”
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