Fast Talk presented by MD3 and Five Star Bodies

Fast Talk: Moran's dominance and more

October 5, 2026, 10:31 am

With Devin Moran winning the weekend’s biggest prize at the Pittsburgher, our roundtable discusses that and more in the weekly feature presented by MD3 and Five Star Race Cars Bodies (edited for clarity and length):

Review Devin Moran’s performance at the Pittsburgher.

Kevin Kovac, DirtonDirt senior writer: That was as thorough a butt-kicking as Moran has probably ever delivered in his career in a national event. He was truly in a league of his own. No one ever even made him sweat. He simply ran away from his nearest pursuers for the entire distance. Yes, his brand-new Longhorn Chassis was clearly stout, but winning like that is more evidence of Moran’s progression. It’s a bit strange that the victory was Moran’s first since June 27’s Firecracker 100, but he reminded everyone that dominance like that is in him. Average drivers don’t pull off wins like that.

Kyle McFadden, DirtonDirt staff reporter: It’s one of the more dominant victories I’ve seen from a driver in my five years working at DirtonDirt. Usually, when someone is that untouchable in a long-distance race, it’s Bobby Pierce or Jonathan Davenport. But for Moran? That’s not a capability we’ve seen from him yet — until Saturday. If there was any place for him to spank the field, it’s PPMS, where he hasn’t finished off the podium at the monster half-mile since 2021. So a Moran victory Saturday is more expected than not. It’s just doing so in that fashion may very well enable him to erase the remaining deficit to Brandon Sheppard — now 60 — with three races to go.

Todd Turner, DirtonDirt managing editor: A rare national touring event when one driver is clearly the class of the field also improves Moran’s hopes of defending his Lucas Oil title. Yes, he started outside the front row and led all the way, but you get the idea that Moran’s new Longhorn was so good that he’d have made his way forward from virtually any starting spot. Yes, hyperbole is a thing in race, but that Moran proclaimed it the “best car” he’s driven is saying something.

Richard Allen, Motorsports Report: The performance in the Pittsburgher by Devin Moran and his Double Down Motorsports team was the very definition of dominance. Not only did the No. 99 driver build a lead of more than six seconds during the first half of the feature, but after a pair of cautions that allowed his pursuers to catch up, he again bolted away. In his postrace interview, Moran revealed that his Longhorn Chassis was brand new and that his team had tested earlier in the week at Ohio’s Muskingum County Speedway. Obviously, they found something as there are not very many Lucas Oil Series features won by margins greater than seven seconds.

Anything else from PPMS catch your eye?

McFadden: It’s been three years since we’ve seen a pass for the lead in the Pittsburgher finale — when Ricky Thornton Jr. outdueled Jonathan Davenport with four laps remaining in 2023. But that hardly means the PPMS half-mile lacks compelling racing. I think it’s one of the more underappreciated tracks on the Dirt Late Model circuit. As Mark Richards pointed out on Rocket1’s social channels, the surface was on point. Grooves stretched from the infield wall to near the outer wall, and there was always a battle worth watching beyond Moran’s masterclass. Unfortunately, we’re often too quick to judge a race solely by the battle for the lead — or the lack of one. I’m glad to see the World of Outlaws schedule an event at PPMS next year. It should deliver.

Turner: I’ll steal Kyle’s accurate analysis that Lucas Oil Series points leader Brandon Sheppard and the Rocket1 team had perhaps its most important salvage of the season in returning from a lap down to finish sixth. The Lucas Oil title chase remains tight but it might’ve been thrown into chaos had Sheppard failed to fight his way back for the Lucky Dog boost to get back on the lead lap. As Sheppard said afterward, every night’s not perfect for Rocket1, but there’s no doubt the Mark Richards Racing operation will “grind it out” for the best possible finish.

Kovac: Watching the stream of the event, one thing literally caught my eye: how shiny and smooth the PPMS racing surface looked. It looked like a racetrack that was prepared perfectly, and, judging by some of the postrace comments from competitors, it was. Third-place finisher Nick Hoffman, a first-time PPMS entrant, raved that it was exactly what every racer wants from a track. And Rocket1 owner Mark Richards — a guy who’s been going to the track for nearly 50 years — made a special point to hail the track with a social media post. He said PPMS was “on point” and “proved that with the right track prep half-miles can be awesome.” High praise indeed.

Allen: While Devin Moran was dominant, former Pittsburgher winners Jonathan Davenport and Bobby Pierce struggled. After being involved in a heat-race incident, Davenport was never able to recover and ultimately missed the feature, robbing him a chance of winning the race a third straight time. Pierce came to PPMS after the World of Outlaws Late Model Series event scheduled for Louisiana’s Boothill Speedway was canceled early in the week. Pierce made the feature but pulled off track midrace after never really threatening from his 20th starting position. It was a disappointing night for two of the sport’s biggest stars.

Plusses, minuses and other thoughts of having a major (but not crown jewel) Super Late Model event at Eldora Speedway.

Allen: As everyone knows, Eldora hosts the two most prestigious events in the sport of Dirt Late Model racing. And the Rossburg, Ohio, track is an elite facility, and that is one of the obvious plusses for holding a Lucas Oil show there. On the other hand, some might consider it a minus in that the sport’s most legendary track is hosting a major event other than the Dream or the World 100, but I’m not one of those. I'm not of the opinion that this race will detract from either the track or the series. This weekend, I'll be covering the NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. I don’t think having a second race there takes away from the Coca-Cola 600. If I ran a Dirt Late Model series, I would want to hold an event at Eldora if I had the chance. In my opinion, the plusses outweigh the minusses.

McFadden: It just seems right for a national tour to have a date at The World’s Greatest Dirt Track beyond the traditional crown jewels. Knoxville, Fairbury, Wheatland, Port Royal, you name it — most of the sport’s showplaces have national touring dates. I’ve felt Eldora needed one beyond the Dream and World 100, so that’s a plus. My only concern is the car count. This late in the season, just a month after the World and without a traditional crown jewel purse, how many teams will make the trip? I think a solid field in the mid-30s would be a good turnout. Maybe the count will surprise me, but that’s my biggest curiosity heading into the weekend.

Turner: Hey, I love Eldora and their biggest events just like the next guy, but if you’d like to see the dirt racers at one of the best tracks without the overwhelming crowds, this is your event. And while driver won’t be etching their names on the winners’ lists of the Dream or World 100, the driver that ends up on the victory stage will know the racing fraternity will recognize the victory as a career-worthy accomplishment. I’d call that a win-win. Fewer people, a bit less prestige but still all the elements of potential Eldora magic.

Kovac: Todd is right: an attendee of this weekend’s Lucas Oil doubleheader at Eldora will experience the famous place in a very different way than the Dream or World 100. There will certainly be a lot of people at Eldora this weekend — probably still one of the sport’s biggest crowds of the season — but I can’t imagine it will match the crown jewels in size so it will seem a little strange to not be overwhelmed by the sheer number of fans and campers usually seen there. Part of me wants to say I’d rather have the World 100 be the last Eldora race of the year so we all leave there on a high with our anticipation levels already rising because the Dream is nine months away, but I’m not going to complain about another special event at the place. There’s no place else like it.

Pick a random driver you’d like to tell us something about.

Turner: Shannon Babb’s season is special because he became a Hall of Famer, but also because it’s his winningest campaign since a 12-victory campaign in 2018. The Moweaqua, Ill., driver’s sixth 2026 victory wasn’t exactly vintage Babb — the 52-year-old used the extreme low groove for a MARS victory at Fairbury — but it continued a steady season that includes a career-high four MARS victories. His career largely mirrors mine in era as I clearly remember the first time seeing his nondescript No. 10 ride, knowing I was seeing a driver on his way to bigger things.

McFadden: Michael Leach has made noticeable strides this season, and Saturday’s heartbreaker at Fairbury brought that progress into focus. He led until the final lap, when he climbed the turn-three wall. Pulling off that victory would’ve been a big deal for him, but a year ago, I don’t think he would’ve been in position to win that race. His DIRTcar Nationals semifeature victory at Volusia in February gave me a feeling he was headed for a better season. Yes, as the son of Longhorn co-owner Paul Leach, he has plenty of resources available to him. But getting to know the 22-year-old, I can say he’s determined to pay his dues.

Allen: One driver’s progress I have been following for a while now has been that of young Tucker Anderson. After a couple of breakthrough Super Late Model wins in 2025, the Blairsville, Ga., driver has carried that momentum into and throughout 2026. At one time earlier this year, Anderson led the standings in both the Schaeffer’s Oil Spring Nationals and the Southern All-Stars Series before deciding to allocate his racing resources toward the SAS schedule. That move has been rewarded as the driver of the No. 22 machine has scored three feature wins and currently leads tour points heading into the upcoming North Georgia-Dixie weekend.

Kovac: Terry Phillips, the 2020 Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductee, announced back in early 2023 that he was retiring from Dirt Late Model competition to just focus his racing on modifieds. But three years later, he’s turned 60 and he’s back in the division on a fairly regular basis — and running well, as evidenced by his $5,014 victory in Saturday’s Heartland tour event at Legit Speedway Park, the former West Plains (Mo.) Speedway where he won the Show-Me 100 in 1999. Phillips has made 29 Dirt Late Model starts this season for Mann Motorsports with two wins among 10 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. T.P. is arguably the division’s most decorated driver who’s never run a national tour full-time (he’s the all-time winningest driver on both the MLRA and MARS circuits) and he clearly can still get the job done like his sixtysomething contemporaries Billy Moyer and Dale McDowell.

Expound on a recent news bit, trend or factoid.

Kovac: This weekend’s Clash on the Wabash at Eldora has a little extra intrigue with the return to competition of Earl Pearson Jr., the four-time Lucas Oil Series champion and 2006 World 100 winner. He’s been out of the race car seat since October 2024, but thanks to support from Longhorn Chassis’s Steve Arpin and Co., he has a ride to make his return. The 54-year-old said the doubleheader could be the last starts of his career — or maybe not. Whatever the case, it’s going to be a fun throwback weekend no matter the results for Pearson, who will reunite with his World 100-winning crewmen Jason Fitzpatrick and Matt Langston and be joined at the event by other blasts from his past.

McFadden: Longhorn’s new chassis model is making its way into the hands of national teams, and the early results have caught my attention. Devin Moran won Saturday in his first night with it, calling it “the best car I’ve ever driven.” Runner-up Tim McCreadie also debuted one Saturday. Brandon Overton won his World 100 prelim with the new model, while Bobby Pierce and Hudson O’Neal have already raced — and won — with it. Kevin Rumley told me much of the research and development came with O’Neal in the No. 6 car. Teams are still getting acquainted with the model, but its success across several drivers is a trend worth watching.

Allen: One interesting piece of news that came out recently was that crew chief Anthony Burroughs had parted ways with Koehler Motorsports and driver Ricky Thornton Jr. That pairing had enjoyed a great deal of success when they were together at SSI Motorsports but the wins had come a bit more sporadically since their reunion. That said, quickly following the news of the split came the revelation that Burroughs was joining forces with Kyle Bronson. The driver of the No. 40B used to be a regular on a national tour and seemed to frequently run up front as such. I will be interested to see if the veteran pit boss can return Bronson to national prominence.

Turner: Nice to see investment in the reopening of the dirt track in Jim Falls, Wis., which reopens of the first time in a couple of years this weekend with the Autumn Clash, a multidivisional program with WISSOTA Late Models and USRA Late Models on the card. Midwest mod racer Steve Haas and his family have resurfaced the 3/8-mile oval — now called Haas Speedway — among other improvements and a successful revival would be a boost to racing in the Upper Midwest. The 27-year-old track with an up-and-down history last operated as Eagle Valley Speedway, closing in September 2024.