Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Ebert's surprising chassis swap
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: I have to admit, the press release that was put out Monday by Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series regular Dan Ebert of Lake Shore, Minn., and James Trantina III’s Triple B Motorsports took me by surprise. They announced plans to transition to Longhorn Chassis from Rocket Chassis, which is a move that didn’t seem to even be within the realm of possibility considering how close the 38-year-old Ebert has been with the Rocket gang and its co-owner Mark Richards. Ebert has exclusively run Rockets since entering the Dirt Late Model division from open-wheel modifieds and over two seasons has traveled the Lucas Oil Series and worked very closely with the Rocket1 team. Ebert showed dramatic improvement this season, most notably with his upset first-ever national touring victory in August’s Topless 100 at Batesville Motor Speedway in Locust Grove, Ark., but also in general with an increase in competitive outings. He went from a single top-five and six top-10s on last year’s Lucas Oil tour to four top-fives and 12 top-10s in ’26, and last weekend at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells he nearly recorded a top-five in the Dirt Track World Championship before settling for sixth. Ebert and Rocket seemed to be a driver-chassis builder pairing that was solid and growing, but, with Trantina fielding Longhorn Chassis for Cody Overton of Evans, Ga., since early summer, the team decided to put Ebert in the brand as well. “We feel it is time to try something different and see what Longhorn Chassis can bring to our program,” the press release said. “At the end of the day, we don’t want to go through life wondering, ‘What if?’ We feel this is the right time to explore a new opportunity, challenge ourselves and see what we can accomplish with a different chassis underneath us.”
No. 2: As the Ebert-Triple B announcement acknowledged that “making a chassis change doesn’t mean instant results” and a learning curve is expected with the Longhorn, they remarked that the team is “excited about this next step” and “ready for the challenge” ahead. They also addressed their departure from the Rocket fold by asserting “there are absolutely no hard feelings toward Rocket Chassis. Rocket didn’t do anything wrong, and this decision is not a reflection of the company, its people or the support they have given us over the years.” More from the release: “We cannot thank Mark, Steve (Baker) and the entire Rocket Chassis crew enough for everything they have done for us. We have built an incredible relationship with them, and the friendships and memories we’ve made along the way mean a great deal to our team. This decision was not made lightly, and leaving a program and people we have so much respect for makes it that much harder. This is not a goodbye filled with hard feelings, but simply a new direction for our team. We wish them nothing but continued success and hope they know how much we appreciate everything they’ve done for us.”
No. 3: Kyle Armstrong, the Simpson Race Products trackside sales representative, passed along an interesting nugget to me after Sunday’s DTWC. He reported that the postrace ceremonies in victory lane celebrating Brandon Sheppard’s Lucas Oil Series championship had a little unexpected hiccup: the champion hats the tour had made for the title-winning team had disappeared. The hats had been placed on the rear deck of race winner Ricky Thornton Jr.’s car, and, when Thornton drove away to the pits to make way for Sheppard’s moment, the headgear remained inside his car. Armstrong wrote that “with the cameras ready, the crew gathered, and zero official Lucas Oil championship hats left in sight, the team had to improvise fast.” Armstrong was there and provided a Simpson rope hat for Sheppard to wear when he emerged from his car and did a postrace interview with FloRacing, and for the championship photos Sheppard donned a Valvoline hat — the company sponsors the Rocket1 team — that was borrowed from a bystander. Armstrong said he noticed that Sheppard’s hat was actually an old Chase Elliott No. 24 hat that was so dirty it looked “like someone has been wearing it to dirt races since Elliott drove the No. 24 car” for Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series a decade ago.
No. 4: Speaking of Ricky Thornton Jr., his three children — two boys and a girl — have been campaigning to him and his wife Shae to adopt an orange kitten. RTJ made a deal: they could get a cat if he won the DTWC. Well, Thornton captured the race’s $100,000 prize for the second time in his career, and on Monday he posted a photo of Facebook of his children holding a playing with a cute orange kitty that had joined their family. Thornton said the kids hadn’t yet settled on a name.
No. 5: Devin Moran also made a family-related Facebook post Tuesday, revealing that his 7-month-old daughter, Poppy, is “getting promoted to Big Sister in 2027.” Moran’s wife, Lakia, is pregnant with the couple’s second child.
