The Dirt Track at Charlotte
Overton blasts off with Rocket Chassis trial run
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Brandon Overton wheeling a Billy Franklin-owned Rocket at Charlotte. (joshjamesartwork.com)
CONCORD, N.C. (Nov. 5) — Brandon Overton went from staying mum about the ride generating so much chatter at The Dirt Track at Charlotte to gushing about it in a span of roughly 30 hours.
Before Wednesday’s Dave Smith Motors World Finals qualifying sessions, Overton was reluctant to expound on why he’d traded his usual Riggs Motorsports No. 76 Longhorn Chassis for Billy Franklin’s No. 17 Rocket Chassis XR2 — even if only temporarily. | RaceWire
By Thursday night, after nearly winning his first full-field national touring feature since May 2025, he had plenty to say, especially about the man guiding his experiment.
“I can’t thank (Rocket Chassis co-owner) Mark (Richards) enough. I literally haven’t even touched it, you know what I mean?” Overton said. “He comes over there and says, ‘Hey, do this, do that.’ I’m like, ‘Whatever you say, boss.’ … I felt really good.”
Overton commanded the first 17 laps of the 35-lap opener before a 35-minute rain delay curbed his momentum and opened the door for Ricky Thornton Jr.’s winning gamble on softer tires. But after settling for second place, Overton wore the expression of a driver who’d gained something, even with another victory slipping away.
The 35-year-old smiled through a lengthy debriefing with Richards, one of the first people to greet him in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series technical inspection area. Richards has emerged as the most visible advocate for bringing Overton back to the Shinnston, W.Va.-based chassis manufacturer, investing much of his time this week in helping the driver get comfortable in the first Rocket he’s driven in seven years.
While moral victories rarely mean much in dirt racing, this one seemed to matter to Overton, whose disappointment came with an optimism he hasn’t shown in some time.
“We needed that kind of pick-me-up, you know what I mean? We’ve been struggling,” Overton said. “S--- goes a little different, we win the first night out.”
Rocket’s investment in Overton, even if only an experiment for now, has been apparent.
Rocket1 Racing crew chief Danny White wrenched on the Franklin-owned car before Wednesday’s qualifying sessions. Richards has watched Overton on the track, returned with instructions and remained a frequent presence in the Riggs pit.
That attention, paired with Thursday’s runner-up finish, gives this experiment the makings of a partnership increasingly likely to carry into 2027. Overton hasn’t committed to switching manufacturers — he’s quick to express his appreciation for Longhorn and everything the company has done for him — but he will race Franklin’s No. 17 in Nov. 13-14’s FloRacing Night in America finale at Senoia (Ga.) Raceway, possibly after testing early next week.
Senoia offers another measuring stick before winter decisions must be made. With the Riggs team skipping December’s Gateway Dirt Nationals in St. Louis to prepare for Georgia-Florida Speedweeks, the work toward next season has already begun.
“I can’t tell you exactly what we’re gonna do,” Overton said. “Tonight, obviously, has opened a lot of people’s eyes. I don’t know — I like it, you know?”
Longhorn, after all, is the brand with which he’s reached his greatest heights. Franklin’s offer, meanwhile, provided a chance to explore something different during a season that began with promise but has brought more frustration than Overton would like.
Overton drove for Franklin earlier in his career, and they never lost touch. The two talk regularly, and Franklin had been encouraging him to try the Rocket for some time.
After a rough National 100 weekend at East Alabama Motor Speedway — finishes of eighth and 21st — Overton accepted.
“We’re like, ‘Man, what do we got to lose? Let’s just get it,’” Overton said. “We got good friends, man. There’s not many people that’ll say, ‘Hey, you want it? It’ll be there.’ Literally, Saturday night, he said, ‘If you want it, it’s here.’ Sunday morning, it was at the shop.”
Car owner Scott Riggs gave Overton the freedom to pursue it, a gesture the driver appreciated amid the pressure to improve.
“He could easily say, ‘Longhorns win all the time — whatever, you need to find a job. Maybe you need to find a job or drive somewhere else,’ ” Overton said. “A lot of stuff goes on behind the scenes that gets you down or whatever. We’re just trying to start over, a little fresh start here, and figure out what we need to do for next year to get better.”
His last Rocket victory came in October 2019 — a $10,053 Tar Heel 50 triumph at Tri-County Racetrack in Brasstown, N.C. — driving Joey Coulter’s Rum Runner Racing No. 2. It was his 12th victory that season, shortly before his switch to Longhorn later that month.
That change and his move to Wells Motorsports spurred 26 victories in 2020, followed by his monstrous 2021 season that included 31 victories, the double Dream sweep and one of two World 100s contested that year.
His totals slipped to 14 victories in 2022 and six in ’23, when his first full Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series campaign coincided with his role as the flagship driver for Wells Motorsports’ Infinity Chassis program.
A regional schedule yielded 10 victories and the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series championship in 2024. His move to Riggs and the Longhorn Factory Team produced four wins and a missed Lucas Oil playoff berth in 2025.
After the operation detached from Longhorn’s factory program and crew chief Anthony Burroughs departed that winter, Overton opened this season with four consecutive Georgia-Florida Speedweeks victories. But only five triumphs have followed: three regional events and split-field preliminaries at the North-South 100 and World 100.
Those successes have kept Overton hopeful that he isn’t far off, even as the results fall short of expectations.
Thursday put a full-field national touring victory within reach for the first time since his May 2025 Lucas Oil Series triumph at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis. This time, the opportunity came against a field rivaling those assembled for the sport’s crown jewels.
His last major-event victory remains his most recent World of Outlaws win: a $50,000 score in Talladega Short Track’s Alabama Gang 100 in April 2023.
He did beat 56 entries in February’s DIRTcar Nationals opener, but that wasn’t a national touring event. With the sport’s national stars assembled among 74 entries at Charlotte, Thursday could have delivered his biggest victory since Talladega more than three years ago — perhaps his most meaningful since the held-over Dream at Eldora Speedway in September 2022.
Overton felt the weight of that opportunity.
“I haven’t been nervous in a long time. I was so damn nervous,” he said. “Like, I just don’t want to screw it up.
“If it don’t rain and I don’t do nothing stupid, we probably win with the 3s and a 4,” Overton added. “But then the rain comes, and we’re sitting there like, ‘Damn, what do we do?’ Our gut call is to put soft tires on, but you don’t know how long the brown is going to stay. So we just put hards back on.”
Thornton’s team went softer on all four corners, choosing a 3-compound right-rear and 2-compound tires elsewhere. He paired that gamble with an aggressive restart, charging from fifth to second before sliding ahead of Overton on lap 19.
Thornton initially stretched his advantage to nearly a half-straightaway, but Overton closed as his harder tires came more to life.
“I think tires just kind of bit us in the ass tonight,” Overton said. “But if it don’t rain, I think we’re OK. Obviously I’m out front, in clean track, but it don’t matter. I was catching him at the end with the wrong tires on.”
Overton acknowledged he still needs to adjust his driving to the Rocket.
In Wednesday’s second qualifying round, he pushed too hard and jumped the cushion on both timed laps, leaving him starting 12th in Friday’s third heat. He’s also adapting to setup approaches that bear little resemblance to those he’s studied for years, making Richards’ hands-on guidance especially valuable.
“When I’m looking at the numbers and all that he tells me to run, it looks like Spanish to me. I’ve been looking at something so different for so long,” Overton said. “Hats off to him. I really appreciate that. He comes over there and watches me, and he comes and tells me how to do this. I don’t argue.”
“You just tell me what to do, and I’m gonna give it my best shot,” Overton said, recalling his response when Richards checks in on his progress.
When Richards apologized during their postrace debriefing that he didn’t win, Overton waved it off, encouraged by how competitive they’d been and how he’d closed on Thornton in the final laps.
“Mark was just telling me, ‘Dude, I’m sorry.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, don’t be sorry,’” Overton said. “Really, who knows what happens with five more laps?”
The remaining World Finals weekend and next weekend’s trip to Senoia will help determine whether this experiment becomes a lasting partnership.
But Richards already offers something Overton values beyond his immense knowledge: an understanding of what it takes to find a way back.
Richards and Brandon Sheppard have navigated their own return to form after winning four of five World of Outlaws titles from 2017-21. Sheppard left Rocket1 following the 2022 season, then rejoined the team in ‘25 and helped develop the XR2, which carried them to their first Lucas Oil title this year in the chassis model’s first full season.
Overton, meanwhile, has endured four consecutive seasons that haven’t met expectations. Having watched Richards and Sheppard return to form, Overton wonders if he’s found someone who understands how those struggles can erode a driver’s confidence — and how to rebuild it.
“He’s no different. You get to struggling, and you don’t think you know anything anymore,” Overton said of Richards. “He’s been through it and got back on top. So maybe he’ll help me walk through the same steps.”
