The year is 1978. It’s mid-March in Texas, and race season is blooming like the bluebonnets. Roughly 90 competitors representing 20 states have gathered in a town 20 minutes east of Dallas named Mesquite. Among the roster are some of the country’s greatest drivers. They’ve all made the journey to take on the Spring Nationals … Read more
Ted Johnson joked that it would be a cold day in hell before his World of Outlaws ever laid rubber on asphalt. Yet on November 9, 1991 a decade of dismissals proved prophetic at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, KS. Thermometers never crested 40 degrees and winds were stiff. Outlaws were late to the 1988-92 … Read more
Never get caught staring at the standings. You hear it after two months of a six-month baseball campaign or Week Five of a 17-game football season. The message is clear: just do your job, play hard, and let the chips fall wherever they may. Do not waste concern on rival teams. Strengthen your own program. … Read more
It was their last year without wings. Four decades ago, the 1981 World of Outlaws season was 102 days and nights on 45 plots of dirt in 20 North American states and provinces. It was the first to crown a champion other than Steve Kinser. To dethrone “The King” after three years demanded diversity from … Read more
Cedar Lake Speedway staged the greatest race that I ever saw. It was one manic Monday conclusion to the World of Outlaws visit of 1988. To read headlines, Cedar Lake looked like another case of Steve Kinser stomping everyone in the dust, something he did 27 times that season. But it was so much more. … Read more
“Dirt is for racing. Asphalt is for getting there.” A witty slogan to some but religion to others. Scour the Eldora camps and it may be a tattoo. Dirt is the Earth’s first surface obviously. When chariots conducted the original oval race, no gladiator pitted for fresh tires. Science created asphalt as “a thick, sticky, … Read more
Outlaws built the Chili Bowl. Sure it was Emmett Hahn’s brilliant idea to create the world’s greatest indoor track but he required Outlaws to fill his hometown oil expo. Hahn had no business with Sammy Swindell or Doug Wolfgang prior to the first Chili Bowl Midget Nationals but Lanny Edwards did. Lanny and Beverly Edwards … Read more
While Sprint Cars didn’t grace Volusia Speedway Park until 1981, they had a key role in the growth of the Florida track and a strong presence during the 50 years of the DIRTcar Nationals. The speedway started life as a sandy quarter-mile track in Barberville, FL, before Benny Corbin, a Sprint Car driver with a … Read more
The World of Outlaws was only four months old when it first visited the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia. On that summer evening in 1978 “The Buckeye Traveler” Rick Ferkel toted Two Grand back to Bowling Green, Ohio. During its second season, the World of Outlaws did not race in Missouri at all. It was … Read more
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