CONCORD, N.C. — Josh Richards may have iced his record fourth World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series title simply by signing in at the front gate, but Tim McCreadie proved Thursday that ‘Kid Rocket’ will have a tougher time ending the season on a winning note.
McCreadie and Richards led their respective qualifying flights for both Friday’s and Saturday’s Bad Boy Off Road World Finals programs at the Dirt Track at Charlotte, but it was T-Mac who posted the fastest overall lap in qualifying on opening night, using a lap of 14.761 seconds (91.457 mph) to garner quick time honors for the Friday program.
The lap laid down by the No. 39 Sweetner’s Plus team came within a tenth and a half of the series’ all-time track record of 14.672 seconds around the four-tenths-mile oval, set by Billy Moyer on April 18, 2008.
“You know qualifying means a lot and usually in the heats it’s fairly tacky,” said McCreadie. “It’s hard to make a lot of time up so you know going out there and putting on a good lap helps. That’s why we’re here — we want to line up out front in the clean air.”
Chris Madden was second-quick overall (14.766), coming up .005 of a second shy of McCreadie’s effort after both drivers went out in Friday flight A.
Richards’ Friday lap slotted in third on the overall sheets, just ahead of 2015 champion Shane Clanton and new Nat’l Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductee Dale McDowell.
The Shinnston, W.Va. native fired back during qualifying for Saturday’s racing action, however, posting a top time of 14.876 seconds (90.750 mph) during flight A to best McCreadie in his No. 1 Valvoline/Rocket Chassis house car.
Madden was again second on the overall rundown behind Richards, with McCreadie the one in third this time, just ahead of McDowell and Clanton.
Richards’ and McCreadie’s efforts guarantee them front-row starting spots for their qualifying heat races on both Friday and Saturday, but while Richards is seeking at least one win in order to break Darrell Lanigan’s single-season record of 17 set two seasons ago, McCreadie is determined to make that mission difficult and win in his own right.
T-Mac has three-career Super DIRTcar Series big block modified wins during the World Finals, but has never won in a World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model and hopes to change that statistic this weekend.
“Everywhere we go we want to win; that’s why we do it,” said McCreadie. “We work pretty hard on this car and we put it together and did some practicing with it. It’s been a lot of effort from everybody on this car so it’s exciting to see it happen, well … at least in qualifying so far. We want to win and we want them both, if we’re lucky.”
Round one of qualifying set the heat race lineups for Friday’s World Finals late model program, while round two determined Saturday’s heat race grids.
