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NASCAR may be one of America’s most popular motorsports, but its dirt tracking cousin is still going strong. Check out Late Model dirt racing!
America’s Other Motorsport: Late Model Dirt Racing
There are a few key things that can be known as a symbol of American culture. The biggest of the bunch are baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and dirt track racing late model stock cars. What? You don’t know that last one? Well, you’re in luck. I’m giving a rundown on one of America’s most popular dirt tracking motorsports – late model dirt racing. There are plenty of other unique race cars found at the hundreds of dirt tracks around the country too, but late model stock cars have some deep roots and helped pave the way for the Modified and Sprint Car series we know today. In fact, these late models have ties to the early beginnings of NASCAR even. Most importantly though, these dirt track stars are fast, different, and a whole lot of fun to watch. Let’s check out late model dirt racing!
What Is a Late Model Stock Car?
The term “late model” means that the vehicle is one of the latest car models available. However, these dirt track late model stock cars look nothing like anything we see on the road, so what gives? Well, it all points back to the early days of stock car racing, some loopholes that came about, and a run of aerodynamic innovations that made this series take the shape we know today.
American Racing Roots
Dirt track oval racing can trace its lineage back to bootleggers. These drivers would modify their stock cars to have better performance and reduced weight in order to evade the law while running alcohol during Prohibition. After the end of Prohibition, bootlegging began to slow, leaving the drivers with heavily modified cars and little work to do with them. So, they began to turn towards stock car racing for cash prizes. On March 8, 1936, drivers gathered at Daytona Beach to race their stock cars on an oval course. This oval track racing became a regular event at Daytona Beach and stock car racing began to gain popularity throughout the USA. However, there were no widely set rules in place and races just popped up whenever without any real national committee to schedule or keep track of season standings.
This is where Bill France Sr. came in by introducing the National Championship Stock Car Circuit (NCSCC) in 1947. The NCSCC was comprised of 40 races that would culminate in a season champion that received a $100,000 prize. This inaugural season was a success as the races were almost always over capacity with fans lined up all around the oval tracks and the racers receiving their promised prize money. The following year, France Sr. Invited the NCSCC’s most influential figures and set the groundwork for what is now knows as the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR).
Where Late Model Stock Cars Diverge
Now that we’ve got that piece of history established, this is where we come back around on the late model dirt racing. NASCAR quickly became the premier oval track racing format, so smaller tracks took their rules set and adopted them as their own. This allowed racers to hit the asphalt for NASCAR one night and take that same car to a smaller dirt track the following night. This rule set also is where the term “late model” was coined for stock car racing. NASCAR only allowed cars built within the last two years to compete rather than having the same heavily modified older models continue to race every year. Manufacturers took interest in these races and could use them to market their cars, but not every racing team was getting a substantial deal from the likes of Ford, Chevrolet, or Chrysler. Meaning a lot of smaller teams had to rely on their own finances to source a late model stock car to race.
Obviously, buying a brand-new stock car after every accident or after every two years isn’t very affordable for a race team, but they eventually found a workaround. Race teams realized they could just drop OEM body parts or even visually similar fiberglass bodies onto the same racing chassis and roll cage they’d been already racing. So, the exterior would work with the ruling to resemble a modern late model car like the Chevrolet Chevelle of the time, but it had a custom-built racing chassis underneath that held little with the actual model.
With cheaper cars and cheaper repair costs came room for innovation. Aerodynamics started to come into play at the end of the ‘70s, mainly in the shape of giant rear spoilers that helped increase downforce. This interest in aerodynamics ramped up during the ‘80s and can be pinpointed as the turning point where the dirt late model stock cars truly diverged from the original “late model stock car” definition.
Late model dirt track racers began to add sideboards to their giant rear spoilers that helped with downforces while going around a turn, thus allowing them to keep speed and give them a competitive edge. These sideboards grew in size throughout the ‘80s, so much so that it became a common practice for a short while to feature giant sails of plexiglass added to their left side in regular competition. Great for advertisements and speed but made for an ugly racing machine. While not as popular, these “billboard” toting late models can still be found racing at select tracks today.
1982 also saw the price of aluminum drastically drop, introducing an even cheaper resource for late model body work. OEM or fiberglass bodies were replaced by completely custom crafted, lightweight aluminum bodies. These aluminum bodied late models began to take on more of wedge shape to further reduce drag and the bodylines formed to seamlessly flow with their rear spoilers. The dirt race cars became longer as teams continued to push the high-speed envelope. Lap times became faster each year as the designs of these cars became more and more focused on downforce and outright power.
Eventually, aluminum prices went back up and the late model dirt car competition fell in favor of those with a larger financial backing. This left smaller teams to leave the sport or even switch over to the exceedingly popular Sprint Car racing scene, leaving late models to become a side show. Luckily, dirt racing’s governing bodies of the time stepped in and limited the eccentric and expensive designs that were taking over the late model stock car scene.
Modern Dirt Late Model Stock Cars Take Shape
The National Dirt Racing Association (NDRA) and the United Midwest Promoters (UMP) both added stricter rules around 1984 concerning late model dirt racing. These new rule packages forbade wedge-shaped bodies, reduced the spoiler sizes, and outright banned the substantial sideboards that had come about. A lot of tracks around the country adopted these new late model stock car rules and helped bring late models back to a more approachable motorsport again.
From that point until the early 2000s, the late model dirt racing scene remained virtually unchanged (with the exception of better safety equipment and better-quality parts). While modern late model stock cars may look somewhat like the cars from the late ‘80s, there is a distinct slant to these Y2K designs. Let’s find out why.
Modern Late Model Dirt Racing
Around 2000, late model stock car teams began to toy with the suspension to create an angled setup that lifted the left rear and lowered the front right of the car. When going around a corner, this angled approach creates a pseudo-wedge shape that cuts through the air a lot easier than having the suspension balanced. Along with this right leaning suspension came an asymmetrical body design that slopes the car at an angle towards the right front corner. All of this creates a near perfect design for only turning left, which is ideal for oval dirt tracks.
Modern late model stock cars also feature more technology in comparison to the cars of the ‘80s. While there have been enhancements in the safety sector of a late model stock car, like fire suppression systems, companies like MSD help provide aftermarket tuning parts to these racing teams allowing them to squeeze every ounce of power out of their small block crate engines. Speaking of crate engines, there are a number of auto manufacturers directly supporting this dirt track motorsport.
The biggest name when it comes to dirt track racing engines is Chevrolet. They’re a huge supporter in the world of late model stock cars for teams big and small. Other major manufacturers of note producing engines for late models are Ford, Mopar, and Toyota. While it’s a stretch to say these purposed built late model stock cars resemble actual late model street cars like the Chevrolet Camaro, Toyota Camry, or Ford Mustang, you can sometimes find vinyl stickers representing a team’s chosen manufacturer’s grille design and logo adorning the front of the car.
These late model dirt racers typically put over $70,000 into their cars when competing in nationwide championships. Sponsorships can help pay that price, but the real pay day is winning it all and securing the first place payout that sometimes eclipses $100,000 for one night.
Visit Your Local Dirt Track!
Watching late model stock cars get things sideways and sling some dirt at well over 100 mph is a sight to see, but where are these late model dirt races taking place? Well, they’re probably closer than you realize! These 800+ horsepower dirt racing machines are competing all around the United States, Canada, and even Australia. Here in the USA and Canada, there are two premier late model dirt racing sanctioning bodies.
The first is the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series that’s comprised of over 60 races culminating towards the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora Speedway. The other is the World of Outlaws Late Model Series which features their own series of 60 races and ends with the World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. Either series is worth a watch and some of the best drivers overlap between each.
Now that you know a bit more about what makes these late model dirt racers so special and their major racing series going on, get out and support your local dirt track! There are late model events happening nearly every weekend at tracks around the country, so there’s bound to be one running near you. Not to mention all the other dirt racing series like Sprint Cars, UMP Modifieds, and Street Stocks that are frequenting the local ovals. We’ll have to dive into those series another time though!
