In its history, which encompasses nearly 30 years, NASCAR's Goody's Dash series has done many things, including racing at the Daytona International Speedway. In all that time, it has never ventured to a dirt track.
That changed in April, 2003 when 23 cars lined up to start the Lucas Oil 150 at Oglethorpe Speedway Park near Savannah, Georgia. It was a learning experience for everyone involved.
The idea came about during a discussion between competitor Arlene Pittman, former series PR rep Randy Claypoole, and Goody's representative Jerry Haislip in 2002. Pittman, who holds interest in South Georgia dirt tracks, put forth the idea since the surfaces of the region are "close to asphalt." The idea finally received the blessing of NASCAR to happen in 2003. Pittman would step out of the car and join with Ted Austad and Andy Stone of Oglethorpe Speedway Park to make this happen.
Competitors were faced with a new challenge. It was not an idea universally accepted. The car count was much lower than that seen at paved venues. The drivers that chose to compete were faced with a learning curve.
"I'll be honest with you. At first, I was hesitant to do it," said Justin Hobgood, one of few drivers in the field with previous dirt experience. "I mean, these asphalt cars were going to look like a joke, more or less. As the day went on and I got to meet the fans, it turned out to be a good day."
"It's just a whole different kind of racing," said T.J. Majors. "It is like asphalt racing a bit, but it's not. It's just hard to hit your marks in the same place. It's harder to find where it's fast and where the groove is and where you've got to run."
To give the drivers a chance to acclimate their styles to dirt, the track hosted several practice sessions. Weather played a negative role in one, but the remaining sessions were not hampered in that way. The practice proved valuable.
"I think it helped me a lot to get used to it," said Kelly Sutton. "At the time, we didn't have the right tires, but it gave me a better feel for the car. It helped me out a lot."
"I think it paid off just to get my feet wet," added Jay Godley. "I hadn't raced on a dirt track since I raced go-carts. That's not even close to what it is out here."
It was a learning curve that was just as high for those preparing the cars. Will Hobgood was working son Justin's car as well as that of son Jake, who ended up with fast time and a track record. Will had dirt experience and it showed.
"We put what we call a spring-loaded top link in 'em where we usually run a solid link," Hobgood revealed. "We changed the springs around a good bit. The object of dirt is to try to get the right side working where you can get some side bite. We worked on the roll centers to do that and the spring combination and the shock combination."
Part of the struggle rested with the car itself. "There isn't much you can do because of just the way the car's designed and built," Will Hobgood continued. "It's a three-link car. On dirt cars, most of them are four-link. It's hard to get the rollover and the bite in these cars no matter what you do, but you have to try with your shocks and springs."
Dion Ciccarelli spearheaded the Kelly Sutton effort. "We came here a few weeks ago and we were horribly loose," said Ciccarelli. "After some practices, we had to make the car tighter with some crossweight changes. We kinda took a wild guess at it, having only run these cars on asphalt. When we tested, we guessed we needed more rear percentage, so we moved some of the weight around. We changed our trailing arm angles to get some more forward bite and experimented with some roll centers, but we made some lucky guesses."