Don’t rule out Brandon Overton returning to the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Actually,  judging the Evans, Ga. native's words to FloRacing's DirtonDirt.com following Friday’s series banquet at Lucas Oil Stadium amid Performance Racing Industry's Trade Show week in Indianapolis, the 32-year-old’s idealistic plans are to return on the tour.

Why? For starters, the way he lost out on the top-four bid to compete for a series title — power steering issues during the semifinal cutoff race, the Pittsburgher — is gnawing at him.

“Yeah, the competitiveness out of me wants to do that,” Overton said. “To do it, though, you have to have some more help. Our team is solely based off my buddies around my house and my car owner. We have to get some big sponsors to help pick it up, for it to make sense to run, you know what I mean? If we can get that, it’s easy when you have enough money.

“It makes it way less stressful. When you’re racing on a budget still and watching every dime and penny, this is not the right thing to do. Or for me, it isn’t. I’m sure we’ll come back. I’m sure we’ll do it again. We just need to get our stuff right.”

Overton, numbers-wise both in the way of statistics and money earned took a considerable step back in 2023. He went the final seven months of the season — Lucas Oil Series or not — without a full-field feature victory. His last full-field victory remains April 22’s $50,000 Alabama Gang 100 at Talladega Short Track.

To that point, there was no sign of Overton slowing down, having won five times over a 16-race stretch. But as the season slogged onward, it became more apparent to Overton what he and his Well’s Motorsports team needs to find greater competitiveness on the road.

“They put so much money up, we were stupid not to do it, you know what I mean?” Overton said. “Hey, we did it. We have a little better idea. The more this grows, the more we grow. As I said, if this all makes sense, we’ll come back. If not, we’ll do what’s best for us.”

Overton agrees that some people have this notion about him that he only likes racing regionally — “The tour is fine. It’s not that,” he said — and his struggles have more to do with pacing and acclimating to the road life in and of itself.

“We’re set up a bit different,” Overton said. “You have to set yourself up to be able to do this. We’re not right now. But to set it up right, you need more money. At the end of the day, you need more money. If we get that, we’ll do it.”

At this time last year, Overton wouldn’t have guessed he’d be standing inside the large venue of Lucas Oil Stadium, preparing a speech at the Lucas Oil Series banquet and recollecting on a touring run (“No, no,” Overton emphasized). As he envisions what 2024 could like, he can’t get the shortcomings of this year out of his mind and simply return to his stomping grounds down in the Southeast without trying for an encore on tour.

“Like I said, we really want to do better than we did,” Overton said. “But we’ll take it. I know it ain’t going to be easy all the time. We just have to go back to work and get our cars fast. Who knows if we’ll at least be good again. If we feel comfortable, we might do it. If not, we’ll go where we know we’re good.

“We’re just building cars. We have to get all our inventory stocked back up. We have all our motors from Clements. We’re trying to get all our stuff for Speedweeks and see what happens like we always do.”