Sometime down the figurative road, Clay Harris will fully appreciate what he lived out with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series on Wednesday at Ocala Speedway.

Until then, the night is too immediately tantalizing for the 22-year-old.

On one hand, dreaming of outrunning the likes of Hudson O’Neal, Jonathan Davenport, and Ricky Thornton Jr., and leading 10 circuits of the 40-lap feature had been, as they, fun while it lasted. But on the other hand, it was only that — a dream — and once O’Neal scampered on around the Jupiter, Fla., newcomer making just his fourth touring start on lap 18, he knew what had just passed before him.

“I for sure messed up,” Harris said. “That’s what I told them. Like, ‘Man, we could’ve had us our first Lucas win’ the fourth night out, or whatever night it is. We could’ve had our first Lucas win. At the same time, you’re running against the top guys in the country. Can’t be mad.”

Tantalizing, again, is the word.

“But you definitely beat yourself up because I know I probably could’ve won that race if I would’ve held the bottom,” Harris said.

On Wednesday, he put the field on the highest degree of upset alert, outwitting Davenport from the outside pole of the night’s third heat race, and then “holding on for dear life” to keep Davenport, Thornton, Tim McCreadie, and Brandon Sheppard in the rearview.

At that point, it didn’t seem far-fetched that he could go toe-to-toe with O’Neal’s Rocket1 Racing team, which started the $10,000-to-win feature from the pole. Seven laps into the running, the door swung wide for Harris to pounce when O’Neal had to check up in traffic so much that his motor momentarily locked up, according to car owner Mark Richards.

“I was like, I knew he messed up. This is my chance,” Harris said. “When I got by him, I felt really good.

“Hudson definitely messed up the first part of the race. I watched him do it. And then I do the same thing. … I feel like I should’ve won it.”

After four cautions in a two-lap span on circuits 10 and 11, the race would go the final 30 laps uninterrupted. Even then, Harris still felt comfortable.

“I felt really good on the restarts and the track kind of slicked up,” Harris said. “These guys … we had so many cautions. We had like five cautions within two laps.”

But as the laps clicked away, the more complex decision-making came to be, especially in traffic when Harris had a choice to make: Keep puttering along the preferred bottom groove and leave the top wide open? Or trust his gut feeling that he should take initiative and be the first to jump to the top.

“I just don’t like doing that, (staying on the bottom). I don’t like following the leader,” Harris said. "You never know when a guy is going to blast the high side and get around you in lapped traffic. It’s like, I don’t know, it was dirty up there so it’s hard to tell if somebody is going to run up there or not.

“I’ve watched many races where people have. People would blast the high side where it’s dirty like that and pass everybody. … For me, it just didn’t work.”

Moral of that story is, Harris aborted the bottom heading into turns three and four on lap 18, and lost so much ground that the bottom-abiding O’Neal erased Harris’s near-second lead in that corner alone. Because O’Neal beat him to the inside, Harris couldn’t back to the bottom on the ensuing corner, and that enabled the Rocket1 to pass him for good.

One mistake from O’Neal is justifiable. But a second? Harris couldn’t expect that to bail him out.

“Anybody of this caliber, if they mess up once, they probably aren’t going do it again, or mess up at all,” Harris said. “I had an opportunity and I missed the opportunity, you know what I mean? It’s one of those things. It happens. We’re racing.”

Very much mixed emotions for Clay Harris.

Drove his butt off for 40 laps — led circuits eight through 17 — but comes just short of Hudson O’Neal.

Rocket1 team showing respect as he climbs out of his car (also a Rocket). pic.twitter.com/VOQvsJzRwq

— Kyle McFadden (@ByKyleMcFadden) February 1, 2024

So, who is Harris? For starters, this is his seventh year of Late Model competition, but his first full in the Super ranks. He knows what it takes to win. Maybe not at the national level — not yet at least — but he does know how to win.

These past few years, Harris has excelled in the Crate ranks, developing under the radar and really growing his skillset. He won three times in the Crate last year and six times the year prior. But last fall is where Harris started making real headway on his very green Super career. 

Wednesday's showing isn't all that surprising considering he picked off a Coors Light Fall Classic semifeature victory on Oct. 13 in a split-field that featured Garrett Alberson, Ashton Winger, Cody Overton and Payton Freeman.

Winger won the $15,000 finale on Oct. 15, but Harris still finished fifth among a top five that also included Tyler Erb, Dennis Erb Jr., and Oakley Johns.

“I mean, when I saw you at Whynot, that was my seventh and eighth (Super Late Model) race,” Harris said. “And I broke four out of the 10 times last year; something stupid. I really haven’t had that many laps in the Super, but I’ve always been better with more horsepower.

“Like the Crate stuff, it’s hard for me. I can’t do it as well as I can with the big motor. I’ve won a bunch of Crate races, but I just feel better in the bigger motor. It might just be me. But I’m just better.”

At that time last fall, Harris’s team had been lean, just he and crew chief Brian Green, the former crew chief on the JCM No. 19M car now driven by Spencer Hughes. But now, Harris and Green have a robust supporting cast. Michael Wilkerson, a Florida native and racer himself, is Harris’s new car owner and they have a professional-looking stacker trailer to blend in with the touring regulars in the pits.

After qualifying for all four Lucas Oil Series features, Harris is tied for ninth in series points. If he’s going to stick it out for the duration of Florida-Georgia Speedweeks, why not continue forward with the tour? It’s an enticing thought.

“That’s what we were saying,” said Harris, who can only think so far ahead of himself. “But i’s definitely a lot of work and a lot of money that goes into this to try and go up there, Super racing. I don’t even know their schedule, but I know they travel a lot everywhere.”

Harris does anticipate 80 to 90 times this year, with his priorities revolving around the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series. At this juncture, Harris’s team that’s still gaining its bearings to the highest levels of Super Late Model racing fits the agenda of the HTF Series to a tee.

“I really want to do that Hunt the Front deal,” Harris said. “Maybe if it works out I can do both, I’ll think about it. But I really want to do the Hunt the Front deal. It’s a lot of the tracks I have raced before, and the Lucas deal, most of those tracks I’ve never been to or seen in my life. The Hunt the Front deal, it’s paying pretty good and it’s all within eight to 10 hours of my house.”

Harris is stocked up to hit the road if he wanted. He has three Clements Racing Engines and another Durham Racing Engine in the arsenal. Recently, he’s really found something with the Durham powerplant. So much that he’s naturally raising his expectations this year from wanting to win the HTF Rookie of the Year to possibly competing for the regional tour’s championship.

“We’re running for Rookie of the Year, but I think we’re running so good we have a shot for the championship,” Harris said. “I heard that Tanner (English) is running it; Jimmy Owens, Ashton (Winger) … Brandon Overton I heard is running it.

“It’s the same thing as the Lucas Oil Series, it’s just you’re not traveling as far. I mean, it really is. Most of these guys, they travel from all around. But that’s why they’re hitting those tracks in the Carolinas. They’re trying to get the guys from up north to come down a little bit. I still think we’ll have a good shot at it, though.”

Harris’s performance on Wednesday is all the more impressive considering the avocado-shaped 3/8-mile oval isn’t one of his finest racetracks. Actually, it’s not his cup of tea at all.

“I haven’t really liked coming here,” Harris said. “It’s not a track that I hit on all the time.”

All-Tech Raceway an hour up the road in Lake City, Fla., however, is a different story.

“All-Tech where we’re going to tomorrow, that’s probably my favorite track,” Harris said. “A lot of people don’t like it because it’s so slick. But I’ve always had good luck there, so maybe that’s why. I always have good runs there.”

So, that begs the question, if Harris were put in Wednesday’s exact situation at All-Tech — leading the Lucas Oil Series feature even with O’Neal in hot pursuit — what would the outcome hypothetically be?

“Oh, that would have never happened,” Harris said. “I think it would have never happened. All-Tech’s a lot wider, so it usually gets a lot more racier in my experience. If I would’ve slid up, maybe I could’ve passed him back on the outside. I feel like a lot more there. I’ve turned so many laps there, it’s hard to say I’d mess up there more than here.”

If there’s any consolation from Wednesday, it’s that there’s a good chance that won’t be his one and only chance to reach national touring victory lane. He’ll be back in that position eventually. And possibly soon.

“I feel like we’ve had a really good car,” Harris said. “I feel like we’ve had a really car these last couple races. I think going into All-Tech we have a pretty good shot at it, honestly. Like, a really good shot.”