Friday’s upcoming home run at Georgetown (Del.) Speedway on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feels a good kind of different for Ross Robinson.

“That’s pretty fair (to say),” Robinson told DirtonDirt.com in a phone interview earlier this week. “I feel like things, we’re in a different place program-wise. And I’m in a different place confidence-wise. I feel like it’s just a totally different scenario than where it was last year.”

Flashback to last August’s first-ever series race at the half-mile Robinson lives practically in walking distance from, the third-year series traveler had been so emotionally stirred he couldn’t think straight. In short, the roller-coaster pace of a night that came to a halt with an 11th-place finish didn’t live up to Robinson’s lofty expectations simply because he yearned for a better showing in front of his family, friends, and car owner Ken Adams, who’s also the track's co-owner.

On top of all that, Adams is the grandson of Melvin L. Joseph, the speedway’s 1949 founder and the race’s honoree for the second year in a row. Hence, the Melvin L. Joseph Memorial.

“I was flat-out mad because I put immense pressure on myself coming into this,” Robinson told DirtonDirt.com after last Aug. 24’s series race at his hometown track. “And that’s not good to do. But I know me here.”

As the series ventures back to Robinson’s stomping grounds on Friday, the hometown driver’s focus isn’t finding some sort of redemption. He is just glad he feels like himself — both in and outside of the race car — again and that he has speed in his race cars without having to go searching in hot laps each night.

“I do. I felt like we had good speed in Florida, just had some dumb luck, and I made some mistakes and didn't capitalize on opportunities when I had them,” Robinson said. “Since then, we had a rough weekend last Lucas weekend (March 23-24 at Indiana’s Brownstown Speedway and Ohio’s Atomic Speedway). But we were fighting some other issues there.”

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Since then, Robinson’s won twice in the three races he’s logged around the Mid-Atlantic: March 26 at Georgetown for a $3,026 payday and April 13 at Port Royal for a $4,000 boost. The third race was this Saturday at Port Royal where he finished seventh after starting 12th, a night that isn’t reflective of his current confidence because he wanted “to try some other things with” his backup Rocket Chassis and expand his notebook on the secondary car.

“We ended up salvaging a decent night,” Robinson said of Saturday’s run at Port Royal versus a stiff 38-car field. “I feel really confident with the car and motor package we have for this weekend. I feel like if we have any kind of luck, which for me seems to struggle with having any good luck, but if we do and catch the right breaks, I feel like we have the chance to make some noise this weekend.”

This weekend, Robinson’s employing the very race car that’s on a two-race winning streak. That alone makes it difficult for Robinson not to at least give himself permission to envision what a victory could look like on Friday night.

“Yeah, I have. It’s hard not to,” Robinson said. “I try not to get too caught up in it because it’s going to be tough. There’s a lot of things that have to go right in order for it to happen. But I have, and I’m full-time on Lucas, right? So I want to say I can win anywhere we go in the country. But I’m not the type of person to say I can beat these guys every single night. I want to be competitive and show that I belong. When it comes to being at Georgetown, for whatever reason at this year, this time, the momentum seems to be going in the right direction.”

Though Robinson is 16th in the series standings (but with Brandon Sheppard and Dennis Erb Jr., two World of Outlaws campaigners ahead), he’s on a much better trajectory heading into spring than this point last year.

Through 17 races on either a national tour or paying at least $10,000-to-win, he has a top-five finish and three total top-10s. Last year, it was June 16’s eighth-place semifeature run at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn., when he logged his first touring top-10.

Despite last August’s roller coaster of a night at Georgetown, he was still in position for his best series run of the year. A battery issue kept him sidelined during hot laps and the team never caught up.

“We were scrambling to figure out what was going on. We qualified and wasn’t where we were supposed to be by any means. Then we heat raced, and didn’t have a good heat race either (going from the fourth and final transfer to finish fifth).

“I remember in the B-main, we went back to the package I wanted to be on. We instantly had our speed back. Then the car felt OK and everything felt right again. Then in the feature, we started (19th) and I remember racing Max (Blair) for, like, eighth-place. I tried going around the outside of him and he didn’t know I was on the outside. I ran into the corner and off the edge of the racetrack, and lost like four or five spots.

“Looking back, I should’ve tried to slide him instead of going around the outside of him. I think maybe I could’ve run fifth, sixth, somewhere in there, which from (19th) would’ve been a helluva run. Hopefully this year we can have a totally different night and qualify good, and have a good heat race, start up toward the front and stay there.”

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Despite walking away wanting more for himself and his supporters, Robinson never felt like last year’s Lucas Oil Series race at Georgetown was going to be its one and only race.

“Yeah, I never felt like it was going to be a one-and-done because of the effort everybody put in to make that race what it was,” Robinson said. “Honestly, the weather was off and on all night, but the surface and the race turned out to be probably one of the best races it’s ever had there (with Ricky Thornton Jr. powered to victory from sixth on the final restart).

“I didn’t really hear anything bad really. Usually somebody has something bad to say. And for one time, I never really remember hearing anything bad.”

Robinson anticipates “as many, if not, more” of his friends, family and supporters in his corner on Friday. He’s also excited to be teammates with NASCAR Cup star and 2022 Championship Four qualifier Ross Chastain, who on Friday will pilot a second Adams-owned entry.

“It’s exciting to be able to get to do something like that with him,” Robinson said. “He’s known my car owner back in his younger days. They’ve always been friends and have stayed in touch. As far as me, we’re going into it business as usual. I’m going to treat it as if it’s another regular show at home.”

On one hand, Robinson’s safeguarding a clear-minded approach on what’s a very meaningful weekend for himself his supporters. On the other hand, he can’t deny what could be possible if all truly goes right.

“I feel like we have a really, really solid chance,” Robinson said. “To pull that one off, I don’t know if you can describe it really. Not just for myself, but my car owner and it being his grandfather’s memorial race, it’s everything’s he done for me and (wife and crew chief) Amanda, for the track, for the racing around here, like I don’t know if you could describe it. I don’t know if you could put that into words, you know what I mean?

“Hopefully we got that problem to worry about: Trying to figure out how to put (a would-be win) into words.”