IMPERIAL, Pa. (Oct. 5) — Clay Harris, quite simply, was a happy man after Saturday’s 36th annual Pittsburgher presented by Big River Steel at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. 

An eighth-place finish at the intimidating and technical Steel City half-mile on the Lucas Oil Late Model Series is a solid accomplishment for the 23-year-old touring rookie, whose postrace smile and cheerfulness couldn’t be contained. 

“I’m way happier than I was last night,” Harris said in light of Friday’s 22nd-place finish in the 30-lap feature in which he only completed 19 laps. “I thought I was going to have no job next year after last night. But yeah, last night we were in lapped traffic and tonight, we actually made up some ground. I’m way happier about it. We usually struggle in the slick. That track was real slick and I was actually able to make passes. I’m way happy about it.”

Just how big of a deal is Harris’s top-10 on Saturday? Well, it’d been since July 16 at Iowa’s Shelby County Speedway since his last top-10, also an eighth-place finish. But that finish wasn’t as satisfying as Saturday, which made Harris question the last time he felt that good.

“Man, I honestly couldn’t tell you. Maybe since Speedweeks?” Harris said. “Man, we’ve had so many problems. … We’ve been struggling for sure. But it makes me way happier knowing we have an actual shot at running in the front rather than guessing and taking shots in the dark.”

The Jupiter, Fla., driver also claims it’s his best finish on a half-mile that’s not All-Tech Raceway in his home state.

Harris finished fifth in Lucas Oil Series competition at All-Tech on Feb. 3, the night he drove through the field and started to seriously contemplate what it’d take for his modest, family-owned operation to follow the full national tour. He was seventh in the de facto Lucas Oil Series points after that night (technically ninth with eventual World of Outlaws campaigners Brandon Sheppard and Kyle Bronson ahead).

Eight months later, Harris can now see the finish line of his adventurous and onerous Lucas Oil Series rookie campaign filled with long nights and growing pains with Oct. 11-12’s Jackson 100 at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway and Oct. 18-19’s Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, the remaining events.

The PPMS results has Harris excited again to complete the touring season that’s left him “feeling like I don’t know how to drive half the time,” the byproduct of a rookie visiting many new racetracks.

“Sometimes you feel like you’re great, come off the racetrack, and they’re like, ‘You’re 19th quickest.’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ ” said Harris, who continued to put his Saturday into perspective. “At least it gets me knowing where I need the car at. A lot of these tracks, we’re missing out because I think we need more traction when really I just need to free the car up because I’m way too tight. At least now, we know what we need to do to get better.”

When Harris committed to the Lucas Oil Series, he knew it’d be anything but easy, especially trudging through the first five months of the season not being eligible for provisionals because he didn’t sign up for the tour’s loyalty program.

“I wish I would’ve paid for the rookie deal. But I didn’t know no better,” Harris said. “I didn’t know we’d have that good of a Speedweeks and end up on the tour.”

Harris qualified for the first six events of the season — his fifth-place finish at All-Tech on Feb. 4 being that sixth event — before the cutthroat realities of high-level Dirt Late Model racing set in.

Harris only qualified for five of the next 14 Lucas Oil Series shows from Feb. 7 at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla., through May 23’s Show-Me 100 opener at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., which disrupted his progress and all but caved his Rookie of the Year chances. 

Harris can recount numerous setbacks this year:

• March 23’s hard crash at Brownstown where he limped away from his destroyed race car.

• April 26’s engine woes at Georgetown (Del.) Speedway.

• Stuck with using his smaller engine April 27 at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway

• Suffering another engine setback during June 20-22’s Firecracker 100 weekend at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.

• Spinning out of eighth during July 6’s Lucas Oil Series event at Ohio’s Muskingum County Speedway.

• And hurting three more motors during the July 15-20 swing at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway, Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa, and Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D.

“That whole deal there, we had bad luck,” Harris said of his Midwest swing. “We were up all night every night. Then after that, we just struggled. Like once you get behind, it’s hard to get caught back up.”

Harris also failed to qualify for four of the last 10 Lucas Oil Series events leading into this past weekend’s Pittsburgher. Despite all that, 34-year-old chief Brian Green has stuck by his side every step of the way.

“This is a tough deal. A lot of people don’t understand,” Green said. “It’s a lot of hours. We’re kind of on an island as the only Rocket car on Integra (Shocks). … Terbo (Tyler Erb) is still on them. I think (Gregg) Satterlee, too. But we’re the only Rocket with Integras on this Lucas deal. I’ll ride or die with those guys.”

Mark Richards’s Rocket Chassis house car program and many of his customers switched to Fox Shocks this year, and while Harris does love his fleet of Rockets, especially the new XR1.2 he lauds as having “more traction,” not having many drivers to consult for information has hurt.

Harris, in his first full-fledged Super Late Model season, is learning how to harness the horsepower of an open-competition engine Dirt Late Model, especially when it comes to restricting engine power on slick tracks like PPMS. 

After Friday’s frustrating 22nd-place finish, Harris noticed that the Crate and Super Late Models ran comparable lap times, which told him “you don’t need a lot of motor to get around this place.”

“Every time I got off the racetrack, I toned it down more, and it made it better, yeah,” Harris said of his engine. 

Harris has also learned just how time consuming the race cars itself are and how much effort is required to stay ahead of the engineering curve.

“You pretty much work nonstop on these things, I swear,” Harris said. “As soon as you get a break, I feel like, you’re that far behind again for the next one. A lot of these tracks I haven’t been to. We’re just learning I guess.”

But the bright side for Harris and his team is that Saturday was “the best we’ve been in the slick,” according to Green, and that the “simple” adjustments they made in the right-rear “fixed all our other problems.”

“We’ve had traction problems, but it hasn’t been able to turn as good,” Green said. “Focused on that, got him comfortable, and that’s the best we’ve been in the slick. This place is pretty big, so hopefully that translates to Eldora.”

It also resets the team’s morale as they’ll soon recuperate for the winter and get ready for another Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. They won’t commit to the 2025 Lucas Oil Series campaign until after Speedweeks again, like they did this year. 

But what will boost Harris when that time comes is he’ll be part of the series loyalty program. Harris and Green are both optimistic that what they found Saturday can bring more favor to them at Brownstown and Eldora, which can get slick just like PPMS.

“I think that same setup at Eldora will be all right for us,” Harris said. “Eldora gets this slick, too.”

Then Harris was made aware that Saturday’s winner Jonathan Davenport employed his well-known Eldora car at the Pittsburgher, the same car that’s accounted for five of his nine Big E crown jewel victories since 2021.

“There you go,” Harris said. “I think it can kind of relate to it a little. … Our biggest problem there is we haven’t been able to turn. I was able to turn pretty good tonight, so hopefully that relates.”