Rick Eckert’s smile was bright Saturday as he stood in victory lane at Georgetown Speedway. He had closed out his up-and-down 2024 season with a $7,000 victory in the 40-lap Mid-Atlantic Championship Weekend Super Late Model feature and the positive vibes were flowing.

When the 58-year-old veteran from York, Pa., was asked by the track announcer about his stirring late-race battle for the lead with his good buddy — and Georgetown resident — Ross Robinson, he offered a good-natured quip.

“It’s about time the teacher beats the student, you know?” Eckert said with a laugh. 

Robinson, 34, didn’t mind playing second fiddle. He appeared a brief moment after Eckert’s comment and gave his pal a congratulatory hug, then said in a pronouncement toward the camera, “I owe my year to him.”

The reverence Robinson has for Eckert was evident in his words. The pair have become especially close this season while sharing information about their Rocket Chassis machines and with the well-traveled Eckert offering personal schooling to Robinson, and the collaboration has benefitted Robinson, a third-year Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series regular, so much that he made sure he didn’t rough up Eckert in their showdown for Saturday’s checkered flag.

On the final lap of the feature, Robinson ducked underneath Eckert entering the half-mile oval’s third turn in a bid for the lead. He eschewed throwing an aggressive slider, however, which allowed Eckert to ring the top through the corners and power off turn four to beat Robinson to the finish line by 0.299 of a second.

“I couldn’t pull the trigger and slide him,” Robinson said a couple days later. “I wanted to so bad, I really wanted to, but that man has helped me so much this year and elevated our program to be able to compete and do good, so there was no way I was gonna risking dirtying him up. I’ll gladly give up and run second because of how much he’s helped me and will continue to help me in the future.”

Upon further review, though, Robinson might have been able to surge ahead of Eckert without contact.

“I wish I could’ve finished it off on him, and I could have,” Robinson said. “Looking at the video, I didn’t realize I had him cleared by that much (entering the corner), where I was actually, truly in front of him. Going in there like that, I just knew he was gonna go to that little bit of a lip in three and just try to get as much momentum as he could to go back around me, knowing that he knew I wasn’t just gonna fly off in there and slide him and come across his nose just because of our relationship.

“But when I did that, my car kind of scotched up and got a little tight, and I had to lift for a second to kind of get the car repointed how I wanted. Well, just that little bit of time allowed him to kind of get the momentum to drive back around me (and win the race).”

Eckert felt fortunate to escape with his third consecutive victory in the Mid-Atlantic Championship event.

“Twice he got me (for the lead),” Eckert said, noting that Robinson vaulted ahead to pace lap 38 before ceding the position back when he bobbled upon hitting a hole in turn two. “He passed me going into three (on the last lap) and I really thought he was gonna slide all the way across, because he would have had me cleared because I checked up and was gonna cross him back over. Then when he didn’t go all the way across, he stopped, I couldn’t go back left and I’m like, ‘Oh, s---!’ Luckily there was just enough traction way out there off the edge of the racetrack so you could get ahold of something.”

Regardless of the winner, the thriller excited both drivers.

“That was damn sure fun,” Robinson said.

Fun is certainly a buzzword for Eckert and Robinson. They have plenty of it when in each other’s company, getting along swimmingly amid a friendship that has blossomed over the years.

Robinson can vividly recall his first encounters with Eckert.

“I used to watch him when he’d come down here to race (in Delaware) before I got into Late Models (in 2007). Like when the (World of) Outlaws would come to Delaware (International Speedway) in ’04, ’05, ’06, and Hagerstown (Maryland), me and my dad would go over and watch, so I always knew who Rick Eckert was,” Robinson said. “When I was, like, a young fan, he was almost like a superhero-type of person. That’s the best way to describe it — a famous person that you get to watch.

“The first time I ever parked next to him was one time at Virginia Motor (Speedway) in ’08, like at that USA 100 or something, and we got into like a casual conversation, just pit neighbor type of thing. But then I got to know him more and talk to him more frequently when I was on the road (with the WoO tour) working for Kennedy Motorsports with John Lobb, Shane Clanton and Tim Fuller (from 2011-13). Then obviously when I came back home to race, whenever he would be in the area I’d see him more and talk.

“It was always just a friendly-type of relationship, but whenever I had a question, he would always take the time to explain or talk to me,” he added. “He’s never once hesitated on showing support for me. It’s been a great friendship.”

Eckert’s recollection of his early brushes with Robinson are a bit different.

“I don’t remember the first time meeting Ross,” Eckert said. “I do remember racing Ross long before he went on the road as a crew guy. He had this 7 car and it always had Grotto Pizza on it, and he was dangerous. He was one of them guys you had to look out for … he was young and dangerous.

“I think the best thing that ever helped him was when he went on the road as a crew guy for Kennedy, Clanton and them. When he came back better as a driver, it told me that probably his cars were never very good before that. He made his cars better, and like everybody else, the better your car is, the easier it is to do.”

Eckert has more recently played a vital role in improving the cars Robinson drives for his team owner Kenny Adams, who also owns and operates Georgetown Speedway. This began in earnest when Robinson enticed Eckert to accompany him on much of his 2024 season-opening trip to Georgia-Florida Speedweeks to serve as his crew chief, the role usually filled by Robinson’s wife Amanda, an accomplished Dirt Late Model racer herself. 

For three weeks in January and February Eckert was Robinson’s right-hand man, swapping the racing uniform and helmet he wore for so many Speedweeks over the years for a toolbox. The impact was substantial on Robinson, whose ’24 Speedweeks was highlighted by a fifth-place finish on Feb. 8 at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla.

“Our relationship kind of changed, or took another step, after we had just a casual conversation last fall about him coming to Florida with me if he wasn’t busy,” Robinson said. “It worked out for him to do that, and just them three weeks that he was with me, it showed me another side of myself, that I feel like I can compete with these guys. We didn’t have the best Speedweeks, but we showed a lot of speed and just took another step in the right direction.

“Having him around gave me a confidence I don’t feel like I ever had before. He takes the most complicated problem and just makes it simple. Like, he says there’s no need to overthink it bigger than what it is. He’s just really good at explaining things and taking the time to make sure, if you don’t understand it, that you do understand it. That way you don’t have to go through that problem again.”

Eckert gained a more nuanced feel for Robinson’s driving and technical abilities during Speedweeks.

“I learned that he … doesn’t like the outside wall,” Eckert said with a laugh. “And after this weekend (at Georgetown), I realized that every place the kid grew up racing (Georgetown and Delaware International) had no wall (in the turns). I can’t figure out why he don’t want to get up on the wall, and on the way home I realized every place he raced doesn’t have a wall. 

“At Delaware he drives about as hard as anybody can drive, and then when you get to a place where you run the cushion on the wall, I’m like, ‘Ross, you need to be up on that wall.’ He has no problem running hard, but he just doesn’t like the wall. I think he’s getting better at it. He’s surely getting better at it because, I mean, a lot of places they go, probably 90 percent of ‘em have a wall.”

Eckert feels he can have a good impact on Robinson.

“I think he just relaxes a little more when you can explain something to him,” Eckert said. “Like we lined up (during Speedweeks) for a heat race at Brunswick, Ga., and we’re starting on the third row and the guy (ahead) forgot to raise his spoiler back up. So I’m like, ‘Hey Ross, this guy, either in the first corner or the next corner, he’s gonna fly across the track, so let’s just get in position to take advantage of it.’ Don’t you know it, the guy got through the first corner and went in the second corner and took him and the whole second row across there, and Ross got all the way up to the lead I think.

“Sometimes you can pick up stuff, and it’s nice when you’re trying to work on a car to bounce stuff off somebody else, like, ‘Hey, what can we do to help that?’ When he tells me that, then I’ll be like, ‘We’ll try this,’ and sometimes he comes up with an even better idea. He’s easy to work with. He don’t get mad when you change something. He understands that everybody’s trying to go better.”

And Eckert sees Robinson making steady progress, where “I feel like last year I didn’t help him, and he was on tour and struggled to make the races, took a lot of provisionals, but I feel like this year, he’s taken a big step. He qualifies pretty much by himself every week, and that’s a big step, it really is, and he runs occasional top-10s and top-fives. If he goes on the road next year, I’d look for him to be, like, regularly in the top-10, make another step and possibly win some races.”

Robinson believes he made significant strides this year and attributes his progression to Eckert.

“Any driver can tell you what it means to have somebody in your window when you back in (to the trailer) who can explain things,” Robinson said. “And that’s no discredit to Amanda or anyone else who I’ve had help me. Everybody truly gives it their all and wants me to succeed, but the wealth of knowledge and experience that he has just gives you such a calming feeling, to not just me but Amanda and Michael, too, because they lean on him for totally separate stuff. I lean on him for driving and setup advice, but they talk to him so much about, like, car preparation, tire preparation, and how would you handle this situation or how would you handle that … there’s no situation that Eckert hasn’t seen or gone through himself probably.

“It’s like I’ve said before, you can’t beat experience, and the man’s obviously got 40-some years of it.”

Robinson could have put Eckert’s number on speed-dial in his phone this year considering how often he seeks his input while traveling with the Lucas Oil Series. 

“He hasn’t technically been with me crew-chiefing at a race since Florida, but there hasn’t been a week go by where we haven’t talked at least two or three times,” said Robinson, who recorded five top-five and eight top-10 finishes this season en route to a 12th-place finish in the points standings. “I joked with him once, ‘I’m sorry I bug you so much, but you’re just the one person I know I can lean on.’ Poor Kristal (Eckert’s wife), she’s probably heard his phone ring more than she cares to. I’ve talked to him multiple times in the middle of the (race) night. He’ll shoot me a text when he’s home watching and I’ll call him. Obviously it’s hard for him to do that from looking at it on TV, but he still gives me his honest opinion or relates it to something he used to do in the past somewhere else.

“And when he brings something up, it gets you thinking of different things, too, and then I’ll bring something up. He’s just not like a crew chief or instructor. I call him, like, a great coach. He’s good at keeping you pumped up and believing in yourself.

“I actually talked to him earlier today and I told him I’ve caught more s--- for not finishing off that pass and beating him (at Georgetown) than you can imagine,” he continued. “But I said now, if he could just help me a Lucas Oil race, it would all be worth it.”

Robinson noted that he’s regularly badgered Eckert this year about making road trips with him, but Eckert’s own racing schedule prompted him to decline the offers. 

“Almost every time we talked I’ve asked him,” Robinson said. “I probably wore him out, and he probably thought he’d adopted another kid as much as I called him. 

“I would love to see a day that he could (come on the road as a crew chief on a regular basis), but he’s still healthy enough and more than competitive enough (racing) where he can go anywhere. It’s not the right point in time to make that happen, but I’m thankful for the help he can give me.

“It’s just been really refreshing to have a relationship with somebody like that in this sport, someone who treats you like family and has treated me as good as he has,”he added. “And I truly believe he wants me to succeed at this. I hope he really knows how much that means to me and everybody with us.”

Robinson demonstrated his appreciation for Eckert’s assistance at midseason when he offered him the use of one of his team’s engines because Eckert was likely to miss Aug. 1's Camp Barnes Benefit Race at Georgetown.

“We talk after each one of us races, and we’d either talk about how good things went or how much of a dumb ass each of us was for sucking,” Robinson said. “He was going through some engine troubles and I talked to the boss man, Kenny, and told him, and he said, ‘Have you talked to him yet?’ I said, ‘No, but I feel like we need to offer him something.’ And Kenny automatically said, ‘Why are you asking me? Just do it.’

“So we made it clear if he needed an engine to just come down and get it. We felt like it was the least we could do for how good he’d been to me.”

Eckert visited Robinson’s shop — a place he often stops at to bench race with Robinson when he and his wife travel to their condo in Ocean City, Md. — to bolt in the engine and went on to finish second in the Georgetown feature to Robinson.

“I didn’t have a motor, and Ross said, ‘Hey, I talked to Kenny. He said you could borrow a motor,’ ” Eckert said. “I said, Ross, ‘I’m having enough trouble paying for the ones I already broke. I can’t do it.’ He said, ‘They need cars (for the race) and Kenny says if it would blow up on you, it would blow up on us. Come get it.’ So they loaned me a motor … I only ran it down there and then I got my own stuff back.”

With both drivers done for the 2024 season, Eckert said he plans to test with Robinson in the coming weeks. He also anticipates that he’ll crew-chief for Robinson again at 2025’s Georgia-Florida Speedweeks.

And they’ll race together again periodically throughout the ’25 campaign. Perhaps they’ll even enjoy some more battles for the win, which could lead to more playful postrace exchanges like they had at Georgetown.

“When we got back to the pit area (after victory lane) he said, ‘You know, you cut me a break (on the last lap), but I know you would’ve took Amanda’s air cleaner off,’ ” said Robinson, whose wife finished fourth in Saturday’s feature. “I said, ‘Yeah, I would have, because she’d have took mine off if she had the chance.’ ”

Eckert claimed that he didn’t make the comment about Amanda. Nevertheless, he agreed with Robinson’s assessment that Amanda would have pulled a last-lap slider on her husband.

“Yeah,” Eckert said with a snicker, “she’d have done it to him.”