BROWNSTOWN, Ind. — While Mike Marlar wasn’t among the weekend’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series winners, the 47-year-old Winfield, Tenn., impressed with a pair of fourth-place runs at Ohio’s Atomic Speedway and Brownstown Speedway.

The driver that’s not foreign to midseason chassis changes unveiled an Infinity Chassis for his top-five runs. He’s not downplaying his rekindled rising stock nor skirting around the potential his Skyline Motorsports No. 157 team has with the Hazard, Ky.-based chassis enterprise. After a single top-five finish his first 16 races in a Longhorn Chassis, the wind is back in Marlar's sails.

“That’s the best I felt in a long time, actually,” Marlar said after he challenged Jonathan Davenport for third place in the $25,000 Indiana Icebreaker won by Devin Moran. “Had a really good car and really should’ve run third. I made a mistake on the last lap and gave up the podium. I passed Jonathan and should’ve rode the middle, got in the crumbs and held him behind me. I drove a little wide and he got back under me. Just a mental mistake there.”

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Marlar’s operation acquired its new Infinity Chassis roughly a month ago and since then they've been quietly preparing their new race machine under the guidance of Infinity engineer Tim Douglas.

Douglas had pitched to Marlar the idea of testing an Infinity to see what he thought of the David and Eric Wells-owned chassis brand. They made that happen during one of Smoky Mountain Speedway’s practices earlier this month with Marlar shaking down an Infinity that Eric Wells plans to drive so Wells could have a race-ready car with a baseline setup when he returns from an eight-year hiatus from racing.

“Eric hadn’t been (in a race car) in like eight years, so I wanted to make sure everything was running good for them,” Marlar said. “Got in there and tested a bit, got it to where it was drivable. Then he went out and made some laps. Then they asked me if I wanted to race some.”

Needless to say, the test went well enough that Marlar and his car owner Greg Bruening struck a deal with Wells to become the chassis brand’s fourth nationally touring client along with World of Outlaws Late Model Series regulars Tristan Chamberlain, Ryan Gustin and Dillon McCowan. Marlar’s partnership with the Wells-owned Infinity group shouldn’t be all that surprising as he drove a David Wells-owned car the last half of 2010.

“David gave me a really big break when I needed one, and took me out on the road some when I was younger,” Marlar said. “So, I’ll do anything in the world to help him. They needed a little help, and I was all about it. He just simply wants an opportunity to showcase their car. That’s verbatim from him.”

Marlar’s independent schedule allows him the freedom to become a right-hand man for Douglas and Wells, too, as they look to fortify the Infinity brand. Marlar initially planned to follow the Lucas Oil tour for a second straight season in 2025, but a tumultuous start to the year Jan. 4-13 at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park’s Wild West Shootout and a change of heart scuttled those plan.

“I like racing with Lucas and I like racing with the World of Outlaws, and I tried to talk myself into doing it, but my gut kept telling me to run a schedule and have a little more freedom this year,” Marlar said last month during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. “That’s what I chose to do, for a lot of reasons, from (crew member Jerry Sprouse) having a grandbaby to (wife) Stacy wanting to do a few things in the summer. All the things we’ve wanted to do in the winter we’ve done. We don’t have any time in the summer to take off, so we’re going pick-and-choose and going where we want, and go with the wind a little bit. That always seems to work out for me.”

When asked if he might return on a national tour next year, the 2018 World of Outlaws champion refuted those prospects — “I don’t think so,” he said — while adding “I think you’ll see me living day by day.”

The commitment of national touring doesn’t fit racing plans for Marlar, who added “there’s nothing wrong with Lucas Oil or the Outlaws” and that winning his lone WoO title seven years ago “was the greatest thing in the world.”

“I’m not anti (national tours),” Marlar continued. “There’s people out there that want the structure and want that. Everybody’s wired different. … I’ve always kind of lived my life (day by day). And I’ve been very blessed in my life by being that way. Not much of a structure guy. I just go and do as I please. I’m lucky to have sponsors and a team that will allow me to blow around like a tumbleweed.”

Skyline and Marlar still have their Longhorn, the brand of race cars Marlar has primarily driven since 2022. Marlar’s shown he isn’t afraid of switching chassis brands through the years as from 2015-19 he bounced around between Rocket Chassis and Capital Race Cars before incorporating Longhorns into his race program in 2020.

Beyond wanting to help longtime friends David and Eric Wells, having Douglas in Marlar’s corner is a major boost for the No. 157 team. Douglas, the 2024 WoO Crew Chief of the Year with Gustin, has taken on a role of providing hands-on assistance to Infinity clients at the racetrack.

Douglas, who’s also been the head wrench of Dillon McCowan, Jason Papich, Earl Pearson Jr., and Tony Toste, said that Infinity’s built 33 race cars since launching last year. With Marlar’s performance over the weekend — his seventh-to-fourth run Friday at Atomic and 10th-to-fourth charge Saturday at Brownstown – Douglas just might be traveling with Marlar’s two-man road crew of Josh Davis and Sprouse more often.

“I just want to say thank you to Infinity for Tim coming along with us, showing us the ins and outs of the car. … I was really happy he was there to help us,” Marlar said. “And that David (Wells) and Eric, and the Wells family, let their employee come along with us. It was so nice for me this weekend to crawl through the window and do my part instead of doing shocks and springs, and all that.

“I’m so mentally tired from doing all that, that I’m just happy to have someone now who can, when I run this car, help me with that. That’s big. I’ve been screaming that for two years.”

Marlar isn’t overstating himself. Last June’s Firecracker 100 at Sarver, Pa.’s Lernerville Speedway, for instance, opened Marlar’s eyes to what he might be missing in today’s technologically advanced sport. Marlar led 39 of the opening 44 laps before Thornton turned up the wick and stomped the field, winning by 12.335 seconds over Moran and 13.744 seconds over the third-finishing Marlar.

Seemingly envious of Thornton having Anthony Burroughs as his crew chief at the time and equally envious of Moran having consultant Vinny Guliani, whom Marlar eventually hired toward the end of 2024, Marlar vented his hindrances.

“Some of these guys have engineer-type help, and then it’s me and my two buddies from my hometown trying to make it work,” Marlar said after June 22’s Firecracker 100. “We know that. We know there’s no quit in us. But we know that’s the thing we’re missing.

“If we don’t find a way or find some key people to help us, we’re going to get left in the dust, which is pretty much the reality of it.”

Marlar repeated that sentiment after Saturday’s strong run in which he finished behind Davenport, Moran and Thornton, each among the top four in DirtonDirt’s power rankings.

“I just don’t think people realize the value in that,” Marlar said of having engineer-driven minds to lean on. "We don’t have that, and we have to have that if we’re going to continue to win races.

“Anybody who’s in the fortunate situation as the driver, who can show up with no weight on their shoulders, let somebody else make some decisions and some calls and then just do their actual job, it’s a huge benefit. Greg’s been trying to help me with that, and I appreciate everything he’s doing.

“I know (Douglas) can’t come with us every weekend, but him coming along, that’s what I’ve been screaming forever. Like, you have to have this to compete at this level. And it helped. It helped me and helped (Skyline teammate) Tyler (Bruening) even though he was in a competing (Longhorn) brand.”

Marlar also wants to be sure that lauding Douglas’s immediate contributions doesn’t take anything away from his two-man race-day crew of Davis and Sprouse. When Marlar asked Davis and Sprouse permission to speak at length with DirtonDirt about Douglas’s immediate impact, the two crewmen encouraged it, agreeing that Douglas makes their jobs as general mechanics easier.

“Josh and Jerry, they’re awesome job. We’re just all buddies. But none of us are engineers or anything,” Marlar said. “They do a good job of maintaining our stuff. But a lot of times, with technology, the way it’s moving, we just scratch our heads a lot. … It’s fun for me to get to be the driver. There’s a lot of stress in making the calls.”

With Lucas Oil and WoO off the last weekend in March, Marlar’s options are Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series action at Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Miss., Saturday’s Northern Allstars opener at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., or taking the weekend off.

Wherever he hits the track next, Marlar hopes race nights moving forward are as burden-free and as seamless as his Atomic-Brownstown outings.

“It was nice to just worry about my end,” Marlar said. “The last thing I usually worry about is the steering wheel or the tear-off. I’ve been worrying about shocks and springs, and all that stuff. That’s really hurt me in my career, not having someone there to help with that. You could see that here (this past weekend), just having someone to make some calls and I can be the driver. 

“I felt like I was a better driver out there because I wasn’t mentally wore out from the other side of it.”