The impact of open-wheel superstar Kyle Larson’s $15,000 victory in last Saturday night’s 50-lap Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Rumble by the River finale at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway could be readily ascertained by the rather glum demeanor that the driver who finished second, Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., displayed during his post-race interviews.

Yes, losing races never sits well with the 27-year-old Sheppard, who not only is ultra-competitive but also carries high expectations every time he hits the track in his high-profile Rocket Chassis house car ride. But something about his reaction was slightly different this time. You could tell the reigning World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series champion and the sport’s biggest winner in 2020 felt, in a sense, that he had let down his “home team” — the Dirt Late Model division — by failing to stop Larson in the spectacular Elk Grove, Calif., driver’s first-ever weekend of full-fender racing.

As Sheppard stood alongside his blue No. 1 machine just outside victory lane where Larson was basking in the adulation of the Port Royal crowd, Sheppard struggled finding the right words to describe his emotions.

“I don’t know … it’s just disappointing. He’s making us look bad out here, you know what I mean?” Sheppard said of Larson. “Well, I mean, not really. There’s no doubt that he’s a great race car driver. Obviously, he can win in anything he gets in. But it’s just, I don’t know, disappointing in my eyes just because, you know …”

Sheppard paused. His mind still searching, he continued, “It’s not disappointing I guess, it’s just the fact that he comes in here the second night out and waxes our ass.”

The Dirt Late Model gang is a prideful bunch — that’s true of the drivers, teams and fans in any division — and Sheppard’s comments make it clear that a big-name racer like Larson invading their world for the first time with plenty of hype and immediately winning on the class’s highest level stung everyone.

“That is … it’s hard, man. It is hard,” Sheppard asserted when asked to put the 28-year-old Larson’s accomplishment in perspective. “I mean, my hat’s off to him. He’s a helluva driver, that’s for sure. I’m not taking that away from him.”

Indeed, while the Dirt Late Model racers took one on the chin, no one in the pit area could deny what Larson managed to pull off.

Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., the former driver of the K&L Rumley Enterprises No. 6 entry that Larson piloted, stated simply, “He kicked our ass.” Gregg Satterlee of Indiana, Pa., who finished third in Saturday’s feature, called Larson’s performance “unbelievable.” Kyle Strickler of Mooresville, N.C., who placed eighth in the A-main, relished the opportunity to “race on the same racetrack as probably the greatest of all time” and conceded that it was “just absolutely crazy that he can jump in (a Late Model) and do that.”

And Steve Francis, the former Dirt Late Model standout who now serves as the technical director of the Lucas Oil Series, succinctly summed up what everyone witnessed at Port Royal.

“I’ve watched a lot of really, really good guys try to go from one (division) to the other, and he’s probably better than anybody I’ve ever seen do it,” Francis said. “I got in sprint cars and midgets back when I was winning a lot of races and I could get up to speed by myself on the racetrack but not around nobody, and this guy came and won against the best his second night.

“I’m sure he left here with a lot more respect from the Dirt Late Model world than he came in here with. I mean, I respected the guy and his talents for what he’s done, but to come in and do that … I’m not sure that there’s another driver in the country who can win in a (NASCAR) Truck, a Cup car, a sprint car, a midget, a Late Model, win against the very best in every one of them divisions. He’s beat ’em all, so that just speaks for what the guy can do.”

There was a sense among the Dirt Late Model community that Larson faced distinctly long odds of winning in his first weekend competing in the division. With only about 50 practice laps in a Late Model under his belt before hitting the Port Royal clay, continuing his spectacular 2020 success since returning full-time to open-wheel action in the wake of his spring NASCAR suspension and loss of his Cup Series ride seemed to be unthinkable.

But Larson’s talent — combined, of course, with top-notch equipment (Longhorn Race Car, Cornett engine) prepared by the experienced crew chief/engineer Kevin Rumley — shined through. He made believers of those who were admittedly skeptical.

“On the trip over here, between myself, (crew chief) Anthony Burroughs and (crew member) Dylan (Clayton), we talked about (Larson),” said Ronnie Stuckey, who fields the Black Diamond house car driven by Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla. “Dylan, being from this area (near Pittsburgh, Pa.), thought that Kyle could come in here and pull this off. Where like me, in the Late Model world, we haven’t seen it a lot (an outsider enjoying immediate success). It seems like most of the time … like with that Tim McCreadie, he took his butt kickings for two or three years (when he transitioned from Northeast big-block modifieds to Late Models) before he really got it. It’s a really different animal, and you’ve got to have really good help.

“And so I didn’t think he’d be able to pull it off,” he continued. “I think there’s been some decent sprint car guys try it, there’s been some modified guys try it, but not ever break out and win your opening weekend like that. Not against this group. He proved from the day we got here, he has been fast, they kept the car with a lot of speed, and he drove his butt off right there in those last five laps (of the feature) to win that.”

Both Davenport and Satterlee expressed similar turnarounds in their preconceived notions.

“He’s good, but … I didn’t think he could win the second time,” conceded Davenport, who struggled to finishes of 14th (Thursday) and 24th (Saturday). “I just compare it to (WoO Sprint Car star) Donny (Schatz). I mean, Donny’s one of the best sprint car drivers ever, and he ain’t been able to figure (Late Model racing) out yet (in his sporadic national-level appearances).

“But when Kevin (Rumley) puts his mind to something, and has time to concentrate on it, he makes it work, and Larson’s really good at this place,” he added. “I ain’t gonna take nothing away from him though. I ain’t gonna say, ‘This and this and this happened.’ The son of a bitch is a wheelman.”

“I think from the first time you saw his (initial) lap times, it was like, ’Well, obviously, this is no joke,’” Satterlee offered. “Not that anyone thought it was a joke, but I just thought maybe it’ll take him a couple nights to get up to speed. But clearly, he’s extremely talented. We do this every weekend in these cars and work and work and work to try and make ’em better, and he comes out here and beats us the first weekend.”

One well-known Dirt Late Model personality who understood Larson’s winning potential with alacrity once at the track was Rocket Chassis house car owner Mark Richards. All it took was one glimpse of Larson circling the big half-mile for the 59-year-old Richards to take him very seriously.

“I watched him the first lap he made in that car here, in hot laps (on Thursday), because I wanted to see,” Richards said. “That guy can drive a car. I walked away after hot laps and I came back and said, ‘That guy there, we’re gonna have to contend with him because he can drive.’

“You can just see guys that can drive. They know where to be, and he knew where the groove was immediately. That comes from … he’s raced a lot, and even though sprint cars are different than these cars, you still have to know that in sprint car racing. You gotta know where the groove is.

“It ain’t his first rodeo. He knows what to do,” he added. “And he did everything right.”

Larson came off the outside pole to outgun Sheppard for the lead at the initial start of the feature, assuming command when the polesitting Sheppard refrained from throwing an aggressive slider entering turn one. He never looked back as he led the entire distance, helped along by a well-placed caution flag on lap 23 that allowed him to change his lane to fend off an impending challenge from Sheppard and three more cautions over the ensuing six circuits that dulled Sheppard’s momentum. Larson also handled slower traffic with experienced aplomb in the final laps as Sheppard was steadily cutting into his advantage.

“Clean air here means a lot,” Richards said. “We were catching him three, four tenths a lap, but we got about six, seven car lengths from him and the air started slowing us down because I was watching the stopwatch.”

And Larson didn’t permit the slower cars he reached with the finish in sight to hamper him.

“Donny (Schatz) and Tony (Stewart) both tell me, with the sprint cars, you really have to know where you’re at with the air,” Richards related. “Them guys are really aware of the air and what it does to them sprint cars, and well, (Larson) was aware of what it does to these as well because he didn’t get behind them lapped cars. He got to the outside of them to keep his car loaded. A lot of guys follow cars and then you see ’em shoot across the track because they lose the front end. He didn’t follow them lapped cars into the corner. He knows where to race.”

Larson’s natural dirt-track acumen readily shined through.

“We’ve done it enough and we know what it takes to do it inside the race car,” Davenport said. “If you know enough inside the race car, you know how to watch ’em … and just like Mark (Richards) said, you could tell. I didn’t watch him hot-lapping, but I watched him in the heat (that Larson won on Thursday) because I was right behind him and I couldn’t hang with him. He was doing a hell of a job.

“He’s a smart racer. He’s growed up racing dirt. Maybe not these things, but this is kind of like, for me or some other guys, going back to a Crate class. After being in a sprint car, everything’s kind of slowed down a little bit. It’s totally different — you’re driving with a steering wheel horizontal, not lateral -— but he caught on pretty quick.”

“I watched him and he never made a mistake, never slipped up, never got in trouble with lapped cars there towards the end,” Francis related. “He didn’t run right up behind them at the end of the straightaway and get the big aero shove or anything. He understands race cars, that’s obvious.”

“Here, the more veteran guy you talk to, it’s probably gonna come back down to being able to run around that cushion,” Stuckey said of Larson’s ability to adapt. “He was really focused on that cushion, he spent pretty much all weekend in the cushion … but he wound up winning it down in the slick. So I mean, he’s proved he could do both.”

With Larson in his sights during the final laps as he ran in third place, Satterlee had virtually a front-row seat for Larson’s clinching of the victory. He realized what he was witnessing.

“I kept looking up the scoreboard and I said, ‘We’re getting down to the end,’ and I’m thinking, He’s gonna do it,” Satterlee said. “But congratulations to that team. That’s a pretty big thing for Rumley to step up and give him a car and an engine and everything. He really took a big risk. Obviously, I think (Larson) can back him up if he needs to financially, but …”

Satterlee paused as he heard the Port Royal fans emit a loud roar upon Larson’s emergence from his cockpit in victory lane. He then quickly shifted his comments to address the reaction Larson elicited.

“The crowd loves it,” Satterlee said. “That’s all that matters. That’s awesome. I think that’s really good for our sport. I mean, I kind of hate that I race here all the time (and lost to Larson) … that’s probably stupid to even say. But I still love it when we get to race with these (nationally renowned) guys. If I get beat, I’m fine with that. That’s how it goes.”

Strickler struck a similar cord to Satterlee, remarking on the thrill of being part of an amazing 2020 dirt-track run by a driver who’s transcending the sport while remaining accessible to his fellow competitors and his fans.

“I’m a huge supporter of Kyle Larson, a huge fan of Kyle Larson, and you’ll not meet a guy that can perform at that level and is more humble and just a regular dirt racer,” Strickler said of a driver who has won 35 times this season spread across World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All-Star Circuit of Champions Series, USAC Midget, USAC Silver Crown, unsanctioned sprint car and midget and now Lucas Oil Late Model competition. “He doesn’t think that he’s better than anybody else. He’s not arrogant. He takes time to hang out with all of us.

“It’s amazing what he can do. It is absolutely amazing. We were just talking about it before the feature and I told him, ’If you can put a deal together to run the World 100 (at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio) and you would win it, you would be the greatest of all time. You would be in a completely different class.’”

For Strickler, Larson is already a historic motorsports figure, a driver whose outrageous performance this season has raised up short-track racing.

“I think 20, 30 years from now, I’ll look back at this time and think, ’Man, that was awesome. I was a part of that,’” Strickler said. “What’s happening right now is just absolutely amazing. It’s something for the history books and I’m glad that I can be a part of it.

“That’s what I put on Twitter yesterday — that Kyle Larson is one helluva wheelman and the fans and new viewers he brings to the sport is great for all of us. You’re gonna have the people who are negative and say he’s getting too much attention, but it’s worth it. When has that kid not lived up to the hype? So it’s justifiable. And if you talk to him, you would think that he’s just a normal person. He does a really good job of making sure he takes time with everybody. He’s a racer in the truest form I think.

“Hopefully short-track racing, and Late Model racing, can capitalize on it, because there’s definitely a huge fan base that he’s brought in,” he added. “Kyle told me last night that he’s having the time of his life, and if he goes back Cup racing (again in the future) that would be great but he’s having a blast right now. It’s gonna be historical what he does (if he continues on his current path) … and he probably sold about a hundred thousand dollars worth of T-shirts this weekend, so that’s probably not a bad deal either.”

There’s little doubt that Larson’s presence transformed Port Royal’s scheduled tripleheader (Friday’s program was rained out) into one of the most anticipated events of the Dirt Late Model campaign. He certainly helped shine a big spotlight on the division.

“His track record this year in open wheel racing laid the groundwork for it to be really big for Dirt Late Model racing,” Lucas Oil Series director Rick Schwallie said. “It garnered all the attention from any race fan who realized what he’s done in the open wheel environment all year, so when he came and tried this, all eyes were on him. That’s big for Late Model racing.”

Richards, who has over four decades invested in racing, provided some additional context to Larson’s talent and his stunning season.

“Well, there’s no doubt, the guy is one of the best drivers in the world right now,” Richards said during Saturday’s post-race technical inspection while standing just feet away from Larson and the swarm of people watching his every move. “And it’s like I said the other day, the only guy that I can relate to this is Tony Stewart. If you remember, he did all the (USAC) stuff and then he moved right to IRL (IndyCars) and won an IRL championship, and then he went to NASCAR and won those championships and he raced road-race cars. And he came and drove for us (in selected Dirt Late Model specials), and the first year I took him to Knoxville (for the 2006 Nationals) he ran second … and really, we should’ve won that race probably multiple times with Tony (Stewart led laps and finished ninth in ’08 and placed seventh in ’09) and he didn’t race a Late Model much. We went to the Dream with him one year and he led (40) laps.

“I mean, Kyle is … they call him generational or whatever you want to call him. There’s very few of ’em that come along like him and Tony have. I’d put him right there with Tony. I’ve always said Tony was one of the best drivers in the world as far as I was concerned, and Kyle, he appears to be every bit of that. The difference was, with Tony, when Tony was at the age where Kyle is, he was off NASCAR racing and stayed NASCAR racing. He didn’t run much other stuff. He dabbled in it a little bit, but he didn’t get a whole year to go do this seriously.

“Kyle belongs in NASCAR because he’s one of the greatest drivers, and really and truly, the fans that this guy has now because of what’s happened this year … I mean, he should be able to name his price to go back to NASCAR in my opinion. He’s got exactly what built NASCAR. He’s a legend now of dirt-track racing. He can climb in any type of car and win. That’s what brought fans to NASCAR in the beginning. It wasn’t kids that had money to get a ride. It was, ‘This guy built a legend, a legacy.’ He is an A.J. Foyt and Tony Stewart type of driver. He’s that guy.”

Richards even put Sheppard’s runner-up finish in perspective.

“Hey, we got beat by the best driver in the world, so what’s that mean?” Richards said with a smile. “We ran second to the best driver in the world.”

Davenport, meanwhile, summed up Larson’s unforgettable Dirt Late Model debut with a comment that most of his full-bodied brethren would second.

“I met him back when I went to the Chili Bowl, but when he walked in the (Longhorn) shop the other day, the first thing I said to him was, ’Your ass better not come over here and start taking all of our money,’” Davenport said with a laugh. “But obviously, that’s what he’s doing. Luckily his schedule is full of sprint car races so maybe he’s not gonna dip into our funds too much anymore.”

Ten things worth mentioning

1. Before discussing Larson’s victory in Port Royal’s pit area on Saturday night, Kevin Rumley told me that his mother, who was back in North Carolina watching the weekend’s action online with her husband Lee Roy, wasn’t pleased with a quote from Kevin that I included in a sidebar story of Thursday’s program. Yes, Mama Rumley scolded her boy for comparing Larson to Jonathan Davenport by saying, “That son of a b—— is J.D.” “I’m on probation with DirtonDirt,” Rumley said. “You should do a correction and say I said, ’Son of a gun.’”

2. While walking through Port Royal’s parking lot on Saturday I met Larson’s father, Mike, a personable, race-loving Californian who made sure he was in attendance to witness his son’s Dirt Late Model debut. He told some great stories of Larson’s early racing days, and, when I asked him about the now-famous photo in which 14-year-old Kyle posed with Tim McCreadie after McCreadie’s 2006 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals victory, he remembered the moment well. Mike said that was the first time he made the trip to the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Okla., with his son; they went merely as spectators — Kyle had made only one career midget start in his fledgling career at that point — and visited the pit area afterward to meet McCreadie.

3. Speaking of that McCreadie-Larson picture, Kevin Rumley’s wife, Jacqueline, recreated it 14 years later in Port Royal’s pit area. She posed the two drivers side-by-side on Saturday and snapped a photo — with McCreadie playing along by crouching down to mimic Larson’s height in ’06.

4. Lucas Oil Series announcer James Essex noted after Saturday’s show at Port Royal that he’s now called the first career Dirt Late Model victory for three very notable national drivers: Tony Stewart (1998 Kenny Simpson Memorial at Indiana’s Brownstown Speedway), Tyler Reddick (the future NASCAR driver’s 2011 Lucas Oil Series triumph at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla.) and now Larson. “It’s pretty special to me,” Essex said. “That’s just awesome.”

5. Larson’s Port Royal victory triggered plenty of discussion about whether a Dirt Late Model star could jump into a 410 sprint car and, with only a modicum of practice laps like Larson had in a Late Model, immediately contend for victory in a high-level event. The consensus opinion was that going Late Model-to-sprint car would be more difficult than sprint car-to-Late Model, but Mark Richards remarked that he thought his driver could adapt relatively quickly. “I really believe that Brandon could get in a sprint car and run good,” Richards said of Sheppard. “I’m not gonna say he’s gonna do what Kyle could do, or what Donny Schatz can do, but this guy could drive a sprint car. I mean, there’s no doubt in my mind. He went and ran a modified last year, hadn’t been in a modified, and went out there and ran second in Ramirez’s modified.” According to Richards, the big factor to consider for a Late Model driver running a sprint car is if they even want to make the attempt. “That’s a whole different world,” Richards said, noting the increased speed and reality of “driving around in a 13-hundred pound car.”

6. Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., sported a snazzy new driver’s suit last Thursday at Port Royal that was completely gold in color, giving him the look of a walking Heisman Trophy. He had the suit for the previous week’s Lucas Oil Series stop at Batesville Motor Speedway in Locust Grove, Ark., but decided to hold off on debuting it because another tour regular brought out a distinctive uniform of his own. “I didn’t wear it last week because Terbo (Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas), came out with a Day-Glo green one that was so bright I’m like, ‘I can’t wear this (gold) thing now. I gotta wait a week.’ So we broke it out here.”

7. Kyle Strickler had never turned a lap at Port Royal prior to last weekend’s Rumble by the River, but it was nonetheless sort of a homecoming for the 36-year-old who grew up about an hour-and-a-half away in Sinking Spring, Pa. He saw plenty of familiar faces from his home area and his days running Northeast modifieds early in his career and his parents, who recently located to North Carolina to be closer to their son and his two children, were in attendance for his first-ever Dirt Late Model starts in his native state. Strickler performed well, too, finishing second in Thursday’s 30-lapper and placing eighth in Saturday’s 50-lap A-main despite running most of the distance with a speed-sapping mechanical problem. “On the birdcage, the left bottom trailing arm four-link bar broke in half and ripped the him out of the rod,” he said. “Going down he straightaway the cage, on index, would cam over and the whole car would drop, and then it would push the left-rear (tire) all the way into the back of the cage. That’s why it was smoking so bad (from about lap 10 onward). I think we had a top three, four car … (the problem) was heating up the left-rear tire so bad, it’s got one strip (around the inner edge) that’s completely down the cords. I can’t believe it made it the whole way without blowing out.”

8. The improvements to Port Royal Speedway continue. Since my last visit to the track a year ago, the facility now sports a new, high-rise set of aluminum bleachers off turn four for attendees in the pit area; a new pedestrian tunnel under the first turn; a paved strip on the inside of the infield so sprint cars can be pushed off without trucks going on the racetrack; new bathrooms in the pit area; and a new victory lane stage. Saturday’s program drew an especially large crowd for a Dirt Late Model event held in sprint car country, and it was announced on Saturday that next year’s Lucas Oil Series-sanctioned Rumble by the River will again run for three days (Aug. 26-28, 2021) and start with $10,000- and $12,000-to-win events but culminate with a one-day, $30,000-to-win show on Saturday. Port Royal promoter Steve O’Neal walked the pit area on Saturday to hand out fliers with next year’s event details and also gave the 52 drivers who entered Friday’s program, which was rained out after three heat races, $100 each as a token of the track’s appreciation for bearing with them through the testy weather.

9. A familiar face was seen back in the Dirt Late Model pit area at Port Royal: crewman Keir (Big Snack) Hoover, who has been absent from the division’s scene this year after stepping away from the sport. Hoover, who in recent seasons worked with Jimmy Owens, has been selling used cars but decided to dip his toe back into the racing waters two weeks ago when he helped Mason Zeigler of Chalk Hill, Pa., at Florence Speedway’s North-South 100 weekend and spent another weekend with Zeigler at Port Royal.

10. The initial forecasts for last week’s Hurricane Laura offered a serious threat to Shreveport, La., the home of Ronnie Stuckey’s Black Diamond Race Cars. Fortunately, though, Stuckey said the storm didn’t hit the city that sits well inland from the Gulf Coast with the fury that was feared. Stuckey reported that his shop was closed the day the hurricane came onshore and electric power to his building was lost for several days, but work continued unabated with generator power keeping the lights and equipment on until full electricity was restored. Stuckey did say that everyone in the shop had to deal with hotter-than-normal work conditions for a spell because the air conditioning system couldn’t operate using the generator.