When the season kicks off on Sunday afternoon at Caraway Speedway, second generation racer Kyle Dudley will be returning to run the number four his father Mike made famous throughout his career. Mike was a multi-time champion in Late Models at Franklin County Speedway before turning over the reigns of the family ride to Kyle.
Kyle is hoping to honor his father and bring some of that success to his DJ Racing team this season.
“We tossed around the idea the last couple of years,” said the younger Dudley. “We wanted to put his number on the car out of respect to him but driving the car for John Joyce, he was partial to the number 51.”
Joyce and Dudley agreed to make the number change after considering what Mike Dudley had done for the team over the years. Dudley will now pilot the number four in all races this season which includes a slate of races at Motor Mile Speedway, Caraway Speedway, Franklin County Speedway and South Boston Speedway.
“If we’ve got a car together and there’s a race that week, we’re going,” joked Dudley. “We want to run as much as we can wherever we can and get seat time and laps.”
The younger Dudley had only raced the number four previously when he was a rookie in the Street Stock division and only took the number to victory lane once when he was running his dad’s Late Model.
“I’ve only won once driving the number four. We ran it in Street Stock and then we changed my number to 84 because we were going to be running against one another in Late Model. I ran his car and won with it once. That’s the only time I’ve won with the number four on the car.”
Dudley’s campaign will begin this weekend at Caraway Speedway in the 51st Season Opener on the Sophia, NC track. The race has it’s own set of challenges as it’ll be the first race run there this season with live pit stops playing into factor. It also features a $5,000 to win purse which is expected to draw a lot of the top names but Dudley is confident about his chances after winning at Caraway last season.
“Going to be a handful for sure. All the good cars will be there with Lee (Pulliam) and Tommy (Lemons) and all of them. Going to be a task to win this race. I atleast feel like we have a dog in the fight but those pit stops are going to throw everyone for a loop.”
Dudley like many racers doesn’t have an every weekend crew assembled and ready for live pit stops as this is completely different from the norm but he’s bringing in some people to help him.
“I was really worried about that,” explained Dudley. “I have a great crew but not for live pit stops. So a friend of mine Josh Nichols and some buddies of his that work on a Modified are going to pit us. It’s a good thing because we’d have probably been lapped if we didn’t get some help.”
With a crew for pit stops assembled Dudley still feels like the pit stop is going to play a major role in not only the outcome of the race but how the race is run.
“It’s going to change everything. Definitely going to throw another kink in the plans for everyone and it’s one more thing to worry about as a driver. I think it’ll affect how you run the race. Maybe you’ll not be running as hard before the pit stop and then it’s game on after. Then it’s go time and we’ll see what everyone has.”
A lot will be weighing on Dudley’s mind this weekend from the pit stops to the number change. His father’s thoughts on the number change will also be in the back of his mind everytime he goes out on the track.
“Dad told us that if we’re going to be running his number, we can’t be out there sucking,” Dudley said with a laugh.
Dudley isn’t worrying about “sucking”, he just wants to get his dads number to victory lane because of how special it will be.
“It’d mean the world to this race team and to my dad if we could pull one off. He’s done so much for this team and for me that it’d be one of the most special wins we could ever have. Watching my dad win races for years with that number and being able to do it myself would be something special.”
