HOLLAND, PA :: One would figure that a Modified driver born in Pennsylvania would be racing somewhere up north on one of the many Modified touring series up there, but that’s not the case for Joe Ryan Osborne, a rookie on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour.
“We had no idea we were even going to run a Modified,” said the 18-year-old Osborne.
Osborne and his family moved down south two years ago to race Legend cars because “this is where the competition is at. There’s not much competition up north for Legend cars.
“But I know the Modified competition is up north,” he said.
Osborne has been racing all his life, but initially he started off on two wheels.
“I started racing dirt bikes when I was four,” he said. “(My dad) got me out of dirt bikes when I was seven because he blew both of his knees out like five times riding dirt bikes.”
He went from dirt bikes to go-karts, and eventually to the Legend cars.
And now Osborne is in a position to get plenty of seat time in a variety of different cars down south. He’s running the Southern Modified Tour where he’s scored four top-10s in four races. He’s also going to be running a few Modified races at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as well as a few Super Late Model races on the PASS South Series. His goal is to get even farther up the NASCAR ladder system.
“I just want to see where it takes me,” he said. “Hopefully I can run multiple Truck races next year. That would be awesome.”
