RICHMOMD, VA :: After winning the 2012 Old Dominion Speedway track championship and closing out a 65 year era in the Washington, DC region, Doug Liberman is looking to branch out and run at new venues this season. That will begin on Thursday at Richmond International Raceway when Liberman will compete in the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown for the first time in his career.
Liberman tested at Richmond last Tuesday, saying it was the first time he had ever been to the track.
“The car is pretty good,” Liberman said. “We were tight all day and it got worse when it got cool so we made some adjustments on that. We were too soft on springs in the rear. After we did that, we’re hoping it will be better than what it was. We had some carb issues and fuel pick up issues. We got those worked out yesterday as well.”
Liberman is excited about running the race and competing against some of the biggest names in NASCAR and in Late Model racing.
“It’s a pretty big deal to get to run against the Cup drivers on a Cup track. That’s a big deal. Everybody that gets in one of these cars wants to race professionally. Only just a handful will ever get to do it. Getting to race them in the type of car you normally race is a big deal. The competition level, I can’t believe how nice equipment there was there. The drivers and crews, it looked like a Cup field from the 1980s and 1990s. At Old Dominion, we always had the Youth for Tomorrow race and it was a big race and got some Cup drivers. That was always neat for them to come to your sandbox. Your first time at ODS is always difficult. I think that really put the national drivers to the test to race there. I think we had a leg up on the cars that raced there though.”
Liberman’s main goal for the race is to qualify in to the feature and have a solid finish
“First we hope to make the race. Where we practiced, I don’t think it was a good time overall. We’ve got to make the race first and after that, just want to bring the car home in one piece. It’s a brand new Creech car. We want to run well and finish the race and not do anything stupid.”
Doug Liberman has spent much of his career at Old Dominion Speedway, where he won the championship last year in the track’s final season of operation.
“The past couple years, we finished fourth, third, second and won last year. We were just trying to run as often as we can. The years I finished fourth and third, we missed races. The last two years, we missed as little as possible. Last year we were committed to running all the races out there. We wanted to win a points title. The fields were short and we wanted to support the track. As well as we ran, I felt we had a shot at winning the championship… I wasn’t sure about Old Dominion closing though. There were rumors going around but they’ve been going around the past couple years that they were closing. It came down to wanting to win the points title. It wouldn’t have been the end of the word if they didn’t but those guys closing the track made it special to be the last one to win there.”
After the Showdown, Liberman plans to compete at Shenandoah Speedway and Langley Speedway.
“Right now, after this Denny Hamlin race, we’re going to split time between Shenandoah and Langley. I’ve wanted to go to both tracks for a while but didn’t because we were racing at Old Dominion. I’d also like to go to Southern National during the summer as well. Everything I’ve seen of Shenandoah Speedway looks really nice. Their car count is not the greatest but all the more reason to support the track and build it up.”
Liberman is also hoping construction at Dominion Raceway in Thornburg will be complete in time for the 2014 season.
“We would probably run at Dominion Raceway in 2014. I’d still try to run Shenandoah. It’d be nice if they did a Friday night/Saturday night thing. I know NASCAR wanted Shenandoah to be on Friday to build the car counts but, I think he wanted to do Saturday only because that’s what they’ve done. If Dominion gets opened, it’ll be an anchor for the area that draws the cars in. If they had somewhere to run Fridays, that would really help to get cars running two nights a week. It also takes money.”
Liberman got in to racing in his teenage years. He caught the “racing bug” early and has been racing ever since.
“My dad raced, he started when I was four or five, went to dirt races with him in Deleware. Started racing with him. We’d go off to the the races every week. I got the bug and got the chance to start driving when I was a teenager. The past 12 years we’ve raced in the Late Model at Old Dominion. Before that I had a couple seasons out at Jenerstown and Motordrome (Western Pennsylvania) in a straight rail. Before that I raced a Pro 4 Modified all around the East Coast. I’ve raced all over Pennsylvania, New Jersey and even New England. We’ve raced at New Smyrna. I’ve been racing for a long time.”
Liberman won the 2012 track championship at Old Dominion Speedway and won the track’s biggest race, the ODS Big One, in 2011. Now, Liberman, who will be driving a brand new Bobby Creech build car, will have the chance to make his name known on a big stage.
