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Countdown To The USA Nationals At Cedar Lake Speedway: Josh Richards (Video)
Click the above video to hear two-time defending World of Outlaws Late Model Series talk about the 24th annual USA Nationals presented by U.S. Steel on Aug. 4-6 at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis.
The $50,000-to-win spectacular is one of the prime races on the 23-year-old Richards’s hit list. He stood on the event’s Victory Lane stage as a fresh-faced 12-year-old in 2000 when his father Mark’s car was driven to a USA Nationals win by Pennsylvanian Davey Johnson, so he’s been dreaming of returning his dad’s No. 1 to Cedar Lake’s spotlight ever since.
Richards has been a serious contender for victory in his two previous USA Nationals starts under the WoO LMS banner, but bad luck struck him on both occasions. He timed fifth-fastest and won a heat race for both the 2005 and 2010 editions and ran up early in both races, climbing as high as third in the 60-lap A-Main in ’05 and second in the 100-lapper last year. But in ’05 a flat tire on lap 51 forced him to pit and relegated him to a lead-lap 12th-place finish, and in ’10 he was holding second when engine trouble knocked him out on lap 19 and left him with a 23rd-place finish.
