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Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – GRAND FORKS, ND – It’s really cool to see Max McLaughlin with a smile on his face again.
This season, the Mooresville, NC transplant by way of the DIRTcar Northeast Modifieds has made the transition to the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
That road has been rocky to start.
However, as of late, Max’s been on fire and Sunday night at River Cities Speedway, he notched his fifth-straight top 10 finish in series competition with a great third place showing.
“GR (Smith) has been giving me great race cars,” McLaughlin said. “It’s been a lot of fun the last couple of weeks.”
Over that span, you can see McLaughlin getting more and more comfortable in the team’s 22* Longhorn Late Models and the results are proving it.
Even though he’s won twice in competition, once in a WoO Late Model Series prelim event earlier in the year and most recently in a DIRTcar Summer Nationals event at Adams County, the stretch of races recently have McLaughlin really excited for how things have been gel with his Team 22inc crew.
“I feel like things are starting to click right now,” he said. “I’m starting to get comfortable racing these things because at the beginning of the year, I was starting to wonder if I was going to be able to be a late model driver. I’m having a lot of fun right now.”
Sunday night, Max was strong from the moment his team unloaded. They were quickest in early night hot laps as well as Group B Qualifying (third overall), won their heat and started fourth in the 40-lap feature.
He ran third most of the feature and was actually contending with eventual winner Brian Shirley and second-place finisher Devin Moran for the lead late in the feature event before jumping the cushion with a few laps left and getting passed by Tyler Bruening.
McLaughlin then showed the poise of a veteran. He regrouped, put the 22 back on the cushion and, in lapped traffic, drove back around Bruening’s #16 to regain the podium spot.
“I thought I had a car that could contend for the win until I about flipped going into turn three that one time,” he said. “Then, I thought maybe I should probably be smart here and not drive over my head.”
Confidence is high right now for McLaughlin and continues to grow as the some of the bigger events begin to hit the World of Outlaws and Dirt Late Model schedule.
“We’ve had a lot of speed lately,” he said. “It seems like it doesn’t matter what the condition is, the car is just fast. I’ve learned a lot with shock and spring setups. Everyone at Bilstein and Longhorn has been really good with me and I’m thankful for them.”
He’s also thankful for everyone who’s been behind this giant undertaking in 2024 as he chases more victories and the MD3 World of Outlaws Late Model Series Rookie of the Year title.
“I can’t thank Al Heinke enough and GR for giving me this shot,” he said. “Al from Mohawk Northeast’s been my backer pretty much my entire career. I have to thank all the sponsors that are a part of this thing and the entire crew and everyone at Team 22. I am grateful for everyone who’s a part of this deal. I’m having a bad ass time right now for sure.”
Sunday night’s third place run was McLaughlin’s fourth top 5 finish of the season on the World of Outlaws Late Model trail and his seventh top 10. He currently sits 11th in Series points, 46 markers behind Dustin Sorenson for 10th and 354 out of the lead.