Late model driver Andrew Lankford said racing “is the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do in my life.” It’s been a year since he last won. This weekend, he’ll have three tries to break into victory lane, courtesy of the Dirt2Media American All-Star Series Presented by PPM Racing Products. The series will venture to three tracks over the course of Crystal Cup weekend: Natural Bridge Speedway, Beckley Motor Speedway, and Wythe Raceway.
This season Lankford has frequented Beckley Motor Speedway in West Virginia. It’s a two-and-a-half-hour haul from his hometown of Pinnacle, North Carolina.
“I like Beckley — we run really well there,” said Lankford. “We’ve run top five there or we’ve wrecked out and didn’t finish the race. I feel like we going to go win there eventually.”
Lankford finished third last Saturday at Beckley and won his heat race, his best performance yet this year. However, this weekend he’ll have to compete with some of the best that tour with the American All-Stars. Lankford enters the weekend with modest expectations.
“With the competition that’s going to be there … if I can make the race, that would mean it all to me,” Lankford said.
If Andrew Lankford finishes in the top 10, though, he said it would be a dream come true.
“You struggle, you push, and you try to work as hard as you can,” Lankford, who operates a mowing and landscaping business for a living, said. “You come home from work every day and this [racing] is all you do, like a second full-time job. The only thing you dream of doing is being good at it.”
The American All-Stars’ Crystal Cup weekend begins on Friday, September 1, with a $5,000-to-win show at Natural Bridge Speedway in Virginia. The next night, Saturday, September 2, the series heads to Beckley Motor Speedway in West Virginia for $10,000 to win. Finally, the Crystal Cup weekend concludes on Sunday, September 3 at Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, Virginia, for the Pro Late Model Nationals that pays $5,000 to win, plus a $5,000 bonus to the victor. The highest average finisher across three nights will also get a $500 bonus.
Outside Groove Note of Transparency: Outside Groove is a sponsor of the American All-Star Series. The American All-Star Series paid for the production of this article. The content is not subject to the approval of the American All-Star Series.
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
