This year Jason Sides has selected Landon Crawley as the driver for his World of Outlaws sprint car team. Crawley comes from a racing pedigree. His father, Tim Crawley, earned three American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) championships.
“My dad has been racing twice as long as I have been alive,” Landon Crawley, of Little Rock, Arkansas, said. “He has lots of years of experience to learn off of. He teaches me everything he knows right up to this day.”
However, the elder Crawley also operates Texarkana 67 Speedway in Arkansas, which takes up much of his time, limiting his ability to help his son on race nights.
Landon Crawley Looks to Travel More
Enter Jason Sides.
“Landon is young and has a ton of 360 experience,” said Sides, of Bartlett, Tennessee. “Late last season, he drove my 410 at Tri-State Speedway in Pocola, Oklahoma. He took to it like a fish takes to water. It all fell into place for me at that moment.”
Sides transitioned from full-time sprint car driver to owner in 2022. He had been seeking out drivers who could race his equipment. Landon Crawley fit the bill.
“Jason never said why he chose me, in a world where there are 10 times more drivers than 410 sprint cars,” Crawley said. “We never talked about it. I knew life on the road would give me an endless list of learning experiences. I’ve only been home two months this year.”
The Struggles of a Rookie
Crawley, now 16, first raced sprint cars at age 12. He followed ASCS two years ago and ran mostly locally in 2023. This year he’s racing the World of Outlaws circuit.
“Everywhere we go is a new track for him,” said Sides. “[When] we’ve visited some tracks a second time, I’ve seen a huge improvement in Landon’s skills. It’s been a good fit all around.”
Crawley went from racing 30 times a year to more than 100 times this season.
“The experience with the World of Outlaws is a totally different atmosphere,” Crawley said. “It’s not so much about the car — I’m very comfortable in a 410. All the people I am racing with are new to me — and they’ve been around for years. The racers are aggressive. There is a bigger want to win. This is their living, and every race matters. Every race is the crown jewel event at every racetrack. At the start of the season, I was nervous for the first few races. Now I do what I have to do and I’m accustomed to the atmosphere I’m in.”
A Rookie Learning from a Rookie of a Year
Crawley, who’s still in high school, takes his classes online. However, as far as racing, his education comes while barnstorming the country in sprint cars. Crawley seeks the title of World of Outlaws Rookie of the Year. Fortunately, he’s learning from a Rookie of the Year winner, Jason Sides.
“There is a lot to be said about living on the road,” Sides said. “There is book smart and there is street smart. Living on the road helps a ton with both.
Jason Sides sees a Landon Crawley as a rising star.
“When you say ‘true rookie,’ you are talking true rookie in reference to Landon,” said Sides. “Next year you will see more improvement. In two years, everyone will know Landon.”
As much as Sides believes in Crawley, Crawley himself is developing confidence, too, as he follows the sprint car circuit.
“Once I get the experience, I can get around halfway decent,” Crawley said. “It’s has been hard to be fast out of the gate at a track I’ve never been to before. There is always something to learn and to work on — the results will show what I’ve learned.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
