STARS ALIGN: Babb Joins Team Zero, Seeks Summer Nationals Success
Join Babb, Bloomquist, Allgaier, Feger at 7pm Friday for DIRTVison Watch Party

CONCORD, NC – April 16, 2020 – With 98 DIRTcar Summer Nationals tour victories, 12 World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series wins including three Prairie Dirt Classic trophies, the 2014 Illini 100 and countless other accolades, Shannon Babb’s exhausted just about every single avenue there is in Midwest DIRTcar Late Model racing.

In 2020, the four-time Summer Nationals champion is prepared to usher in the next chapter of his storied racing career behind the wheel of a brand-new Team Zero Race Cars chassis built in-part by his longtime friend and competitor Scott Bloomquist. In Babb’s mind, the move is all about being the best he can be at his age.

“I’m running out of racing seasons in my life,” Babb admitted without hesitation. “I wanted to be a part of the team. I wanted to feel like everything I was doing was 100 percent the best that I could be. To be the best that I can be, I’ve got to have everybody on my side.”

Babb’s maintained a great racing relationship with the 2004 World of Outlaws champ over the past few decades, and the respect they have for one another has now given them the opportunity to connect at a more technical level and share their knowledge and data to be put towards a common goal.

This Friday night at 7 p.m. ET on DIRTVision, watch Babb and Bloomquist star in an all-Illinois episode of the DIRTVision Late Model Watch Party presented by Morton Buildings, featuring classic victories by Bloomquist at the Illinois State Fairgrounds Mile and Babb at Farmer City Raceway. The two, along with Justin Allgaier and Jason Feger, join Dillon Welch in the DIRTVision studio to provide commentary on those big moments of their careers.

“We’ve raced together for a lot of years,” Babb said. “He’s an awesome sportsman, and he’s always been there for me if I need to bounce an idea off of him or something. I’ve always had a ton of respect for him and the cars that he builds and what he does.”

Since the upstart of the Moweaqua, IL-veteran’s career in the 1990s, Babb has been seen piloting a number of different Dirt Late Model chassis over the years including MasterSBilt, Victory Circle, Rayburn, and most recently, Rocket Chassis. He’s won many races in each, but after getting a taste of what Team Zero had to offer in his brief stint as part of the Scott Bloomquist Racing stable last year, Babb’s convinced this is what he needs to carry his career in the seat as far is it can possibly go.

“I’ve been in several cars, and they’re all really good,” said Babb, who credits longtime sponsor Ed Petroff as one of his connections to teaming up Bloomquist. “I believe that it’s just like going shopping for a new rifle to go hunting — every one of those is going to fit somebody differently.

“As an individual, I’ve had the great opportunity to be able to work with each manufacturer, and I’m excited to think that [the Team Zero chassis] is going to be a really good fit for me. More hands-on, a little more information… just the fundamentals and the blueprint of the car is what I’m looking for.”

Babb was originally scheduled to substitute for Bloomquist last year at Eldora Speedway’s Dirt Late Model Dream as Bloomquist was recovering from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. However, Bloomquist showed up ready to compete that weekend, and the team decided to run two cars.

Babb took a lot from that experience, saying it was “a real eye-opener,” and learned a lot about how truly disciplined Scott is with his cars and how many answers he had to Babb’s questions. Although Babb wished he had more time to prepare for the event, he did come away with a solid last-to-11th-place charge in Saturday night’s main event, noting how comfortable he felt in the car all weekend long.

“Everything that [Bloomquist] builds has got a reason, it’s just totally different than anything I’ve ever been in,” Babb said. “But, the comfort of it… I could just close my eyes and just go around the racetrack with zero effort. It was what I was looking for.”

Babb reflects back to a time that he considered to be some of the best years in his career – 2005, 2006, 2007 – where he won two Summer Nationals championships, the Prairie Dirt Classic, the Dirt Track World Championship and the Dixie Shootout. All accomplished under the Rayburn Race Cars banner. Fast forward several years later, and those accomplishments are getting harder and harder to come by.

A highlight in Babb’s 2019 season came at the Highland Speedway on the Summer Nationals tour back on June 29, in his Rocket XR1, where he passed the Rocket Chassis house car driver Brandon Sheppard for the lead in the early going and held on for the win. So, there’s no hiding Babb’s versatility in driving different cars.

“When I was part of Rayburn Race Cars, we had great success,” Babb said. “We were able to work closely with [CJ], and those cars were way off from what they are today, so they have all evolved. But at the time, it was right.

“Same way with the Rocket Chassis. There’s no doubt that they are proven, and they run great. But for me, right now, I’m running out of racing seasons, and this is something I’ve always wanted to do.”

All things considered, Babb’s simply ready to get the season underway, now with some of the best technical support available in the Dirt Late Model world in his corner. At 46 years old, he’s thankful for every opportunity his fruitful career has afforded him, and will certainly strive to make the most of this new one aboard Team Zero.

Contact: Nick Graziano, World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series PR Coordinator

Please contact ngraziano@dirtcar.com to arrange driver interviews. To attend one of our events in person, please apply for media credentials online. 

You may duplicate this release with credit to the World of Outlaws and a link to worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/.

For more photos, video b-roll and other digital assets, click here.

SCRUFFY’S WAY: Bobby Allen’s Self-Sufficient Ways Led to World of Outlaws Success
Shark Racing Hall-of-Famer reveals challenges and rewards of driving for himself and building his own race cars

CONCORD, NC – April 16, 2020 – Bobby Allen knew he was on a path to victory at Eldora Speedway on Aug. 9, 1986. He sensed it weeks prior.

His setup was dialed in. His tire selection was on point. His confidence was high. Every detail that produces a win was there.

However, Hoosier, his tire sponsor, wasn’t on the same level. While Allen wanted to run the company’s softer compound tire for the race, Hoosier wanted him to use its harder compound — meant to be comparable to Goodyear’s harder compound tire other teams ran.

Initially, he told them, “no way.” He knew that would be the wrong choice for the track conditions. He wasn’t going to lose another race due to the wrong tire call.

Allen remembered a previous race in Dallas, TX where he was on his way to the win before a red flag came out. Hoosier had him change a tire during the open red, citing it would work better. When the race resumed, he went backwards.

The memory haunted him. He wasn’t going to let it happen again. Not at Eldora.

But while he was a smart racer, he was also a smart businessman. As the owner of his team with a limited budget, he knew the importance of keeping sponsors happy. So, he gave in and agree with Hoosier’s call.

“I agreed with them, but I put on what I wanted to put on,” Allen said. “I went ahead and agreed with them, so I didn’t have to argue about it.”

He kept the softer compound tire on his #1a car and went on to earn his second and final World of Outlaws Eldora Speedway win.

(RELATED: DIRTVision will re-air the 1986 Eldora Nationals during its #DVWatchParty presented by NOS Energy Drink on Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. (ET). Special guests Bobby Allen, Greg Stephens, Kenny Jacobs, Ron Shuman and Danny Smith will be providing commentary about the event, as well.)

“(Former Eldora Speedway owner Earl) Baltes always wet the racetrack right before the races and I could run down there and make the car stick where [the softer tires] wouldn’t burn up because they stuck so hard,” Allen said. “It felt like the motor was blowing up they stuck so hard. I ran them tires and they got me going where I ran up through there and won the race.”

Allen, a Sprint Car Hall-of-Famer from Hanover, PA, has always found success through his self-sufficiency. He drove for himself his entire career and built his own race cars the way he wanted. He built his own motors the way he wanted. And ran his races the way he wanted.

That led to 30 career World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series wins — including the 1990 Knoxville Nationals. He’s currently ranked 20th on the all-time wins list.

Despite that success, Allen considered himself a dark horse. However, Allen’s dark horse mentality only classified his feelings as a competitor. He felt like the Steve Kinser of the field when it came to the equipment he built.

“I always felt like I had the best race cars the way I built them,” Allen said. “I was good at figuring out things, figuring out tires, etc. When you built your own car and it worked good, you definitely liked it because you were fast. And every time I sold a car to somebody it seemed to make them faster. It was definitely a good thing.”

Knowing how to build the right chassis came from his days of go-kart racing, which included winning the 1960 World Championship karting event in the Bahamas and 1961 100cc karting World Championship in Italy.

“I always told people that the chassis made a difference,” Allen said. “Just like if you ever race go-karts, they don’t have any suspension. But by the way the frames are put together and how they flex, some go good when it is tacky. Some go good when it’s dry. Then you learn how to build that chassis until it works that way. In a Sprint Car, you usually could maybe do the same thing with the chassis and then you have the shocks and bars for fine tuning.”

There was always a fine line to how much flex the chassis should have. If it was too stiff there was a small window of what you could do with it, Allen said. Too flexible and it could hurt the chassis or wear it out in a handful of races. If you got it just flexible enough, it could work everywhere with the right setup. Finding that fine line was sometimes a matter of luck, Allen said.

His self-sufficient methods have stayed with Shark Racing, even as his drivers — son Jacob Allen and grandson Logan Schuchart — grow as veteran World of Outlaws drivers backed by Drydene Performance Products. The pair have followed his lead, taking charge of their own cars each race weekend and spending hours with their team working on them.

With the 80-plus race World of Outlaws schedule, Allen, now 76 years old, has had to outsource some aspects of the cars he and the team don’t have time to build, such as getting their chassis from Triple X Race Co. Building their own motors is still in the family, though.

Allen’s nephew, Michael Newman, started building Sprint Car engines about seven years ago and is now one of the top engine builders. Newman’s Racing Engines power several Sprint Car teams around Pennsylvania and are the heart of the Shark Racing cars. His engines have propelled Schuchart to 17 career Series wins, including two wins at Eldora Speedway — tying him with Allen’s win count at the iconic half-mile track.

“He does a really good job putting them together,” Allen said. “He’s learned a lot. I showed him how to insert things and find certain things and gave him some rough ideas. We talk on the phone every day. He has a good concept of why they run good. What makes them run. And we seem to do well with them. And I’m proud of him because he does a good job putting them together and figuring out things that could help, too.”

Allen has always paved his own road to success and built the equipment to do it with. That’s made every win equally special to him. Although, Knoxville and Eldora held a higher distinction. When he knew he had a car to win, he was going get it done his own way. Even if it meant having to make a small fib to a sponsor.

(In Part II, out Friday, Allen talks about what it took to beat drivers like Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell at Eldora Speedway.)