Mark Richards provided a new update on his son Josh Richards and when he might make his return after he did a test session at Sharon Speedway.
Back on June 17th, Rocket1 Racing shared the video of Richards ripping around Sharon Speedway.
— Rocket1 Racing (@Rocket1_Racing) June 17, 2025
A day prior it shared a photo of Richards behind the wheel.
— Rocket1 Racing (@Rocket1_Racing) June 16, 2025
At Lernersville for the Firecracker 100 last weekend, Richards shared with DirtonDirt.com’ s Kevin Kovac when his son might return, “Everybody wants to know when (Josh is going to race), and I don’t know. And I’m not lying. I don’t know.”
“Whenever he decides he’s ready to go, we’ll try to make it happen. It’s just going to be tough right now because we’re getting ready to get busy. It would be hard, just not having the whole crew there, you know, to help him with it. Because these cars, it’s quite a bit to race one of these things today. It’s not like you just load up and go race.”
Richards also revealed that his son did plan to race at East Bay last year, Richards shared, “It actually started (over a month) before the East Bay (Raceway Park) race last year. His wife wanted him to run East Bay, and we was at the World 100 (in September) and I said, ‘Well, there’s a car there (at the shop). You guys are going to need to drive it down there, but it’s ready to go. You can take the other truck and trailer.”
That plan did not work out, “And then he just thought the timing was too close, so we talked about putting a car together for next — for this year — and done our part with that. It’s ready to go.”
He did share that he hopes to see him compete in the Pittsburgher in October, but also hopes it happens sooner than that. There is a rumor that he could return for the World 100. Dirt late model insider Racin’ Jason shared, “I’m hearing the world.., we shall see.”
He been blocked me.. I’m hearing the world.., we shall see https://t.co/ZgRidK1FM6
— 🇺🇸Racin jason 🇺🇸🏁”The_Red_Clay_Rebel”🏁🏁🇺🇸 (@ThonuesJason1) June 20, 2025
While the plan to race at East Bay might not have worked and Richards does not know when he’ll race, Rocket Chassis co-owner Steve Baker wants him back at the track sooner rather than later saying he’ll do “whatever it takes to get him to the racetrack.”
He added, “I’ll go to the racetrack with him if I have to. I’ve got a couple guys that can go with me, because we can’t take anything from that (Rocket1) race team. Those guys have to concentrate on that, where I can go with Josh and concentrate on him.”
In fact, he revealed he tried to get him to compete at the Firecracker 100, “We tried to get him to come here. I said, ‘Josh, if you want to run Lernerville this weekend, we’ll make sure we got everything together and the people that can do it,’ but he had something going he said.”
Despite not getting Richards at a race yet, Mark made it clear he does indeed want to get behind the wheel, “I think he’s definitely itching to go. But he’s got business and things going on, and he’s not been living the race life. He’s been living ‘normal life’ as far as what most people do. When you become a racer, you sacrifice a lot, and he’s gotten used to going on vacations and just having a normal time schedule.”
He elaborated, “People just don’t understand this lifestyle and they don’t understand how hard it is to travel, the time away from family, the time away from just life. You sacrifice everything to do this at this level, and I think Josh has got out of that mode and, you know, I don’t think he’s anywhere near ready to go back to this lifestyle.”
As for how he performed in the test, he said, “Well, I mean, it looked just like he always did. I’ve seen him a lot over the years, and, I mean, it just wasn’t no surprise that he was just going to go out there and do it like he did before.”
Rocket Chassis crew member Austin Hargrove echoed those comments, “Like he never left. Like, I figured he would go out there and make a slow lap, feel it out. We didn’t even know if it would go in gear, you know what I mean? I mean, did we prepare it right? You just never know if something’s wrong. But he pulled out the gate … and (he was) to the wood. It’s like he never left.”
Brandon Sheppard also revealed that Richards was running similar times to him, “From car to car, we could run the same times. We switched back-and-forth a little bit.”
Additionally, Richards was able to provide advice to help improve the car. Mark Richards relayed, “He was a big help to us the other night. I mean, his feedback, has always been really good. And (this time) it was from a different perspective, you know? He hasn’t been out here running, and he said, ‘You know, this is what I see these cars doing, and now I can feel it, and this is where I think we need to work.’ So we worked there a little bit and it seemed like it was better.”
Baker also added, “It was good, and he was in a really good mood. He gave us a lot of good feedback and a lot of good information that we needed. Even if he doesn’t race, if we can get him to do that, come testing with him, that’ll be big.”
When do you think Richards will return?
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