Ok…What’s he got that the others dont?

[ftfiowa]

RTJ did things in a shaw modified you wouldnt have believed if you didnt see it yourself. then he ran other chassis and still dominated. Anyone who thinks he isnt super talented simply either never watched him race much or is a hater. jimmy owens doesnt have his resume in mods and didnt race against the level of competition he did either. Overton is good also but he isnt RTJ good. and yes RTJ can still get better and more polished. But i think the RTJ doubters were the same people who said kyle larson wouldnt do well in a late model. you were wrong then and you're wrong now. RTJ is a flat out wheelman. im a T mac fan 1st but ill admit RTJ is probably already better than him.

[Pennsboro32]

^

I don’t think anyone is saying he’s not good. He’s definitely good, but he’s not any better behind the wheel than the other sports best, and even if he was a tad bit better than them, he’s not win every race in dominating fashion better than them. He won just a handful of races last season. You can clearly watch the car and tell the car is really good.

[84wedge]

I'll be impressed if he can do it a few years in a row. One good season is an anomaly, multiple good seasons are a pattern.

[ftfiowa]

84wedge are you saying RTJ and his 22 wins(in Lucas alone) vs everyone in 2023 isnt impressive? this isnt "1 good season" , this is the best season ever by almost all metrics. only the little whiner 32p is even close. this year is better than any of supermans, overtons, t macs, pierce, bloomer, moyer, moran, swartz, purvis, inmon, phillips, farmer, owens, pearson jr, marlar, boggs, duvall, etc....its the best season ever and its not over. and tho i dont like him the little whiner is having a great season as well that might be the 2nd best season ever. I respect and know LM history and i cant think of a season better than RTJ is having. Davenport last year was great but i dont think he was this dominant.

[TS FAN]

Driver dominating a season is of course nothing new. The only thing that really gets my attention this year is how the car is good but often not great at the beginning of the race, but then comes on like gang busters the second half. The team has found something that other teams have not concerning that.

That is impressive.


Brownstown was a great example of this. Hudson passes him and takes control of the race. Whoops, the last few laps he comes back and it is not even a race to the finish.

[Pennsboro32]

84wedge are you saying RTJ and his 22 wins(in Lucas alone) vs everyone in 2023 isnt impressive? this isnt "1 good season" , this is the best season ever by almost all metrics. only the little whiner 32p is even close. this year is better than any of supermans, overtons, t macs, pierce, bloomer, moyer, moran, swartz, purvis, inmon, phillips, farmer, owens, pearson jr, marlar, boggs, duvall, etc....its the best season ever and its not over. and tho i dont like him the little whiner is having a great season as well that might be the 2nd best season ever. I respect and know LM history and i cant think of a season better than RTJ is having. Davenport last year was great but i dont think he was this dominant.

It’s not the best season ever. Sure he may have the most Lucas wins in a season but his biggest wins are the PDC, Knoxville, and the Firecracker. There are guys who had more and bigger crown jewel wins in a season. He really needed one of the Eldora biggies or the north south 100. Still very impressive.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

Driver dominating a season is of course nothing new. The only thing that really gets my attention this year is how the car is good but often not great at the beginning of the race, but then comes on like gang busters the second half. The team has found something that other teams have not concerning that.

That is impressive.


Brownstown was a great example of this. Hudson passes him and takes control of the race. Whoops, the last few laps he comes back and it is not even a race to the finish.

He sandbags a lot of times. He's often toying with them. He doesn't show what he's got the whole race, just as Davenport didn't in 2015. If you study the lap times, he picks up a bunch when he has to have it.

[Henry Every]

Ever notice liars assume everybody else is lying too? Or people who cheat convince themselves everyone else is cheating too. It could just be he has a yet un-named Kevin Rumley type dude thats massaging his car or maybe he himself is tweaking things to work better for himself. It use to be that the good guys did their own things to the cars to get an advantage, nowadays it seems everyone wants or needs the manufacturer to tell them what to do, unable to think for themselves or just too lazy or afraid to do for themselves. Having said that, streaks happen and at some point they end or in more stupid scenario's the sanctioning body kneejerk reacts and start throwing out DA rules that hurt everyone, like a coke snorting politician looking for votes. I don't think 95% of the peeps running/working at these sanction even understand racing. It must be like that old maxim about teachers, "Those who can, do. The rest teach." Well in racing its, "Those who can, do. The rest write rule books."

[84wedge]

84wedge are you saying RTJ and his 22 wins(in Lucas alone) vs everyone in 2023 isnt impressive? this isnt "1 good season" , this is the best season ever by almost all metrics. only the little whiner 32p is even close. this year is better than any of supermans, overtons, t macs, pierce, bloomer, moyer, moran, swartz, purvis, inmon, phillips, farmer, owens, pearson jr, marlar, boggs, duvall, etc....its the best season ever and its not over. and tho i dont like him the little whiner is having a great season as well that might be the 2nd best season ever. I respect and know LM history and i cant think of a season better than RTJ is having. Davenport last year was great but i dont think he was this dominant.

Of course it's impressive. So was the one year Jimmy Owens was super fast, then he won almost nothing the year after. Being fast and dominant season after season is far more rare don't you think?Regardless, it's a lot of fun to watch a car that is on another level, like watching Usain Bolt race against some guy off the street.

[klemmabyna]

if they found something, good for them. no doubt he is a racer with exceptional talent. it always takes the perfect mixture of driver, team, and equipment to be successful.

ever wonder if there was some mediocre race team that had a technological discovery that would have worked miracles if someone else was using it?

don't know what they have going but is is extraordinary. hope it continues. and it should make you appreaciate what moyer and bloomquist did year after year after year.

[jog49]

"What the hell does he have?"

TALENT and a big set of cahoonas!

[ZERO25]

Burroughs is the new Rumley/Gadget man!

Perhaps a chemical engineer!

[Tireguy17]

Heard 1 rumor that there is some modified technology applied to it, using a pullbar. Who knows.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

ever wonder if there was some mediocre race team that had a technological discovery that would have worked miracles if someone else was using it?

I don't wonder because I know it happens. Some of the smartest people in dirt late model racing have a real job. Going Lucas racing is too hard and financially unrewarding.

[MIdlmfan]

He is a top shelf driver but his car out handles everybody like tonight you could tell JD was skating bad trying to hold the lead and Thornton’s car you could basically point it anywhere you wanted and it went there to diamond corners like he was doing and nobody else could it has to be digging that’s not driver that is car set up