DEVIN MORAN THE FAMILY LEGACY BUILDER

By Ashley Zimmerman

IF FAMILY HISTORY begets the bloodlines that gave fuel to talents and destiny, Devin Moran is right where he’s supposed to be. As a second generation late model driver, Moran has missed few opportunities to light the dirt world on fire, from winning with both the World of Outlaws and the Lucas Oil series to checking off Crown Jewel wins like the Prairie Dirt Classic in a still very fresh racing career.

While the 2022 race season brought a major change for Moran with the loss of his brother as his crew chief, he made the most of their remaining races together taking Florida Speedweeks by storm and closing it out with a major win at East Bay. With a new team, a strong set up, bloodlines meant for victory lane, Moran is well prepared to keep the upcoming season rolling with excitement. Never one to miss opportunities to interview the drivers destined for the history books, Dirt Empire managed to negotiate a few minutes out of Devin Moran’s schedule to review all the things involving dirt and late model racing.

Dirt Empire: With your brother leaving as your crew chief, do you feel that adjusting to someone new is going to pose many challenges?

Devin Moran: Obviously me and Wylie are really close, right? He has been with me full-time since 2014 so there was a lot of stuff that I didn’t have to question him about or go over. This let me focus a bit more on the race car and things like that. I’ve got two really good crew guys now, but they are younger guys, experience is key, and they just don’t have a ton of that yet. I’m hoping we get to that point with them, because like I said, they are good, we just still have to go over things. We’re teaching them stuff every day, and they’re trying to learn, and I feel like if we keep doing that we’ll be really good. It’s a process, and currently we’re at the beginning part of that process, I hope it just keeps getting better and better.

DE: What did it mean to you to be able to close out your brother’s time as your crew chief with a win?

DM: A lot of people know that we love East Bay. I’ve been going there the last 15, well probably 20 years to be honest. I’ve raced there the last ten years in a row. To go there and win a race with it closing down and everything, and obviously my brother leaving, it was really cool to go over and win the finale. I felt like it was a really good race, and obviously [Brandon] Sheppard was really good all week, so to pass him for the lead and win, with a lot of people from my hometown down there it was bad ass for sure.

DE: You’re obviously very close to your family, how does having such a rigorous schedule affect getting to spend time with them? Is there a way that you’ve developed some balance?

DM: I just make ‘em come to the races with me. It’s one of those deals where my dad did it for so long, we all kind of understand how it is. So, you just go to the races, and if they get to come to the races, awesome. If not, we try to have a family game night once a week like on a Sunday, or go play kickball. We try to spend some time together, but like I said, it is what it is, if they get to go then awesome, if not, I’m sure they are going to be watching me on Flo Racing, XR, MAVTV or DIRTVision or something.

DE: In 2021 you racked up 14 wins - what do you attribute this level of success to?

DM: Obviously, Longhorn Chassis are a really, really good race car and we made the change to Bilstein Shocks late May sometime and I felt like that’s when we really started rolling. We clicked off a couple of World of Outlaws wins, we ran really good at a couple Lucas races, and ran well at a couple other races. We went and spent a couple of days at Longhorn, then spent a couple of days at Bilstein, getting stuff figured out. From then on, we’ve just been building our notebook with the setup package we had, and it’s just been getting better and better.

DE: What was the draw for you to return to Bristol this year? Is there anything that you learned last year by winning that you feel gave you any advantage this year?

DM: Obviously it was a little different race this year than last year with it being a day race, so the track was definitely slicker and slower. I felt like our car was really really good, we just couldn’t qualify which is what killed us so much for the Bristol Dirt Nationals, but we had a good race car. We were just kind of dug in a hole every night. There were some things that transitioned, obviously it’s a different ball game at Bristol than anywhere else in the country that we race. So, we took those notes from last year and expanded on them and tried to run as good as we possibly could.

DE: With drivers like Brandon Overton being able to dominate at Eldora like he has, what will be some of the things you will work to improve for the all the huge races they have there every year?

DM: Just working hard, doing some testing, trying to figure out what we can do to pick up speed. We know it’s probably going to be pretty black and pretty slick by the end of the race, so we’ve really tried to focus on ourselves better in that track condition, we just have to keep progressing forward with it. I always try to go to Eldora for every late model race that they have.

DE: Are there any tracks that are must haves on your schedule every year? What makes them important to you?

DM: So, obviously East Bay, I love East Bay. You’ve got the Dream, the World, and of course the Million this year. I had to miss the World a couple of years ago for my brother’s wedding, but I don’t usually miss Eldora for anything. The Muskingum County Lucas Oil race in July, that’s one of my all-time favorite events because it’s in my hometown. I obviously run pretty decent there since it’s my home track, a lot of friends, family, and sponsors are there, so that’s always awesome. Other than that, nothing major. I love going to PDC in Fairbury, that’s another one that I’ve run the last six or so years, but other than that, we just kind of rock and roll with whatever is on the schedule.

DE: What tracks continue to challenge you? What makes them this way?

DM: The tracks that I struggle with the most are probably the tracks in Tennessee, the Carolinas, that type of dirt. The only track in Tennessee that I’ve only ever won at is Bristol and I ran decent at Smokey Mountain a time or two, but that area I’ve never really run great at. The same with the Carolinas, I ran third at Cherokee last year, but other than that, I’ve just never really ran well at those tracks. The biggest reason being that I just don’t race at them often, so it’s one of those deals where I’m just not really used to it. I’d like to go race at those places more, I feel like to be a great racer you have to be able to run anywhere and everywhere. It’s one of those deals where I’d like to go down there and race to make myself better.

DE: What is a race that isn’t a Crown Jewel, that you feel often gets overlooked?

DM: Brownstown is a Crown Jewel for the Jackson 100 but I feel like it’s overlooked. There is a lot going on at that time, you have Knoxville, Eldora, all happening in September. The Jackson

100 is one of my favorite races, I love going there, I feel like that place is really, really good. I ran well at that race, so I might be biased, but I really like Brownstown. I think Jim Price and the whole Brownstown crew do a great job. I don’t think that place quite gets the credit it deserves.

DE: If you had to rank your recent wins, what would be at the top of your favorites list?

DM: Bristol was definitely my biggest win last year. It didn’t pay the most, but definitely winning Bristol was pretty special. My whole family was there, everyone was there hanging out.

Davenport was a really big win for me last year too, the whole weekend at Davenport was awesome for me, I ran first, third, and first, that was a really really fun weekend. I’ve never really run well at Volusia until last year so getting Volusia and winning the big gator was pretty badass, too.