It’s Not About The Bike Anymore

Ricky Carmichael has won more times at Las Vegas Motor Speedway than any other driver entered in Saturday night's truck race at the speed complex.

But those victories were on the motocross track, not the 1.5-mile tri-oval where Carmichael will race as a rookie in the Las Vegas 350k NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.

"I've never even been inside the speedway," Carmichael said by phone this week from his home in Florida.

"But I won a lot on the motocross track there going back to the early 1990s," he said of major national amatuer events held there. "I wish we could race the truck guys over there and level out the playing a field a bit."

They wouldn't stand a chance.

Carmichael, 29, would leave them in his dust, which is something they haven't been able to do to him on asphalt ovals this year.

He will start the 219-mile Las Vegas race 21st in points despite having competed in only 13 of 19 truck races for the team owned by Sprint Cup star Kevin Harvick.

Carmichael has finished in the top 10 twice, which is good for a novice but pales to what he accomplished in Supercross and motocross, where he earned the moniker GOAT -- Greatest of All Time.

He retired from two-wheel racing two years ago after setting American Motorcyclists Association records for most race titles (150), which produced 15 season championships, including 10 in outdoor motocross and five in stadium Supercross.

He began racing dirt bikes when he was 3 years old, and he is only in his second year of racing four-wheel vehicles.

"It will be another day of learning," Carmichael said of practice, qualifying and racing his No. 4 Chevrolet Silverado.

"I hope to get a top-10 finish, and anything better than that would be like a win for me. Trust me, I want to win, but I'm realistic."

He has become close friends with Harvick, and they hope to compete full time in the truck series next year and even run a few Nationwide Series races.

"Kevin has gone out of his way to help me," said Carmichael, who qualified third and finished eighth in the second race of the year.

His teammate on Harvick's two-truck team is three-time series champion Ron Hornaday Jr., who leads Matt Crafton by 217 in the points race with six races left. Hornaday began tutoring Carmichael on Sunday about how to handle the speedway's 1.5-mile tri-oval.

"He's above our expectations," Hornaday, who owns 45 truck titles, said of Carmichael. "I'm sure he wants to run in the top five every week, but you have to crawl before you walk."

Carmichael said his most difficult challenge has been understanding how aerodynamics affect his truck when passing in traffic.

But no one has had to teach him on-track patience, which he learned flying over dirt jumps in packs of bikes.

"These races are so long, but I see too many guys, including veterans, try to force a pass too early in a race," he said.

Like two weeks ago at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis, when veteran Terry Cook's pass attempt with 58 laps left sent Carmichael crashing hard into a guardwall when he was running 11th.

"(Cook) got sideways because he forced the issue. I almost ruined myself. It was a lick I'd like to forget about," Carmichael said. "Timing is everything, no matter what you're racing."

It's a lesson he'd love to teach if he could just get them on dirt bikes.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247. Go to lvrj.com/blogs/heavypedal to read more on Ricky Carmichael's plans.