Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Driver Spotlight: Josh Rice - Rookie of the Year Leader

Josh Rice is one of those guys you can’t help but root for. Twenty seven years old, Crittenden kid, second generation racer who grew up watching his dad and older brother bang doors at Florence. He’s always had that raw, backyard‑built kind of speed. The kind that doesn’t come from a wind tunnel or a simulator. The kind that comes from growing up in the pits and learning how to hustle a race car before you even learn how to drive a street car.

This year is his first full run on a national tour and his first season with JRR Motorsports. New team. New chassis. New rhythm. And somehow he’s already leading the Lucas Oil Rookie of the Year battle. Thirteenth in points overall, sitting 370 back from the top. Not bad for a guy who once joked after winning the Ralph Latham Memorial twice in a row that he might not be good anywhere else, but nobody could say he was bad at Florence.

Josh has been grinding for a long time. Started in mods back in 2013. Jumped into late models in 2015 with the Kuzman family giving him real equipment. Won three straight Northern Allstars championships from 2023 to 2025. Picked up big wins at Eldora. Won the Spring 50 three times, won the CJ Rayburn Memorial, Iron Man shows, won at Atomic. He’s not some wide eyed rookie. He’s a guy who’s been sharpening the blade for a decade and finally has the chance to swing it on the national stage.

His Lucas Oil numbers tell the same story. Sixty four career series starts. Two wins. A pair of Latham Memorials, a hundred and fifty thousand in earnings. Average start and finish both sitting around thirteenth. Nothing flashy, nothing padded. Just a guy who shows up and races his way forward more often than not.

Atomic has never been the easiest place for him in Lucas Oil competition. From 2021 through 2024 he’d qualify mid pack, start mid pack, some disasters, but no breakthroughs. Just the kind of nights that make you shrug and say “he’s better than that.” But 2025 is where the whole thing flipped.

At the 2025 Buckeye Spring 50 he rolled out with decent speed in hot laps, then laid down a heater in qualifying. Second in his group behind only RTJ. Won his heat. Started third in the feature. Finished second to the same guy who beat him in time trials. That was the first night you could feel something shift. Like he finally figured out how to make Atomic talk back, even throwing down with the Lucas boys.

Then came the 2025 Independence 50. Hot laps were strong, qualifying wasn’t - twenty third overall. Started eighth in his heat, he'd claw to sixth to transfer. Started seventeenth in the feature. And on a rough, gnarly, character filled Atomic surface that looked like it was trying to buck every car off the track, Josh Rice drove straight through the field and finished second again. Two Lucas Oil shows at Atomic in 2025. Two runner up finishes. Two nights where he looked like he belonged at the front.

And that’s just the Lucas Oil side. Outside the tour he’s been a monster here. Seven wins at Atomic since 2022. Ladies Night, Night of Champions, The Chad Hyatt Memorial, Iron Man shows, unsanctioned races. He’s won on slick, on rough, on elbows up nights where the cushion is trying to kill you, and he’s even won on nights where the track is glass and you have to be patient. He’s finished second in big shows like the Outlaw Invasion and the Atomic 100. He knows this place, he understands her moods, and he’s one of the few guys who can make Atomic's surface look like it's on his payroll.

So when you stack all of that together and look at where he is right now, leading the Rookie of the Year chase, settling into a new team, finding his stride on the national tour, and rolling into a track where he’s been damn near unstoppable in regional competition, you can’t help but wonder if this is the moment. If this is the weekend where the kid from Crittenden finally puts it all together and grabs his third Lucas Oil win on familiar dirt.

Because he’s not walking into Atomic Speedway next weekend as an underdog. He’s walking in as a guy who has already proven he can run with the best here. A guy who's finished second twice in a row in Lucas Oil shows at this place. A guy who has seven wins here in the last few years. A guy who has the confidence, the equipment, and the history to make something happen.

And if you’re standing in the pits next Friday night watching that orange 11 roll out for hot laps, you’re going to feel it too. That little spark in the back of your mind that says “damn, Josh Rice might actually do it this year.”

Photo courtesy Rice Brothers Racing. Photo credit Heath Lawson Photo.