WYMORE, Neb. — Kaylee Richards wasn’t even thinking about racing for points in 2024.
Now she’s thinking about knocking out walls to make room for an expanded trophy room in the basement.
Richards capped a 24 Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact feature win season with a unique double, becoming the first driver to win both a national championship and the Lady Eagle award the same season.
“Originally, I didn’t even want to race for points this year. I’d done it for so long I kind of wanted to take a step back and race for fun and not for points,” said Richards, from Wymore, Neb., and just the second female driver to win an IMCA national crown. “My husband Dillon talked me into racing for national points and to give it everything I had.”
IMCA’s first husband and wife national champions – Dillon won the Sport Compact crown in 2017 and topped the Hobby Stock standings in 2022 – will take multiple turns walking across the stage during the national awards banquet.
Kaylee was track champion at Concordia Raceway and Junction Motor Speedway as well as Nebraska State champion; Dillon led Hobby Stock point standings at Beatrice Speedway and Eagle Raceway and goes home with a crew chief of the year jacket as well.
“The national championship and Lady Eagle are definitely my proudest accomplishments this season. I had never been down to Concordia before this year, so getting a track championship my first time there was a pretty good accomplishment, too,” she said. “Winning the Lady Eagle wasn’t my original goal. We never talked about that before the season started. We just talked about the national championship, and I did start to get a little nervous with Johnny Thomas in second because he is such a tough competitor.”
Richards was an eight-time winner at Beatrice, with seven more wins coming at Concordia and six at Junction. She and Dillon raced at the same track on the same night 23 times, with both winning on five of those occasions.
When he raced at a different track, she traveled early in the season with sister-in-law Alexis Richards or went solo. After totaling her car on Jul 19 at Beatrice – Dillon built a new one in four days – she won 10 of her last 15 starts to clinch both national and Lady Eagle titles.
“This season I had to give it everything I had,” said Richards, who paced standings for the 290 female drivers who competed in IMCA this season. “Everybody who supported me never let me give up, because we had goals at the end of the season we wanted to achieve.”
Richards was in high school when she came home to a Sport Compact her mother and racer Ronda Mewes had purchased for her. She became the first female track champion at Thunder Hill Speedway in 2012.
Given the amount of hardware the Richards will be bringing home from the banquet, the next question will be how they display it all.
“Throughout the season, all our trophies go in our living room. At the end of the season I take them to the trophy room downstairs,” Kaylee explains. “All of our banquet trophies will go into the living room until the end of next season and then they’ll transfer to the trophy room in the basement.”
“We’ve thought about redoing the basement and getting a pool table. We’d have to knock out walls. Our whole basement would basically be a trophy room at that point.”
Jena Barthelmes was IMCA’s first female national champion, winning the inaugural Sport Compact crown in 2007. That’s the same season the first Lady Eagle award was presented.
By The numbers
Wins-24
Top Five Finishes-38
Starts-50
Her Crew
Husband Dillon, daughter Paisley Wilson, mother Ronda Mewes, Wade Jungbluth and Mike Corey.
Her Sponsors
Richards’ Speed Shop, WEB Chassis, Craze Nutrition, BWD Dryer, Cat’s Fireworks, Kotchulookin Graffix, Beck’s Hybrids, Perfectly Posh by Shawna Argo and Succ Ups, all of Wymore; Brian and Bristol, Car Shop with Chop, Jason Kreft, Johnny Thomas Racing, Fester’s Bait & Tackle, Troy Cepak, James Hadorn, Twin Rivers and Super Wash, all of Beatrice; Grandma and Grandpa Mewes of Blue Springs; Nelson Tree Service of Holmesville; Backspin Entertainment of Firth; Seneca Sanitation of Seneca, Kan.; and Koozer Painting of Charleston, S.C.