OSBORN, Mo. — There was no threat of rain at all Friday night at Lawton Speedway, but Scott Bogucki still wound up soaked from head to toe.
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series rookie had just wheeled the Three Stooges Racing No. 51 to his first career podium. Bogucki came home second, trailing only two-time and defending champion, David Gravel.
So, why did the Australia native end up with water dripping from his fire suit in the pits? Well, he made a friendly wager with a track worker equipped with a good memory.
“So, the last couple years I’ve actually been really good at qualifying,” Bogucki explained. “I’ve been getting really frustrated that I haven’t been qualifying good. After qualifying, I was annoyed, and we were parked next to the water barrel, and the track guy is like, ‘You’ll be fine. You’ll be fine.’ And, typical race car driver, I was like, ‘Man, if we’re so good and if I run top 10, I’m going to let you pour that water on me,’ because I’m a shit talker. Well, he didn’t forget that. So, he came up at the end of the night, and a deal’s a deal. So, I had to man up and get the stinky water dumped on me. Thankfully, we have a shower in the trailer.”
The runner-up effort was a result of Bogucki and the Three Stooges crew unloading fast out of the box. With being a newer team and Bogucki and crew chief Noah West not having an extensive notebook for many of the early tracks they’ve faced, finding the right baseline has been a challenge. But they discovered speed at Lawton right out of the gate.
“Honestly, we just really hit on our balance that night,” Bogucki said. “We’ve been getting closer each night. It’s just hard. We get to the track, and we don’t really know where to start, so we kind of have to guess from the start and work from there. By the end of the night, we get to where we probably should’ve started. So, you know, it’s just going to be testing like that.”
Lawton also gave Bogucki and the entire team a much-needed confidence boost. They struggled at Volusia Speedway Park to open the season. The World of Outlaws tour is a grind that takes competitors all over the country nearly every weekend from February through November. It’s easy for any rookie to get beaten down and burned out.
But for Bogucki, this is his dream coming true, and he’s going to make the most of it. Don’t expect Lawton to be the last time the No. 51 finds its way to the front.
“It was good for not only my own confidence but also Noah and then my car owners, Jeff and Laura,” Bogucki said. “What they’ve done is a huge thing, sending us out here. They’ve got a lot invested in it, so it was good for them too. We’ve got all the equipment to do it, and it’s just slowly putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.”
