ZEBULON, Ga. – Skyline Motorsports teammates Shane Clanton and Tyler Bruening will pursue the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship next year.
For Clanton, it marks the first season since 2005 that he won’t been a regular with the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series, and for Bruening it will be his first time to tackle a national tour.
“I’ve been running with the Outlaws since 2005, and it was just time for a change,” said Clanton, who was the 2015 World of Outlaws champion. “With the way that the Lucas Oil schedule worked out this year, it made sense for us to run it. Also, several of the races are located in close proximity to Iowa, which allows our car owner Greg Bruening to get to see us race more often.”
Meanwhile, Bruening will join Clanton on the tour. The 34-year-old driver from Decorah, Iowa, has his sights set on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Rookie of the Year title.
“Over the past few years, we’ve been branching out more and more with our program in preparation to run a national tour,” Bruening said. “This past season was our best to date with our open engine program. With the help of Shane [Clanton] and Marshall [Green] we’ve been able to take our overall program to a whole new level. We’ve got a lot of great supporters behind us, and we’re excited to tackle this new challenge.”
Bruening enjoyed a banner season this year, which included nine wins, 25 top-five finishes, and 32 top-10 outings. Clanton tallied eight wins, 25 top-five finishes, and 48 top-10 runs. The Georgia racer also finished second in the final World of Outlaws point standings.
“We’re looking forward to running some new tracks this year and getting to race in front of some new fans,” Clanton noted. “With getting into these new markets, hopefully we can attract some new major marketing partners for our team as well.”
Clanton and Bruening plan to take part in a handful of practice sessions before kicking off their 2020 campaign on Jan. 31-Feb. 1 with a pair of $12,000-to-win Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events during the annual Super Bowl of Racing at Golden Isles Speedway.