A pair of third-place finishes last week left Steve Francis feeling pretty good about his Valvoline-sponsored racing team.

Francis authored back-to-back third-place runs on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, on May 13 in the ‘First State 50′ at Delaware International Speedway and May 15 in the ‘Conococheague 50′ at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway. He was a contender for victory in both events — at Delaware he chased eventual winner Josh Richards early until losing second to Brady Smith on a lap-23 restart and then easing his car home with an overheating engine, and at Hagerstown he actually passed Richards for the lead on lap 18 but lost it the following circuit and ultimately settled for third after Darrell Lanigan slipped by him on the final lap.

“We’ll take the top threes,” said Francis, who moved to fourth in the WoO LMS points standings, 120 points behind leader Richards after 14 events. “I feel like we’ve got the corner turned with our program. We’re getting to where we need to be.”

Francis closed out his weekend by entering Sunday’s O’Reilly All-Star Late Model Series event at West Virginia Motor Speedway behind the wheel of Tim Logan’s machine. He won a heat race to put himself in position for a solid evening, but rain forced the postponement of the A-Main to a date to be named later.

After sliding backward from the sixth starting spot to finish a disappointing 10th in the ‘Land of Lincoln 50′ on May 7 at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway, Steve Francis came back strong the next night to end his World of Outlaws Late Model Series weekend in the Midwest on a high note.

Racing at Bluegrass Speedway in Bardstown, Ky. — the high-banked oval that is promoted by his new in-laws, David and Anita Ferrell — Francis recorded a strong second-place finish in the 50-lap ‘My Old Kentucky Home Shootout.’ Though he slipped back as far as fifth early in the event after starting from the pole position and leading the opening lap, he rallied to regain the runner-up spot from Darrell Lanigan on lap 43.

“I couldn’t run with (winner Jimmy) Owens,” said Francis. “But I can’t complain about a second. At one point I thought I was gonna be about a 10th-place car, so we were fortunate to get back to second.

“We kinda got our car a little too tight (at Bluegrass), which is is first for us this year. We’re still working on finding that balance. I think we’re gaining on a lot of things, but we’re still not where we want it to be.”

Francis pulled into a tie with Tim Fuller for fourth place in the WoO LMS points standings entering this weekend’ss East Coast doubleheader at Delaware International Speedway on Thurs., May 13, and Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway on Sat., May 15.

Steve Francis came oh-so-close to experiencing a very enjoyable weekend in the Southeast with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.

On Friday night (April 30) at Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway, the ‘Kentucky Colonel’ won a heat race and advanced from the fourth starting spot in the 50-lap A-Main to grab the lead on lap six when Darrell Lanigan slowed with a flat tire. He was overtaken for the top spot on lap 16 by eventual winner Josh Richards, but Francis hung tough in second until some fender-rubbing racing with Tim McCreadie sent him spinning out of contention in turn four on lap 33. He restarted at the rear of the field and settled for a 13th-place finish.

Francis moved south to Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway on Saturday (May 1) and scored a quiet-but-steady sixth-place finish in the 50-lap A-Main. He started eighth and ran as high as fifth.

Patience and perseverance paid off on Saturday night (April 17) for Steve Francis, who benefited from a rash of flat tires suffered by drivers in front of him to finish a satisfying fourth in the inaugural World of Outlaws Late Model Series ‘Commonwealth 100′ at Virginia Motor Speedway.

After timing 20th-fastest in the 56-car field and transferring to the A-Main with a third-place finish in a 15-lap heat race on Friday night, Francis started 14th in the 100-lap headliner. He spent most of the distance running at the back end of the top 10, but calmly conserving his rubber allowed him to gain positions as other contenders popped tires late in the race.

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I actually had more tire left than I thought,” said Francis, who vaulted from eighth to fifth in the WoO LMS points standings with his top-five finish. “I probably could have run a little harder, but I was worried we wouldn’t make it.”

Steve Francis experienced a forgettable visit to Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway on April 9-10, managing only a 19th-place finish in Saturday night’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series ‘Illini 100.’ After timing 15th-fastest in the 50-car field and finishing fourth in a heat race on Friday night, the ‘Kentucky Colonel’ lined up for the $20,000-to-win 100-lapper in the 15th starting spot. He climbed as high as 10th before a mid-race scrape with another racer damaged his car, hampering him for the remainder of the distance and contributing to his fade from contention.

“Even before we got banged up a little, we had about a 10th-place car,” said Francis. “We tried a few things after hot laps (for qualified cars) that we thought would might be O.K., but they didn’t work out.”

Francis heads to Virginia Motor Speedway on April 16-17 for the $25,000-to-win ‘Commonwealth 100′ ranked eighth in the WoO LMS points standings, 108 points behind leader Tim McCreadie.

World of Outlaws Photo

Kilgore, Texas

— With a little help from a friend, Steve Francis busted out of an early-season funk in Saturday night’s 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main at Lone Star Speedway.

Some helpful hints from fellow former series champion Darrell Lanigan put Francis back on track and propelled him to his first victory of 2010 on the national tour.

“I gotta give Darrell Lanigan a lot of credit,” Francis said after roaring off the pole position to lead from start-to-finish in the first WoO LMS event since 2004 at the East Texas half-mile oval. “We just couldn’t figure out what was going on with our (Valvoline-sponsored Rocket) cars, and Darrell was good enough to work with us and share some information. He actually gave me some shock measurements from his car and we used them on ours tonight – and just like that, it drove like my cars always have for years. Read more »

Steve Francis returned to the driver’s seat last weekend for the first time in a month – a break that included his marriage to Amanda Ferrell on Feb. 27 – and experienced an up-and-down Southeastern doubleheader with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.  

In the tour’s first-ever visit to Ocala (Fla.) Speedway on Friday night (March 19), Francis was not a factor. He started eighth but battled an unruly car – a problem he later identified as stemming from a bent birdcage – throughout the 50-lap distance en route to a disappointing 12^th-place finish.  

The ‘Kentucky Colonel’ fared better on Saturday night (March 20) at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga., leading laps 1-29 off the pole position before being overtaken by eventual winner Austin Hubbard and slipping to a sixth-place finish. He blamed his slide during the second half of the 50-lap A-Main on his failure to tighten up his car sufficiently.

BARDSTOWN, KY – March 2, 2010 – The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is in the middle of a month-long break from competition, but former champion Steve Francis gave a group of the national tour’s top stars a reason to get together away from the track.

Francis, 42, of Ashland, Ky., celebrated his marriage to Amanda Ferrell last Saturday night in Bardstown, Ky. — and there to share the evening with him were four of his closest friends on the World of Outlaws circuit.

The quartet of WoO LMS regulars who made the journey to central Kentucky included Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga., Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., and Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y. Clanton and Smith served as groomsmen for Francis, and Clanton’s son Ryan, 7, was the ceremony’s ring-bearer. Read more »

ASHLAND, KY – Feb 17, 2010 – Steve Francis had no trouble coming up with one word to sum up his 2010 season-opening racing excursion: “Frustrating.”

Considering Francis registered just one top-five finish in 11 starts at three tracks in Georgia and Florida over the last three weeks, the description certainly fits the bill. He never quite found a rhythm in his return to self-owned equipment after two years spent driving primarily for Maryland car owner Dale Beitler.

“This was just one of those trips where things didn’t go our way,” Francis said after his Southern excursion ended last Saturday night at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. “We only started in the top five (in a feature) once or twice the whole time down here, and when you get yourself behind like that it’s hard to come back with the kind of competition we’re running against. Read more »

ASHLAND, KY – Jan. 27, 2010 – Steve Francis is ready to go racing like he used to in 2010. After spending the last two years as a hired-gun driver, the veteran dirt Late Model star from Ashland, Ky., is back this season in his familiar position as an owner-operator. The return of the well-known Steve Francis Racing No. 15 comes during the ‘Super Bowl of Racing VI’ scheduled Jan. 28-30 at Golden Isles Speedway in Brunswick, Ga. “I’ve been my own boss for most of my career so I’m excited to be back on my own,” said Francis, whose primary focus in 2010 will be chasing the World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship that he won in 2007 when he last fielded his own team. “I’m sure there’s gonna be a little bit of an adjustment period, but I’m confident we’ll make this work because I have great equipment and a great group of sponsors and supporters.” Read more »