McCreadie will drive the Altas Paving #66 Big Block and 358 Modified at Super DIRT Week 51
Tim McCreadie is coming home.
Home to family. Home to friends. Home to where his racing origins began. And home for unfinished business at Super DIRT Week.
The Watertown, NY native has an opulent racing resume, highlighted by multiple national dirt Late Model titles, a Chili Bowl title, a World 100 win, 21 Super DIRTcar Series wins and a Super DIRT Week Small Block title. But the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 still lingers as a dream.
“It would be pretty amazing (to win the ‘200’),” McCreadie said. “I always went [to Super DIRT Week] as a kid. Missing time at school to go to Super DIRT Week every year was kind of the norm. I’ve been fortunate enough to run big events like the Chili Bowl and World 100, things of that nature that are just massive, massive events.
“It’s neat to go back and do it. If I didn’t think we could do it and didn’t think it was a neat event all around, I probably would look at doing something different that week and be off for the weekend. To go back to that, I’ve never been able to win it, so there is a little bit of that draw. We’re going to go in there with our eyes open and hopefully lightning can strike, and we can do something special.”
McCreadie – son of “Barefoot” Bob McCreadie, the 1986 Super DIRT Week champion – will pilot the Petruska family’s famed Atlas Paving #66 Big Block Modified and 358 Modified at Oswego Speedway for Super DIRT Week 51 (Oct. 2-8). It’ll be his first time back at the premier dirt Modified event since 2018 and first time driving the #66 at Oswego.
He’s driven the car in select races the past couple of years, adding his name to an elite list of drivers who’ve ran the car, including Brett Hearn, Stewart Friesen, Ryan Godown, Jeff Heotzler and Danny Johnson. Last year, he scored an emotional win for the team, giving them their first victory since losing Jared Petruska in 2020.
“If you look back over the years in racing, they’ve been one of the top teams ever to do it,” McCreadie said. “To be with the Atlas team, the whole Petruska family, it’s exciting for me that they want me to do it. Hopefully, I can live up to the expectations of what they’re used to doing. We’re excited, all of us, to go there and put our best foot forward.”
McCreadie’s busy “day job” as a full-time Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series driver has allowed him time to only run a handful of Big Block Modified races the past few years. And while he’s used to switching between various race cars throughout his career, he admitted the ever-changing nature of dirt Modified suspensions might have him behind the 8-ball a little.
“It’s not like I haven’t run coilovers, I’ve run coilovers forever, just the way they do things is a little different,” McCreadie said. “The problem we have is finding a baseline on load that’s going to hopefully be competitive, just for the fact that I don’t run every week. You can put baselines in a lot of cars, but it is usually the massaging that gets your speed. So, that aspect is a little tough, but as far as jumping in different types of cars, I’ve been doing it throughout my career on and off. The biggest thing is you just want to be competitive.
“We want to win. But we’re realistic, too, that every year that I don’t run as many races as I used to it’s probably hard to recapture some of that speed. But you never know. Give us three or four days at one place where we can concentrate a little bit and not have to worry about the Late Model.”
Getting to run the 358 Modified in addition to the Big Block will help with that learning curve, too. While there’s a vast difference in horsepower between the two cars, every lap on the track will help prepare him for the ‘200’ on Sunday (Oct. 8). He’s also a fan of the $20,000 payday for the DIRTcar 358 Modified Salute to the Troops 150 (on Saturday, Oct. 7).
“If we’re going to be there all week long, we might as well take advantage of as much track time as we can get,” he said.
His homecoming will also allow him to race with his younger brother, Jordan McCreadie, again, in both the Big Block and 358 Modified divisions.
“It’ll be cool to go and get to race against him again,” said Jordan McCreadie, who is in contention for the 2023 DIRTcar 358 Modified Series championship. “It’s been over a year now… It’ll be great. Hopefully we can put a show on together. It’ll be cool.”
While “T-Mac” has the comfort of not having to worry about points throughout the week, he said that won’t make it any less stressful. He still wants to run well. And he still has unfinished business with the $51,000-to-win Billy Whittaker Cars 200.
“It’s just like anything, you find your division and it’s the Indy 500 of that division, or Daytona 500, or whatever you want to say,” he said. “They’re all unique and all rank up top. A win at Oswego for me, personally, would be as big as winning Chili Bowl or the World 100. It’s one of the top things I’ve never been able to do that I’d like to do. Maybe once before it’s all over with. It’s as high up as any of the other ones I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part in.”
To see McCreadie at Super DIRT Week 51, Oct. 2-8, get your tickets HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every lap live on DIRTVision.
