Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dives Into the ‘Crazy’ Supermodified Racing History

If there is one thing we know for sure about Dale, it is that the man is a walking, talking encyclopedia of motorsport history.

You can talk to him about the polished, corporate world of modern NASCAR, but if you really want to see his eyes light up, you have to dig into the dirt tracks, the short tracks, and the absolute mad science of grassroots racing.

Recently, Dale took to his podcast to absolutely geek out over one of the wildest, rule-breaking, and downright terrifying chapters in racing history: supermodified cars.

If you aren’t familiar with supermodified racing, buckle up. Because this isn’t your standard Sunday drive. This is the story of grease monkeys turning into literal aerospace engineers just to go a fraction of a second faster.

1. Why Dale Can’t Get Enough of the Oswego Speedway

Let’s set the scene. It’s the 1960s. Modified cars are making the jump from dirt tracks to asphalt, and the rulebook is little more than a suggestion. Enter Oswego Speedway in New York. While most tracks were trying to figure out how to keep things safe and standardized, Oswego became the Wild West. It became the ultimate proving ground for speed. Dale recently highlighted the Oswego International Classic, a grueling 200-lap marathon that eventually became one of the highest-paying short-track events in the entire country. “They’re crazy. Just looking through that book about the classic itself, the evolution of those cars is fascinating. It’s a history of the classic, which is a supermodified race. The biggest, maybe supermodified race in the country at Oswego. And it does a really good job of sort of going race by race, giving you, kind of, a couple of paragraphs on how the race played out and who finished where, and you learn about all these incredible names that raced in that race and raced in super modifieds.”

But it wasn’t just the money that made Oswego legendary; it was the sheer lunacy of the machines showing up to race. We are talking about offset frames, massive sprint-car wings, and engines hanging completely out of the sides of the cars. It looked like something out of a Mad Max movie, but it handled like a dream. For a pure racing purist like Dale, looking back at Oswego is like looking at the Renaissance of American motorsport.

2. The Mad Scientists of the Asphalt: Shampine, Gibson, and Benson

You can’t talk about the history of supermodified racing without tipping your cap to the absolute lunatics who built these machines. Dale made sure to shine a massive spotlight on the pioneers who looked at a standard race car and said, “Yeah, but what if we made it weirder?” Take Todd Gibson, for example. The guy took an Indy roadster and adapted it for supermodified racing. Then you have Jim Shampine, the creator of the revolutionary “wedge car.” Shampine didn’t just participate; he dominated, taking home five championships and fundamentally changing how people thought about aerodynamics on a short track. And of course, there’s Johnny Benson Sr., an early driver whose fearless legacy was recently recalled by his son, Johnny Benson Jr. When Dale talks about these guys, you can hear the reverence in his voice. They weren’t just drivers; they were pioneers risking their necks in experimental rockets just to chase a checkered flag.

3. What This Means

Why does Dale bringing this up even matter today? In an era when racing can sometimes feel overly engineered and heavily regulated, looking back at the supermodified era reminds us of the sport’s raw, beating heart. By spotlighting this niche pocket of racing history, Dale is doing what he does best: protecting the soul of motorsport. He is reminding the younger generation of fans that, before wind tunnels and multi-million-dollar simulation rigs, there were just guys in garages with a welding torch and a crazy idea. It is sparking a renewed interest in Oswego Speedway’s enduring legacy, and it might push historians to give supermodified racing the mainstream documentary treatment it so desperately deserves.