(Trent Gower Photo)
The Jonestown, PA native hopes to make more progress with family-owned team next season
By Alex Nieten – November 16, 2023
Brock Zearfoss’ road map to elevating he and his team on the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series continues in 2024 with his fourth season on tour.
After three straight years competing with The Greatest Show on Dirt with his family-owned operation, Zearfoss is already preparing for another run behind the wheel of the #3Z with the nation’s top Sprint Car talent.
“You’re racing with the best of the best,” Zearfoss said of the World of Outlaws tour. “Being a family team, we have to look at spending a little more wisely to make it up and down the road. It takes a lot of great people to get up and down the road running the World of Outlaws tour. It’s such a grueling schedule. We have great sponsors that help us do that.”
“The Jonestown Jet” is fresh off wrapping up a ninth-place finish (worth $96,250) in the 2023 World of Outlaws standings – matching his personal best mark. He showed speed early on, passing a combined 50 cars over the first six Features of the season. A top-five run at US 36 Raceway in April highlighted his campaign. In total, Zearfoss collected eight top 10s, qualified for eight Dashes, and earned four KSE Hard Charger Awards.
Despite notching some solid numbers, Zearfoss had higher hopes for 2023. However, he’s pleased with the state of his team and optimistic they’re heading in the right direction for 2024.
“I’m always hard on myself, so I think it was a subpar season,” Zearfoss said of this year. “But we had some good speed throughout the year and struggled in some areas. Being our third season, we’re taking it one year at a time, kind of molding our team into where we think we need to be, working on one thing at a time and focusing on those areas. I feel like we’ve got a solid crew, solid equipment. Now, we’re going to work on our engine program and try to get that dialed in for next year. We’re looking forward to next season. I feel like we left some on the table this year, but there’s always room for improvement.”
Zearfoss plans to have Todd Berkheimer back leading the team and Ron Helmick on the crew. Together, he said they already started working on 2024 during the 2023 season, identifying areas of concern they want to prioritize in the off season.
“We just take a look at where we struggled, what we thought we needed to improve on this season and evaluate that during the off-season and work on that,” Zearfoss explained. “It’s such a short amount of time to work on stuff, but as the season progresses you kind of see where you’re lacking and what you need to improve on. So, we’ve been doing that all year and kind of working towards that, so that’s what we’re going to do this off-season is work really hard at getting that stuff dialed in.”
Heading into 2024 Zearfoss’ career numbers with the World of Outlaws are 252 Feature starts, two victories, three podiums, nine top fives, 60 top 10s, 81 laps led, one Quick Time, and 14 Heat Race wins.
He knew rising through the ranks of the World of Outlaws was never going to be an overtime achievement. He already considered it a five-year road map in his head, especially with having to build up a small family team. But with the knowledge of where improvement is needed, a plan to execute and a great team behind him, Zearfoss has his program in place to take another step forward in his fourth season with the World of Outlaws.
“It’s like a five-year process, I feel like, if you take your time at it,” Zearfoss said. “Obviously, you want to do everything right away and get a jump start on it. But being a smaller, family team we have to spend money a little more wisely. That’s why we’re taking it one step at a time here. We improved on two different spots, and now we’re on to the next phase. I’m excited to get the season started.”
Brock Zearfoss Racing is supported by Moose’s LZ Bar & Grill, Heavy Equipment Loaders and Parts, C&D Rigging, Milton Hershey School, Adamsky Trucking, Klick Lewis Cars, Berkebile Oil Company, CSI Shocks, High Performance Lubricants, AL Driveline, Walker Performance Filtration, Allstar Performance, and FK Rod Ends.
Zearfoss will get his 2024 campaign started when it begins at Volusia Speedway Park (Barberville, FL) for the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, Feb. 7-10. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch all of the action live on DIRTVision.
Alex Nieten | World Of Outlaws | Trent Gower Photos
