Landon Huffman wins Montana 200 debut

Contact with Washington’s Danica Dart disabled power-steering for the East Coast racer, rendering the final 50-plus circuits on the high-banked 3/8th-mile Mission Valley Super Oval all but impossible.

A mile-high challenge for the Claremont, North Carolina, native and 2022 Hickory Motor Speedway Late Model track champion in his first trip to the Treasure State.

“Can’t say I’ve ever done that before,” Huffman said with a grin.

Huffman started ninth, raced as high as second, and finished eighth one lap down, largely surviving destruction in the 33rd annual Montana 200 that saw 18 cars fail to finish.

“I’m impressed as I can be,” Sharpe, a Virginia native turned Montana racer, said.

“I don’t know 10 people on Earth that could’ve driven 58 laps without power-steering in one of those things.”

Huffman’s journey West began nearly a year ago.

Third-generation Polson racer Blaise Burland, who also made his first Montana 200 start Saturday, mentioned Huffman as a possible teammate of 2023 winner Shelby Thompson.

Burland knew the CARS Tour regular through online iRacing and Huffman’s YouTube channel, where he vlogs his racing exploits to nearly 30,000 subscribers nationwide. He reached out on Facebook last winter after traveling to North Carolina on a family vacation, received a quick response from Huffman, and linked him with Sharpe.

“I’m a grassroots short-track guy from North Carolina, right?” Huffman said. “I’ve never really had any money to do much else…

“The opportunity to travel all the way out here and do something cool is a blessing. Always going to take that [opportunity].”

The rest, they say, is history as Sharpe and his crew worked this spring, and then feverishly the last several weeks, to prepare two cars for the Montana 200, both a Northwest Super Late Model Series tour event and inaugural Montana Big 5 Super Series cornerstone.

“Hell would be the best way to explain it,” Sharpe said. “I don’t think I’ve slept more than 10 hours in seven days. It’s been rough, and then we try to promote the race on top of that with the Big 5…

“It’s been a lot of work, but it was a really successful 200. We had a lot of cars, the infield was packed, campers were packed, grandstands were packed. It was awesome.”

Sharpe said he received a ‘good luck’ message from NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie Jesse Love, who Sharpe crew chiefed for in the ARCA Menards Series West.

Love, Sharpe said, had organized a Montana 200 watch party (viewed on Racing America) in North Carolina, exactly the exposure desired by those looking to grow Montana’s premier racing event.

Love plans to race at the Mission Valley Super Oval on Aug. 3 in the Wild Fire 125.

“That’s pretty cool to know we’ve got a reach like that right now,” Sharpe said.

A second-generation racer, Huffman is the son of Robert Huffman, five-time NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series champion.

Landon started a handful of NASCAR Truck Series races from 2017 to 2019, but the 28-year-old continues to make his biggest mark on the southeast’s local short tracks.

“I wouldn’t be in the sport if it wasn’t for [my dad],” Landon said. “Racing is a money sport, and when you don’t come from money, you’ve got to have someone in your corner that’s really good at making chicken salad out of chicken crap.

“That’s kind of been my MO my whole life. My dad has been my mentor and taught me everything I know about a race car. I’m fortunate I get to race every Saturday night with him in my corner.”

Landon flew to Montana with his wife, Brooke, and a few family members. He went fishing Thursday and quickly began running into fans and like-minded racers as the weekend approached.

He talked racing and the glory days of NASCAR over popsicles with Helena’s Jason Kreth, who crew chiefed in the Busch North Series some two decades ago, and bounced racing tidbits off Washington native and teammate Thompson.