The sharing of information among drivers in a Dirt Late Model pit area is usually a mixed bag.

Your chassis manufacturer, paid racing consultant or longtime racing buddy is a trustworthy source to steer you in the right direction when it comes to shock packages, suspension setups or tire choice.

Asking a random driver or crew member? Drivers say they're wary of looking for info in all the wrong places. Not every competitor believes that honesty is the best policy.

So while plenty of teams are pitted among friendly groups during Eldora Speedway’s Dream XXI, drivers often have a healthy dose of skepticism while discussing the latest speed secrets.

“I think I've been fed a fib or two. But it’s a competitive sport. I get it,” said Trent Ivey of Union, S.C., who on Saturday hopes to make his second consecutive Dream start. “We're all out here trying to do the best we can do and any little bit helps, especially in the days where it's so close. If you think you can get one over on somebody, you might have a little secret or something, you might wanna hold on to it.”

There might be honor among thieves, but determining whether you’ll get a straight answer among racers is another matter.

“Ninety-five percent of the people will tell you straight up what's going on, and then you got your handful of them there that's gonna shoot you a line of s---. You know what I mean?” said driver Wil Herrington of Hawkinsville, Ga., who is driving the Bruce Kane-owned No. 15k at Eldora. “If I'm gonna ask somebody, I talk to people I know who's gonna shoot me straight. So like Brandon Overton, we've been racing in the same area forever, so I know mostly he's gonna tell me straight up what's going on.

“The handful of guys that I deal with, they're gonna shoot me straight and then that's kind of why I deal with them, too. A lot of people don't like me and I don't really like them, so I don't go around ‘em.”

Dustin Sorensen of Rochester, Minn., a regular on the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series, sticks with his inner circle when discussing his Longhorn Chassis.

“There's some guys that I'm close with that I trust that I'll tell them what I'm doing or I'm confident they'll tell me what they're doing. Other guys I just don't even bother talking to because I don't know if they're going to give me a straight answer or not,” Sorensen said Thursday afternoon at Eldora before rain delayed the evening’s preliminary program. “With setup stuff, I got a few guys that I'll talk to and kinda try and we try and help each other out, some of my friends, like if I'm struggling. They’ll tell me what they're doing if they're struggling.

"I just don't even bother talking to a lot of people. It's kind of just like we got our friend groups here that you kind of trust and help each other out, whether it's because you’re just buddies and get along, or you think you can benefit one another. Like for me, I talk to (Ethan) Dotson quite a bit. We're kind of buddies, so we bounce ideas off each other and try and help each other out.”

Longtime Eldora competitor Jerry Bowersock of Wapakoneta, Ohio, has raced long enough to know that questionable info is part of the game.

"I don't think anybody's gonna straight up lie to you. They might not tell you every exact single thing that you're want maybe wanting to hear,” Bowersock said.

“People are might not going to give you everything that they got going on,” he added. “They might give you bits and pieces of it. I mean they're probably not lying to you, but they're not maybe not telling you everything you want to hear.

“It probably depends on how close a buddies you are with that particular person that you're talking to, too. There’s a lot of variables involved with it and stuff but I think for the most part there ain't too many people laying a bunch of heavy bulls--- on somebody, you know. You just might not get 100 percent of what you're looking for. You might get 80 percent of it, you know what I mean?”

Shane McDowell, who owns Shane McDowell Racing with his wife Sara and fields a car for his 59-year-old brother Dale McDowell, says he’d never outright lie to another racer.

"I have too much respect for all the competitors, and I would never misguide anybody,” Shane McDowell said. “I’d tell ‘em, ‘Hey man, I can't tell you that before I’d (lie).”

McDowell added that there’s often so much mistrust among folks in the pit area that, unless you have a good relationship with a competitor, they may not believe what they’re hearing regarding how to make their car go faster.

“Truthfully you can be as honest as you can be and tell somebody the whole truth, and when they walk off they're gonna think you're manipulating it,” he said. "You can tell them the dead truth exactly what you're doing when they walk off, in their mind they're gonna think. 'Yeah, he ain't telling me all of it.’ That’s just part of the sport.”

In the sport for more than 30 years, the McDowell brothers utilize a chassis that’s relatively rare in this era — a Team Zero Race Car co-developed with late Hall of Fame driver Scott Bloomquist — but they have trusting relationships with many top teams in a variety of chassis.

"It don't take long when you're doing it, you can figure out kind of who would help you,” Shane McDowell said. “There's people that's been in this sport, and I say they can name streets after them — one way — and that’s what it is. It’s all one way. When they need something, (they’re) all about it, but when they're really good and you're trying to pick their brain a little bit on something, they kind of Houdini, you know what I mean? You can’t find ‘em. Usually these drivers when they're running really good and they got a really a good package, most time you don't see much of them. They try to keep herself hid. They don't wanna let the cat out of the bag.”

Because Sorensen is a Longhorn Chassis dealer in the upper Midwest, he’s obviously more willing to share information with customers — and potential customers.

He said he’s “kind of got to be honest with them and help them and try to make my cars fast at home so that they look good and we sell more,” adding that there are also “a lot of young guys back home that I try and help out just because I was that young guy not too long ago and there were people that helped me out.”

Herrington follows a policy of helping people who help him.

"I look at karma. Like, if somebody asks me, I tell them straight up, because if I go ask somebody, I want the same back. So that's just me and kind of how I've always done things. I always think about what goes around comes around, so I always try to make the good side of it,” he said. "I feel like you get bits and pieces and a lot of times (what) I've learned over the years is, a lot of the guys answer the question you asked. They don't fill in the blank after that. You get what you ask. I've learned that, and sometimes I feel myself doing that a little bit myself, but I think you get that just being around the big guys.”

South Carolina’s Ivey realizes the “big guys” and national touring drivers are going to be tight-lipped about the latest and greatest.

“The best I can try to understand it is it's hard to ask the guys that are doing it for a living. I just try to kind of make allies with some guys that maybe don't take it quite as serious as some of the national guys and that are willing to help you,” Ivey said. “And anybody that's willing to help somebody, I'd be willing to do the same. So it's kind of that old saying — you just pick and choose your battles — and who you think can help you or lead you and won't do you wrong, and there ain't many of them out there. It's all a good fun sport and stuff, but it’s pretty serious, too.”

Discussing the sharing of information reminded Ivey of attending a race last year at All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla., when he noticed a driver who didn’t have a reasonable setup on his car.

“There was a guy parked beside me. He's from Tennessee and I'd never seen him before in my life,” Ivey said. “I could see some things he had on there that didn't make a whole lot of sense for what we were doing, and I just nonchalantly was like, ‘Hey man, I don't wanna tell you what to do, but I've been here, I kind of know and I'd be more than happy to help you tell you whatever you need to know.’

“It ended up helping him and we made a friendship out of it, so that's cool.”