The finish wasn’t what Josh Richards wanted in his first feature start in nearly three years. The vibe the outing gave him, though, was undeniable.

“It felt good,” Richards said after a flat tire relegated him to a 17th-place finish in Friday night’s 30-lap Pittsburgher 100 preliminary feature at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. “I feel like it’s been a solid day.”

The 37-year-old native of Shinnston, W.Va., was looking to put in a full evening of action after his initial comeback attempt — Aug. 29 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. — was ended quickly by terminal engine problems in his Rocket Chassis house car team entry midway through a heat race. He accomplished his objective and looked respectable doing it, timing fourth-fastest in his qualifying group, finishing second to Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points leader Ricky Thornton Jr. in the fourth heat and running at the back end of the top 10 in the headliner until pitting during a lap-20 caution period.

Richards put in his laps to knock off any rust he wasn’t able to wipe away in his abbreviated Lernerville appearance.

“I felt not too bad in the heat race, although, you know, it always helps to qualify good, so that definitely makes it easier, to kind of start up front with a clean track,” Richards said. “In the feature I felt pretty solid there and got a rhythm going. I felt like I was actually catching (eventual sixth-place finisher) Carson Ferguson and (fifth-place finisher Jonathan) Davenport on that long green, and then once the caution came out (on lap 14), we were just getting banged around back there a little bit (on the restart) and I got a flat left-front.”

The contact Richards absorbed following the caution also caved in the left-side door on his Rocket XR1.2 machine, but Rocket1 team member Austin Hargrove was hard at work straightening the damage immediately after the feature. Richards stood nearby thinking about Saturday’s 70-lap, $50,000-to-win finale.

“Hopefully we can get in the race tomorrow and run all the laps and make changes and just get more comfortable,” Richards said before adding that his biggest takeaway from the night was that he’s “out of race shape.”

“My body is not used to it,” he said. “My neck is sore, and everything else. After the heat race, I was so out of breath, I’m, like, ‘Uh …’”

The five-time national champion who walked away from competition following the 2022 season also noted that he was very happy to be back at PPMS, a half-mile oval that holds a special place in his heart.

“This is my number one track,” said Richards, who debuted at PPMS as a 16-year-old early in his rookie 2004 season and won the Pittsburgher finale in 2007 and ’16. “There’s no place that drives like it. It’s just a lot of fun, and there’s a lot of nostalgia, too.

“This place, I don’t know, there’s just something about it that’s different. Watching (Rocket Chassis co-owner Steve) Baker race here when I was a kid, the old halogen lights … I just love coming here.”