Teenager to a Champion – From The Drivers Project
I ended up in a 410-sprint car very early in my career. I first raced a sprint car in 1996. My family and I went straight to ASCS because it was somewhat local at that point and we could race more. In 1997, we did the full ASCS National Tour which was still pretty much a Southern tour at that point. Nineteen-Ninety-Eight was the first year I drove a 410. We only had one and we had planned on running 10-12 races that year.
My first big break came in 1998 when Lance Blevins got taken out of his car by his father. I can still remember Joe Ray Blevins called my dad and we were at the start of ASCS Speedweek at Creek County. He called and asked if I could fill in the following week for Lance at OklahomaCity. At that point he wasn’t sure how long he wanted me in the car but it ended up being about six weeks. The last race that I ran for them was the Kings Royal. I had been to Eldora one time prior to the ‘Royal.’ So, we went there and I was absolutely terrible the first night, as I probably should have been, given that I had never been there in a 410.