First time is the charm at Slinger
Track challenges Nationals rookie drivers
SLINGER – Before he set foot in the Slinger Speedway pits, Josh Brock had a notebook with a list of setup ideas he’d like to try. And once he arrived he knew he could lean on local knowledge.
Stephen Nasse built his experience from years of visiting tracks around the country, and he came with high-profile help from a former NASCAR crew chief.
Chandler Smith watched video and relied on his team and its owner – 2011
winner Kyle Busch – to set him on the right path.
The newcomers from the Southeast knew they needed to be ready if they expected to be competitive Tuesday night in one of the most competitive fields in the 40-year history of the Slinger Nationals.
“We’ve wanted to come to the Slinger Nationals for the last few years and really got the opportunity this year due to our racing schedule and work schedule,” said Brock, of Corbin, Kentucky, a champion in the CRA Super Series who also competes with the CARS Tour and Southern Super Series.
“We’ve always ran good on some of these high-banked short tracks, so we were like, well, it would not be a complete test if we did not run Slinger. So here we are.”
Nasse, too, had eyed the Nationals the way he does any of the other big asphalt super-late model specials around the country that he has run, the Winchester 400 in Indiana, the Short Track U.S. Nationals at Bristol, the Snowball Derby in his home state of Florida.
It’s just that Slinger’s quite a trek, and a Monday-Tuesday event is a strain on people who already work real jobs and travel for weekend races. (And it does run dangerously close to a major family vacation.)
“What brought me is just the good racing that I’ve seen in video,” Nasse said. “And everybody that’s around the racetrack always talks about Slinger’s the place to go and it’s my style track and I need to make the trip.
“Last year we were going to, and it just didn’t work out. I’m glad we made it this year.”
Brock and Nasse both work in family construction businesses, which helps with flexibility. But either way, those two and Smith are among an apparently growing number of national barnstormers circling Slinger on their racing calendars.
In their first trip they faced a tough field of local, regional and national drivers that included 2015 winner Dennis Prunty and track champions Brad Mueller and Steve Apel; NASCAR champion Matt Kenseth, the all-time Nationals victory leader with seven; and drivers such as defending champion Ty Majeski and 2017 champ Bubba Pollard, who they know from big races around the country.
The 1987 Nationals – with Dale Earnhardt, Bobby and Davey Allison, Alan Kulwicki and Mark Martin among the competitors – goes down as the most star-studded field in event history. But an argument can be made that this one had as much depth of national shorttrack talent as any.
“It’s definitely a learning curve,” Nasse said of his first impression of the challenging, high-banked quarter-mile. “It’s a learning deal, me trying to learn the racetrack, how to drive it.
Nasse had help this week from Tony Eury Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s longtime crew chief, who is co-owner of Fury Race Cars, one of the preeminent builders of late-model chassis.
Brock was working alongside Chris Wimmer, who won the 2014 Nationals as a driver before becoming a crew chief and car builder. And NASCAR Cup rookie Daniel Hemric was in Wimmer's car. Wimmer deals with Fury and brought his Slinger knowledge and experience to the whole group.
Smith, meanwhile, the 15-year-old Toyota development driver from Talking Rock, Georgia, who has won in the ARCA Series, was here with Kyle Busch Motorsports. Although the team hadn’t been to Slinger since Kyle last raced the Nationals in 2012, the team’s experience was helpful.
“Just watched some footage, relied on Kyle a little bit … just texted him a little bit asking him for his advice,” Smith said. “But overall this place is really cool.”
The Nationals has evolved over the years. The arrival of Senoia, Georgia, native Pollard in 2016 seemed take it in the direction of a premier event for national barnstorming drivers.
“Everybody knew what the Nationals was,” Brock said. “There’s no reason more people don’t come; just there’s a couple of days of hard work and you’ve got travel so far.
“(Travel and different rules) might have hurt a little bit, but overall, we’re here and it could just keep getting bigger and bigger because this entry list … that’s a stout list.”