(Toledo, OH) Former ARCA and NASCAR driver, Matt Tifft, of Cleveland, OH, will be making his return to asphalt circle track racing this coming Saturday, September 14 at Toledo Speedway. Tifft will be competing behind the wheel of an ASA STARS National Tour car in the 36th running of the Corvetteparts.net Glass City 200 presented by DTS Drive Train Specialists & Courtyard By Marriott.
The 28-year-old competitor made a full-time run at the NASCAR Cup Series in 2019 but his season came to an abrupt end late in the season at Martinsville Speedway, when a seizure caused him to faint at the track. Tifft was taken to the hospital, was diagnosed with epilepsy, and his racing career was halted. This all came after Tifft had surgery a few years earlier, in 2016, to remove a benign tumor from his brain.
Fast forward to 2024, Tifft returned to the driver seat with a clean bill of health in a Dirt Super Late Model as well as road course racing, including the Trans Am Series. Tifft has had a busy schedule, especially on the dirt side, competing in over 30 events between dirt and road courses. This season, Tifft picked up a couple of wins on the road course at Road Atlanta and has had a couple of top five finishes on the dirt side.
Tifft will be driving a Super Late Model as a teammate to current ASA STARS point leader, Casey Roderick. It will be an Anthony Campi prepared #57 with support from his season long sponsors, PB B’laster and GUNK Degreasers.
“While I didn’t have any intentions of running any asphalt late model races this year, the opportunity came up to race with Anthony Campi racing here recently for the Glass City 200,” explained Tifft. “I’ve had a lot of fun on the dirt side of things but I wanted to race in a competitive series and see how I could do. I honestly don’t have any set expectations but want to go out and have fun and be competitive. Hopefully, we have a great run and come back for more in the future.”
While the dirt track racing has been a new experience for Tifft, returning to asphalt will be familiar territory as he was formerly an ASA Midwest Tour full-timer in 2012, where he finished 5th in the standings. Tifft was also an annual New Smyrna World Series Super Late Model racer between 2011-2014 and has made starts in other major asphalt Super Late Model events.
For Tifft, Saturday will be his first appearance at the Glass City 200 but did have a 3rd place finish in an ARCA Menards Series race at the track in 2014. He also has a Super Late Model start at the ½-mile in a CRA Super Series race in 2013.
Tickets for the Glass City 200 at Toledo Speedway are available and can be found by clicking here. Tickets and pit passes will also be available at the track on race day.
The Glass City 200 at Toledo Speedway is scheduled as a two-day show, with on track activity Friday September 13th and Saturday September 14th. You can find the full Schedule of Events by clicking here.
For the full ASA STARS National Tour schedule, plus Super Late Model rules and other information, please visit the series website at starsnationaltour.com, or be sure to follow the series on social media (Facebook: STARS National Series | Twitter: @racewithstars | IG: @starsnational).
