Austin Nason was a busy driver over the 2023 season. With zero conflicts between the two, the Illinois driver competed for the final Rockford Speedway track championship while also competing full-time with the ASA STARS National Tour.
He finished the inaugural ASA STARS season fifth in the final standings with a best finish of fourth in the season finale at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. He had six additional top-tens during the season, but he also had a bit of misfortune throughout the year.
He suffered through mechanical problems all weekend at Madison, ultimately needing a provisional to get into the race and falling out of the race with a rear end failure. Later in the season at WIR, he ran in the top-five for much of the Gandrud Auto Group 250 before a spin relegated him to a tenth-place finish.
“I think it went alright. We were decent at times and struggled at others,” said Nason. “We showed speed everywhere, we just didn’t have the race pace we needed at the beginning of the race. We always seemed to finish better but the stage points and not getting those at the beginning really hurt us. That’s what we’re going to work on for this year.
“We ran up front at Kaukauna before we had some troubles and we were running up front at Nashville. We showed speed everywhere, we were good at Toledo.”
Nason had been venturing outside the Upper Midwest for a few years to compete in races such as the Snowball Derby, All American 400 and Redbud 400, but 2023 threw a new challenge to Nason Motorsports. The schedule saw three tracks that he had never been to before.
That combined with switching his fleet over to a new chassis manufacturer helped lead to a season of learning for Nason, even when visiting tracks he’s had previous success at.
“There were some tracks that we hadn’t been to and we’ve been slowly switching our fleet over from Lefthanders to Furys. Taking our Furys to some of the tracks we’ve usually taken our Lefthanders to was the biggest thing, just trying to figure out what we needed in the car compared to or Lefthander stuff. That’s kind of our biggest challenge right now.”
While he didn’t visit victory lane with the ASA STARS National Tour in 2023, he did pick up a win with the ASA Midwest Tour at Madison in the Howie Lettow Classic. Additionally, he also won the final Super Late Model race ever held at Rockford during National Short Track Championships weekend.
“We were fast there (at Madison) at the beginning of the year with the national deal and broke two left rear tubes. To go back there and show the speed that we had, it was good to know that we still had a good car.”
He is looking forward to the 2024 ASA STARS National Tour season and additional four-barrel racing, compared to the two-barreled carburetors traditionally utilized in Wisconsin and around the Upper Midwest. With at least a year under his belt at the majority of the tracks on the 2024 schedule and in his new Fury Racecars, he is ready for a second season.
“Getting back to four-barrel racing is the biggest thing. I really like racing the four-barrel and going back to the same tracks, we now have some notes that we can base everything off of and unload a little better than we did last year.”
For more information on the ASA STARS National Tour, please visit the series website at starsnationaltour.com, or be sure to follow the series on social media (Facebook: ASA STARS National Tour | Twitter: @racewithstars | IG: @starsnational).
ASA STARS National Tour
The ASA STARS National Tour debuted in March 2023 for Super Late Model racing in America. Announced in October 2022, many of the best drivers in America will compete in the ten-race national tour with a minimum $100,000 point fund. The championship team will be guaranteed $25,000.
The ASA STARS National Tour is made up of three races from each of the regional pavement Super Late Model Series under the Track Enterprises banner – the ASA/CRA Super Series, the ASA Midwest Tour and the ASA Southern Super Series.
The Team Construction Winner’s Circle program has been announced as a part of the ASA STARS National Tour for licensed drivers/teams with perfect attendance. The program provides additional financial incentives to those teams who support the series.
Track Enterprises, a racing promotions company based in Illinois, will operate the ASA STARS National Tour. It announced the acquisition of Champion Racing Association (CRA) in January 2022 and followed that up with the purchase of the Midwest Tour in July. In October, Track Enterprises President Bob Sargent announced a partnership with the Southern Super Series, which set the table for the formation of the ASA STARS National Tour.
