By: Kevin Ramsell
Pensacola, FL – Austin Nason has been busy putting in a lot of bids lately for the family landscaping business as the early spring has kept him busy. But, he also has put in his bid for the 2024 ASA STARS National Tour championship.
The Roscoe, Illinois driver has his priorities in a place where he knows that you have to make money to spend money as he puts in 10-12 hours a day in the family business, along with helping his six-year-old son start his racing career, and compete in one of the top short track series in the country.
Nason hopes to improve on his fifth place finish in the inaugural season in the ASA STARS National Tour and is off to a good start in 2024 with a top-ten finish at the Clyde Hart Memorial last month at New Smyrna Speedway.
“It went good, we were just starting to switch over to Fury race cars and were learning everything again,” Nason recently said when asked about the 2023 season. “We basically had to re-think everything. We are going back to some of the same tracks with our car and our packages have been good, we just missed it a little at New Smyrna. But, we are looking forward to going back to these places and continuing with what we started last year.”
While it was a learning curve with a new chassis, it was also a chance to visit new tracks and re-visit tracks he has competed at in the last decade.
“Most of the tracks, if it wasn’t my first time it has been years since I have been there,” Nason explained. “Toledo, I haven’t been there since 2014-2015, somewhere in there, but we ran good there and had a flat tire while running second. We just didn’t have the luck, we struggled at the beginning but were there at the end.”
Nason is already looking forward to returning to Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida on Sunday, March 24th for the Sunshine State 200.
“We are looking forward to going back to back to Pensacola. I feel like we were good in 2022 at the Snowball Derby. We got a bad set of tires that put us behind the eight ball. We went back for the STARS season opener last year and finished seventh.”
The 28-year-old already has an impressive racing resume. He is a two-time winner at the National Short Track Championships and the All-Star 100 at Rockford Speedway. He has also won Joe Shear Classic and Howie Lettow Memorial at Madison International Speedway, the Father’s Day 100 at the Milwaukee Mile, and the Wayne Carter Classic at Grundy County Speedway.
The 2024 season will be a little solemn for Nason as he won’t be able to compete at his home track Rockford Speedway, the facility closed down after the 2023 season. The famed Speedway operated by the Deery family, was a second home for Nason.
“I grew up as a baby watching everyone race from my dad, Fred, to Ricky Bilderback and it gave me the itch to do it myself.”
At a young age, he wasn’t behind the wheel at the track, but was involved with the track.
“I was always cleaning up after the trailer races, helping Gregg McKarns pick up trash at La Crosse during Oktoberfest, anything really to stay around the racetrack.”
From there, he got behind the wheel of his dad’s Modified then moved into Late Models.
“I hold that place near and dear to my heart, and those back-to-back NSTC championships are, for me, the biggest wins in my career so far,” Nason said. “I tried so many years to get the first one.
“I drive by it every day, and even drove by it this morning and it looks the same. Come June (after an auction) it will be hard to drive by there. It’s just a place I grew up at, it’s tough to lose race tracks which is why we all need to keep supporting them the best we can, or they will all be gone.”
While staying busy with the family landscaping business, Nason really has no thoughts of moving up to the higher levels of racing.
“I’m at home. I am happy with the guys I race with,” Nason exclaimed. “Most of the time we have a lot of respect for each other and we race each other with respect. So yeah, I am at home and I am not sure how much longer I will be doing it until I get kicked out of my seat with my son starting to race. I’m going to enjoy it while I can and then enjoy it with him.”
Nason said that was the similar situation with the transition from taking the wheel from his dad, and noted that he thinks it happened so fast that his dad didn’t notice it.
The ASA STARS National Tour returns to action on Sunday afternoon, March 24 for the Sunshine State 200 at the legendary Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL. The event will be a “Spring Break Stock Car Double Header,” as the ASA STARS National Tour will be joined by the ARCA Menards Series East on Saturday, March 23. It’s all part of a three-day weekend of racing that begins on Friday, March 22 with the season opener for three local classes. All tickets can be purchased online, at 5flagsspeedway.com or trackenterprises.com.
Race fans unable to make the trip to the Florida Panhandle for the Sunshine State 200 can catch all the action on TrackTV.com. TrackTV.com will provide live, flag-to-flag coverage of Sunshine State 200, and is the Official Home for all 10 ASA STARS National Tour events. To subscribe, visit TrackTV.com and click the subscribe button in the upper right corner.
MAVTV will re-air the broadcast on Monday April 1st at 8PM as part of their All American Monday programming line up. To find out more visit www.mavtv.com
ASA STARS National Tour
Founded by Track Enterprises President Bob Sargent, The ASA STARS National Tour for pavement super-late model stock cars debuted in March 2023 for Super Late Model racing in America.
The ASA STARS National Tour is a ten-race championship series, offering a $100,000 point fund. The tour will visit ten different race tracks in 7 states in 2024, with the season beginning in February during Florida Speedweeks, and concluding in early November at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
Track Enterprises (TE) is a racing Promotions Company based in Illinois, which owns and operates the ASA STARS National Tour. In addition to the STARS National Tour, Track Enterprises owns and operates Championship Racing Association (CRA) and the ASA Midwest Tour. TE also has a strategic alliance and controlling interest in the ASA Southern Super Series.
ASA Southern Super Series
The ASA Southern Super Series is a Southeast regional super late model pavement championship racing tour, owned and operated by Tim and Pat Bryant in partnership with Track Enterprises. Founded in 2013, the Series can trace its roots back to the former Southern All Stars Tour and today runs a 10-12 race schedule, competing primarily in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina.
For more information on Southern Super Series and their full schedule, please visit southernsuperseries.com and be sure to follow them on Facebook: Southern Super Series.
