Austin Wayne Self Delivers an Exciting 3-for-3 at Southern National Despite Mid-Pack Start

Despite starting 11th in only his fourth run at Southern National Motorsports Park (SNMP), Austin Wayne Self made an exciting drive to the front of the pack to once again deliver for his fans and sponsors and give them a 3rd spotlight finish in as many races.

The $2,000 bounty on the undefeated 08 car (Deac McKaskill) brought out a host of talent for the 150-lap feature event Saturday night in Kenly, North Carolina in a race that would see only a single caution brought out on lap 57 by a wild 3-wide situation when Austin put the 07 Sport Clips Chevrolet inside the 2-wide battle being fought by the 05 and the 20 cars.

“Doug (05) and Darrel (20) were really fighting it out in front of me,” said Austin Self. “I followed them for about 5 or 6 laps waiting for one of them to complete the pass and follow them through. But when Doug moved Darrel up the track going into turn three, he left the bottom wide open and I made the move. I knew I was carrying enough speed to clear them on exit but then Doug turned down on me just after the middle, which scrubbed my momentum. We all three came out of 4 clean. But then for some reason, Doug turned down again in the middle of the front straight. I backed off and he just rolled across my nose. Fortunately, there was no damage to our car and we were able to stay out and continue our run.”

“We set our car up to be fast at the end of the race so we would have something for the 08 car when it mattered,” said Brian Rundstrom, Crew Chief for the 07 Sport Clips Chevrolet. “It worked out great because it looked like we were the fastest car on the track at the end. Unfortunately, the late race caution that we were hoping for never came and never got that chance to challenge Deac for the lead.”

“The 11th place qualifying run didn’t help either,” says Brian.  “We used up our 3 practice sessions making sure our car would be fast with old tires. So we never got a chance to practice a sticker run for qualifying. But we sure didn’t think the car was going to be that bad on stickers. Austin ran the car as hard as he could in the qualifying run but you could see the car pushing up the track from middle out – especially in turns 3 and 4. It was terrible and really had us second-guessing our race set up. I don’t think we will make that mistake again.”

“I think that was a great race for the fans and the sponsors and really, even for the crew and driver,” said Tim Self, President of AM Racing. “The run up from 11th to 7th was cool. The 3-wide move in 3-4 had everybody on their feet. But the late race charge from 7th to 3rd was nothing short of amazing to watch. I think that is what the crowd was watching. There was no racing going on up front. The show was watching the 07 car absolutely fly through the field in the last 50 laps of the race and finish on the podium once again. We may not have won tonight, but we didn’t let anybody down either. Everyone – I mean everyone – got their money’s worth. If there had been a late race caution to restart the field we would have had real Saturday night barnburner here in Kenly. Think about it; the 07 and the 08 cars starting on the front row with only 5 to go.  Maybe next weekend!”

“That was definitely a fun race,” says Austin. “Langley 2 weeks ago was fun, but not as fun as tonight. I can’t wait to get back here again next weekend. I think we can beat Deac if we can race him at the end. He is so fast in the beginning of these races that unless there is a yellow and a restart you can’t catch him. But we do our best at the end of the race. The rule of thumb is that there is always a late Race yellow so that is what we plan for and that’s how we set up our stuff. To be fast in the end.”

“I’d like to thank all of our fans for their support and encouragement. To our Facebook and Twitter fans who continue to be part of all we do, and our local track fans; we will always work hard to deliver a good show make you proud to be a big part of our races. Thanks to Sport Clips Haircuts, AM Technical Solutions, Big Red, The Bridge School, OTX and K1 Race Gear for their continued support. Thanks to Soldier’s for Faith for all of their prayers and most of all thanks to God for His Grace and hand in all we do.”

Austin, Sellers Racing and the 07 Sport Clips Haircuts Chevrolet will race at SNMP one last time on June 9 before heading to Motor Mile for a set of races on June 16 and 23.  They are then scheduled to be back at SNMP again July 7th.

 

About Austin Wayne Self

Austin Wayne Self, a 16-year-old NASCAR driver from Texas, races for Sellers Racing in Late Model Division of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.  Self has 5 NASCAR wins in less than 2 seasons and 24 career Top 5 finishes.  Self has also won 14 career national and world Karting championships, having competed since age 4. Self’s career goal is to race NASCAR Sprint Cup and do one-off IndyCar races at the Indianapolis 500.

Learn more about Austin Wayne Self by visiting:
Website www.awsracing.com
Facebook www.facebook.com/AustinWSelf
Twitter: www.twitter.com/AustinWSelf


About Sport Clips

Sport Clips is headquartered in Georgetown, Texas and was established in 1995 by founder and CEO Gordon Logan. The franchise ranks in Entrepreneur Magazine’s top 20 “fastest growing franchises” and in the top 100 in the “Franchise 500”, in the top 10 in Forbes’ “Top 20 Franchises To Start”, and in the top 50 in Dun & Bradstreet’s AllBusiness.com “2012 AllBusiness AllStars”. Sport Clips is the “Official Haircutter” of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and offers veterans preferential pricing on haircuts and franchises. Our “Help a Hero” program has donated more than one million dollars to help soldiers overseas and in hospitals call home through the VFW’s Operation Uplink. Sport Clips is a proud sponsor of Joe Gibbs Racing’s NASCAR drivers, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin, and holds partnerships with several NCAA programs, and teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL). To learn about franchise opportunities click here, and for locations throughout the United States, visit SportClips.com.  For media resources and additional information on Sport Clips, visit SportClipsMedia.com.

 

Share Online

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email