Chris Davis has been struggling, but he’s hoping he can turn his season around in the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Late Model Stock Tour.
Davis, not to be confused with the Baltimore Orioles first baseman who has hit 12 home runs in 2015, has yet to finish inside the top-10 and has, in fact, missed the field in two of the four races run so far this season. However, the 24-year-old from Bahama, North Carolina is working hard on figuring out the bump-stop setups so he can be competitive in Friday night’s race at Tri-County Motor Speedway (North Carolina).
“It’s been a struggle but we’re getting there,” Davis said. “We’ve been fine tuning the setup. These guys are on the bump stop deal and we’ve never run them before this year. We’ve got a lot of help with Wes Burton and he’s helping us fine tune as we go along. We’re going to a track we haven’t run much at. It’s new for us like Southern National and Hickory. Going to Tri County, I’ve never seen the place, but hopefully we’ll get it dialed in quickly.”
Prior to running the CARS Tour, Davis competed in Late Model Stock Cars at Orange County Speedway and has also made two starts in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. Davis has never won in a Late Model Stock Car and he knows that, if he is going to, he will have to beat some elite competition.
“There are a lot of quick guys,” Davis explained. “It’s stacked all the way through the field. It wll be a pretty good reach for us to get a win but I don’t think it’s completely out of the question. It’s a matter of geting it dialed in and consistently fast. Those guys are wicked fast everywhere and very consistent. We’ve got to be able to unload and be as consistent as they are every week and I think that it’ll start to come to us.”
Right now, Davis’ main focus is on getting better and contending for wins in the CARS Tour. He plans to race in the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park in November and might consider a run in the Valley Star Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway in October – but he’s focusing on the CARS Tour right now.
“We’re debating Martinsville,” Davis stated. “We’ll probably attempt the Southern National deal because it’s local. We attempted to qualify before in 2010 or 2011 and, I feel like we’re a lot closer now than we were then but, just have to see how everything shakes out with the CARS Tour. That’s our main focus right now.”
As for his name, which became a household name among sports fans in 2013 when the Chris Davis in Baltimore hit 53 home runs, he says he sometimes gets jokes about that.
“Occasionally, people come up and say, ‘hey man, I saw your name on ESPN’.”
Although a victory in the CARS Tour would not likely land the Chris Davis from North Carolina on ESPN, it would certainly bring a lot of attention and prestige with it.
The CARS Tour LeftTurnsAndSunburns.com 200 at Tri-County Motor Speedway will be held on Friday night, June 13th at 7pm. RACE22.com will have live, up to the minute coverage on Twitter as well as complete postrace coverage. RACEFEEDX.com will have live, pay-per-view streaming video coverage online.
