Oak Hill, WV(July 9, 2012) — Sammy Jasper had high hopes entering his first NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, Late Model Stock Car race at Myrtle Beach Speedway, but after struggling in qualifying, he rallied only to settle for an 8th place finish.
The Oak Hill, WV native left his native state, which was in disarray with hundreds of thousands of people including himself without power following a damaging storm on June 29th. After arriving in the Myrtle Beach, SC area on Monday, July 2nd, Sammy was ready to head to Myrtle Beach Speedway, a track he’d had success on before in a Limited Late Model, but had never raced a Late Model Stock Car on.
His lack of experience in the Late Model Stock Car on the big .538 mile speedway didn’t keep the young driver from having a lot of confidence heading into the 100-lap race. With a guaranteed starting spot in the November, Myrtle Beach 400 on the line for the winner of the race, it would draw names from several different states and as the day unfolded it appeared that Sammy would have a good car for the race.
However, a disappointing 14th place qualifying effort dashed his hopes of racing among the leaders all night. Sammy however still felt confident in the car that crew chief, Ed Berrier had put together for this race and with 100-laps on a track slightly bigger than a half mile, there would be plenty of time to race to the front. Starting 14th, Sammy quickly asserted himself as one of the better cars in the field and found himself in tenth by lap five.
From there he raced among the top ten the entire 100-lap race despite picking up a little damage during a lap 21 crash that he was unable to avoid. However, he stayed on the track and by lap 33, when another big wreck took place, he was up to sixth. For Sammy, it appeared that everything was coming together, but the earlier damage kept his car from performing like it had earlier in the race and relegated him to race among the top ten and finishing eighth. It certainly wasn’t what Sammy and his Fat Head Racing team were looking for.
“That was really disappointing,” said Sammy following the checkered flag. “We didn’t come here to run eighth, I’m really proud of this team that finishing eighth isn’t good enough and it’s not. We came here looking to have a chance to win and that never played out, but we know what to do if we come back down here.”
With that race in the books, Sammy immediately began looking forward to his next start, which will take him back to the UARA-STARS Series, where he’s run strong so far this season. He’ll pick back up on the UARA-STARS Series tour at Caraway Speedway on July 28th, as the series visits the 4/10 mile track for the first time since 2008. Sammy has never raced at the Asheboro, NC track, but is looking forward to getting back to running in the UARA.
“It’s been hard sitting out of these last few UARA races at Newport, Hickory and again this week at Newport,” stated Jasper. “We’ve obviously had some stout runs in the UARA this season, with a second at Kingsport, so I’m looking forward to seeing what we have a Caraway. It’s a track that’s been good to my crew chief (Ed Berrier) and my driver coach (Alex Yontz), so I’m hoping we can get our stuff right and compete for the win there.”
Jasper is supported by Sanshell Products, Friends of Coal, Parrott Race Consultants, Fat Head Racing, Performancenter Racing Warehouse and RACE22.com. For more information on Sammy Jasper be sure to check out his new website at www.SammyJasperRacing.com or you can follow him on twitter at @sammyjasper
