STATESVILLE, NC :: Former UARA-STARS Champion and Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 winner Jake Crum will compete in the Late Model Stock Car ranks again in 2014. Crum will team up with Derek Latham and compete for the track championship at historic Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina.
Crum had been competing part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in a family operation. Crum said sponsorship fell through so he is bringing his talents back to the Late Model Stock Car world in2014 as he continues to pursue opportunities to race in the top NASCAR ranks.
“It’s something to keep me in the seat until some money comes along and we can compete with the top-notch Cup teams in the top three series,” Crum said in an interview with RACE22.com on Thursday. “Doing the Late Model stuff keeps you in the seat, keeps you busy and keeps the fun in it.”
Crum feels optimistic about the season and thinks he can contend for the track championship.
“We won the UARA championship in 2008 and the Bailey’s 300 in 2009,” Crum stated. “If we’re on the top of our game and have our setups right, I don’t see a problem with winning the championship.”
Crum also spoke about the struggles of racing in the NASCAR ranks in a budgeted operation.
“We’ve run quite a few Truck races it’s just hard to run it in a family organization,” he explained. “When you compete against Richard Childress, Jack Roush and Joe Gibbs, it’s tough competing with the money they have backing them. We had to regroup and think, see if we can make this work, sit here and look stupid or use our brain and run some Late Model races to keep fresh, do something we can afford to do and look for sponsorship on the site. We’re going to race this year and not lose hope and if sponsorship goes through, we’ll run where everyone knows who you are in NASCAR.”
Crum won the UARA-STARS touring championship in 2008 and won the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 at Martinsville Speedway, known then as the Bailey’s 300, in 2009. In two stars in the ARCA Racing Series, has one career top-10 finish which came at Mansfield in 2009.
