COPPER HILL, VA :: Jake Crum, a former winner of the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 and a former UARA-STARS champion, will compete in the UNOH Battle at the Beach at the Daytona International Speedway on February 18th. Crum will race in a straight-rail chassis prepared by Derek Latham.
Crum has competed in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, ARCA Racing Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Crum has a best career finish of sixth in the ARCA Racing Series (Mansfield, 2009) and 13th in the Camping World Truck Series (Kentucky, 2012). Now, Crum hopes to stand alone in victory lane in the 150 lap NASCAR Whelen All American Series Late Model race at Daytona.
“I haven’t even seen the car so I don’t know what to expect yet,” Crum said. “I feel like if the car is in good shape, good people are working on it, we can run a top-five. I haven’t even seen the car yet so I don’t have any idea what I’m getting myself in to.”
Crum feels his experience in legends cars as well as on tracks like Martinsville should help him adjust to the 4/10 mile temporary course being set up along the Daytona Superstretch. Crum has won championships in the INEX Summer Shootout and Winter Heat at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“I feel like, you know, I adapt pretty well to every track I go to so that shouldn’t be a problem so I have a great chance at running towards the front,” Crum explained. “I do think the straight-rails will have the advantage though. It’s just the same as going to any other race, just higher speeds and more people around and a lot more work goes to it. Running the Late Model race, it’s going to get a lot more publicity. Its’ going to be pretty big and I’m excited about it.”
For Crum, the goal is to beat the best and win the race.
“My ultimate goal is to win, if you don’t go to win, you don’t go at all,” Crum stated. “I think it’ll bring a lot of publicity to me (if we win) since it’s at Daytona and all the NASCAR drivers will be watching. It’d be a big deal to win this race and I’d like to win it in front of all those people.”
After Daytona, Crum intends on running several NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races in 2013 in a truck prepared in his own shop.
“If my sponsor doesn’t go with someone else, we plan on running a few races in trucks out of our own shop,” Crum explained. “If our sponsor stays and merges with another company, we’ll run the whole season.”
Crum knows how to win big races. After all, he has won Late Model Stock Car racing’s biggest race. Now, Crum hopes to win big again, this time at Daytona. The 21 year-old enters Daytona with both youth and experience on his side. The NASCAR Whelen All American Series portion of the UNOH Battle at the Beach goes green on Monday, February 18th and RACE22.com will be your Daytona headquarters before, during and after the race.
