Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Denver, NC(December 19, 2010) — Matt McCall’s 2010 season was a relatively short one for the only two-time UARA-STARS Series champion, as he raced only a handful of times, but was extremely successful when his car was on the track.
McCall hit the track only once in 2010 in his UARA-STARS Series championship winning car for team owner, Tom Pistone, before the two parted ways shortly after the Denny Hamlin Showdown. McCall made the decision to leave Pistone’s team, but many wondered where he would go and what chassis he would get with after being the face of the Pistone LTO chassis for a couple of seasons.
McCall didn’t have to look long and hard as he had long been friends with one of his competitors that could possibly put him behind the wheel of one of the best Late Model Stock Cars in the business. McCall turned to his friend and after talking it over for a few weeks, the decision was made for him to join Jamie Yelton’s, Fat Head Racing team for a handful of starts with just over half of the season remaining.
McCall was quickly put behind the wheel of a car Yelton had built for himself to drive in a handful of starts in 2010 and McCall hit the ground running. McCall immediately turned out a great performance as he came in second to Philip Morris in his first start in Yelton’s car at Motor Mile Speedway and from there, he knew he could take that car to victory lane. He had engine problems in his next race at Motor Mile after qualifying on the pole against the toughest competition of any weekly track.
Next up, he traveled back home to Hickory Motor Speedway, where he won the track championship in 2004. He was there to defend his win in last years Dwight Huffman Memorial race and again, he was on his game, picking up a dominating victory against some stiff competition. With only a handful of starts from there, he finished runner-up in the biggest Late Model Stock Car race annually, the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 at Martinsville Speedway and backed that up with a victory in the Mid-Atlantic Championship 250 at Caraway Speedway, the tracks biggest race of the year.
He concluded his season with a win at North Wilkesboro in the first Late Model Stock Car race there in nearly twenty years(driving for Wendell Davis) and a fifth place effort in the Myrtle Beach 250 at Myrtle Beach Speedway. Following that race, there was a lot of speculation as to where McCall would be racing in 2011 and who he would be racing for. Of course, the usual suspects came up as being potential car owners including the Kiker Motorsports team, that McCall has been rumored to be racing for, for the last couple of seasons.
Surely, McCall had a lot of options as to where he would race in 2011, but when it came down to it, he felt like staying with Fat Head Racing would give him the best chance at winning races. McCall will only return for a similar schedule as the one he raced in 2011 as he’ll also have his hands full with a new job at Richard Childress Racing.
McCall will serve as an engineer for one of Childress’ NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams and recently started his new job, but is hoping that he’ll be able to race as much as he did in 2010, if not a little more.
“I’m going to try for about ten races this season,” said McCall in a recent phone interview. “I recently took a job as engineer with RCR(Richard Childress Racing) and I’m excited about this opportunity, but I want keep racing as much as possible too.”
Some of those ten starts that McCall is expecting to make in the 2011 season will be driving for Wenedll Davis’ Pig Rig Racing team, the same team McCall drove part of the season in the UARA in 2009, when he won the championship. McCall hopes to drive Davis’ car in atleast one of the UARA-STARS Series races at Rockingham Speedway, where he won a pole in the inaugural race there, but had to start last after a shock mount broke and could only make it back to sixth at the finish.
“I would really like to have a win at Bristol(won in 2009), North Wilkesboro(won in 2010) and Rockingham, which I haven’t won at,” continued McCall. “I really want to run this year at Rockingham in one of the tour races, that’s a place I’d like to get a win.”
McCall has a few more places he’d like to get a win at in 2011 as he’s got a couple of high profile tracks that he’s never been able to go to victory lane at.
“I want to go to Motor Mile and South Boston this year and get a win. That’s two tracks that I don’t have a win at, that I’d really get a victory at.”
McCall is hoping that he’ll have as productive of a short season in 2011 as he did in his less than ten starts this season.
“I think we got some pretty good results this season,” concluded McCall. “Of course, like every racer, I would have liked to win a couple more races, but I think getting two wins at Hickory and Caraway was pretty good. I’d like to get some more this season and that’s what we’re going to do.”
There’s no doubt that when the season starts for McCall that he’ll be in the mix, no matter where he goes to race. McCall will also be helping his friend, Yelton, who gave him the ride when he needed one last season, to build Fat Head Racing’s Driver Development team. Having McCall’s knowledge and ability to coach the drivers when needed will be big for the team to be able to continue developing young talent and specifically the two new drivers that will be competiting for Fat Head Racing in 2011.
