The NASCAR Camping World Series East opens its 22nd season Saturday, April 19 at historic Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, S.C. An exciting and unpredictably competitive season is forecast for the 13-event schedule, which takes the series to a dozen tracks in nine states.
The departure of 2007 series champion Joey Logano to the NASCAR Nationwide Series assures a first-time series champion in 2008. An outstanding rookie class is assembling. Determined veterans, meanwhile, are primed for a run at the championship. Other variables to monitor are new driver/team combinations and the performances of four NASCAR national series teams fielding efforts for seven drivers.
The championship race is wide-open.
Joe Gibbs Racing returns with a single-car team for second-year driver Marc Davis, 17, of Mitchellville, Maryland. Davis will drive Slim Jim Toyotas accompanied by team-mate Logano’s 2007 championship winning crew, including crew chief Scott Sibley. Davis finished ninth in series points last year, with four top-fives and six top-10 finishes.
Powerhouse team Andy Santerre Motorsports has a new driver lineup for his two Chevrolet teams.
Young star Peyton Sellers, 24, of Danville, Va., slides behind the wheel of ASM’s No. 44 Casella Waste Systems Chevrolet. That’s a huge change for Sellers, who used one modestly budgeted family-owned car for the entire 2007 season. Sellers finished third in the 2007 point race, and capped the season by finishing second to Logano in the 2007 NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown.
Sellers has a notable rookie teammate at ASM. Austin Dillon, 17 of Lewisville, N.C., will drive the No. 3 Garage Equipment Supply Chevrolet as a Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award candidate. Dillon is the son of former NASCAR driver Mike Dillon and grandson of NASCAR championship team owner Richard Childress. Driver Dillon and Richard Childress Racing have partnered with Andy Santerre Motorsports in much the same way that Dale Earnhardt, Inc. partnered with ASM in 2007. DEI has taken its driver development program in-house for 2008.
DEI has assigned Jeffrey to its No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Foundation Chevrolet this year. Joining the DEI roster is Trevor Bayne, 17, of Knoxville, Tenn., who will drive the No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet. Jesus Hernandez, 28, of Fresno, Calif., joined the team last year when his former Ginn team was acquired by DEI.
Another two-car team that will be followed closely is one owned by Hendrick Motorsports and fielded from Ken Schrader Racing’s stables. Jamie Hayes, who finished eighth in points last year, returns to the No. 52 Hendrick Chevrolet. Joining the effort will be rookie Ricky Carmichael, 28, of Clearwater, Fla. in the No. 4 Monster Energy Drink Chevrolet.
NASCAR national series veteran Steve Park, 40, of East Northport, N.Y., returns to the NASCAR Camping World Series East in 2008. Park is driving Robert Torrriere’s No. 35 Waste Management/Recycle America Chevrolet.
Park has won in six NASCAR divisions: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (2), NASCAR Nationwide Series (3), NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (1), NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (16), NASCAR Camping World Series East (2), as well as in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series weekly racing at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway.
This season marks the first Park has competed full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Series East. In 1996, he made 11 starts and posted two wins (New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway), five top-fives and six top-10s.
Tracks on the 2008 NASCAR Camping World Series schedule where Park has won include New Hampshire (NCWSE) 1996, (NWMT) 1994, 2 wins in 1995, 1996; Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International (NSCS, 2000); Music City Motorplex (NNS, 2000); Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway (NWMT, 1991, 2 NWMT wins in 1995, 3 NWMT wins in 1996); and Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway (NWMT 1995).
To study NCWSE tracks at which he’s never competed, Park and team did pre-season testing at Greenville-Pickens and South Boston, Va.