Cassill tries to focus while hometown still recovers

These are challenging times for Landon Cassill, a developmental driver for Hendrick Motorsports. At a time when he should be free to focus solely on establishing himself in NASCAR, Cassill has been forced to deal with more pressing issues.

Most of his hometown, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been damaged by the record flooding in the Midwest.

Fast facts

What	Camping World RV Sales 200
When	Green, 3:16 p.m. ET Saturday
TV	ABC, 2:30 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 2:30 p.m. ET

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"Fortunately, my family remained dry through the whole flooding disaster, but many other friends of mine are either dealing with a lot of damage or a complete loss of their home," he said. "This is a major disaster."

Staying focused would be difficult for anyone, but Cassill is 18 and a fledgling driver with high expectations. Still, he has remained steadfast: "I haven't let it distract me from my job, but it is still tough to deal with such a loss to our city."

Cassill has done a good job of concentrating on his racing. The past three weeks, he has jumped between Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series competition, grabbing top-10s in each, with a best finish of third in the truck race last week in Milwaukee.

"Racing more like that actually makes it easier. I become more and more prepared and focused for my events," Cassill said. "The hardest part is when I go weeks without racing. It's so much easier to stay focused on racing when that's what I'm doing constantly. That is why I always try to be racing the truck, or a late model, or even a dirt modified for that matter, as long as I get to race."

This weekend in New Hampshire, Cassill again will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in the Camping World RV Sales 200 (2:30 p.m., ABC). Because of the success of his teammates at Hendrick -- Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have won six Cup championships between them; Dale Earnhardt Jr., also his car owner, is a two-time Nationwide Series champion -- much is expected from Cassill. Even Nationwide stablemate Brad Keselowski recently claimed his first series win in Nashville.

So how does the calm Cassill balance his responsibilities of consistently finishing events -- he has only one DNF in 14 Nationwide races, his first start last summer at Gateway -- with wanting to please with a win?

"That is a hard question to answer, and a hard thing to explain, because everyone is so different, and everybody has their way of doing things," Cassill said. "I work very hard to stay mentally sharp, and I just think that the drivers that can stay focused and race smart are the ones that make it in the end. It must be a natural thing.

"There are always going to be bumps in the road, but I firmly believe that if you're running well, those bumps mysteriously smooth themselves out much easier. Obviously, the next step is going to depend on how everything turns out this season."