Bloodlines help Bassett shoot for the stars

Young driver finished in fourth place in NASCAR Whelen All-American Series standings

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dillon Bassett has proven to be a quick study.

Yes, racing runs deep in his bloodlines, but the 17-year-old from Winston-Salem, North Carolina has seen the start of his NASCAR racing career get off to a soaring start.

Bassett was among the drivers honored at Friday night’s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series banquet in the Crown Ballroom of the Charlotte Convention Center. The evening recognized champions and rookies of the year on the state and provincial level as well as track champions, the top three finishers in the national title and a handful of other awards.

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In his first full season, Bassett rolled off an impressive 13 wins, 31 top-five finishes and 35 top-10 finishes in 37 starts while finishing fourth in the final NASCAR Whelen All-American Series standings. He also finished second in the state championship standings to Lee Pulliam, the two-time national champion. Bassett received the inaugural UNOH Youth Achievement Award, which recognizes the top driver 17-and-under in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.

“This is the first year I ran a full NASCAR series schedule and I think to win 13 races in your first year is pretty exciting,” Bassett said. “I know after I clicked off like three in a row or something I was getting pumped up. And to finish the season with 13, I feel like it’s a pretty good accomplishment for us.”

Among the tracks Bassett competed at this season included: Motor Mile Speedway, Anderson Motor Speedway, Southern National Motorsports Park, Hickory Motor Speedway, Caraway Speedway, East Carolina Motor Speedway and Langley Speedway. Hickory, where Bassett scored several victories this year, was one track that really stood out.

“It’s a local short track. A lot of good racing. We’ve been there quite a few times this year and it doesn’t matter where you were at on the race track, it seemed like there was always racing going on. It’s pretty fun. It had to be fun for the fans just to watch. You know, sometimes you go to tracks and you only have three or four cars racing; when we went to Hickory it just seemed like everybody was racing.”

At a young age, Bassett found great success in Bandolero Bandits. He won a national championship in 2006 and three national championships in 2007. When he moved to Legends cars in 2009, he won more national championships. Upon moving to limited late models in 2010, he won a track championship the following year.

Dillon’s father, Ronnie Bassett Sr., was a past NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track champion with a 1997 title in Stadium Stocks at Bowman Gray Stadium. His older brother, Ronnie Bassett Jr., just completed his first full season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and finished 11th in the final standings. Ronnie Jr. also was a Bandolero Bandit national champion in 2006 and won track and state championships. Of his family’s history in the sport, Dillon says, “It gives you something to shoot for.

“Right now I’m at an equal level of where my dad was running late models.”

In 2015, the plan is for Dillon to move up the NASCAR ladder.

“Next year, me and my brother and going to run the (NASCAR) K&N Pro Series East. We’re trying to step up as much as we can,” Dillon said. He added that the goal was to run the full schedule, plus a handful of NASCAR K&N Pro Series West races as well, if the schedule permits.

In addition to his strong 2014 season, Dillon turned some heads with his participation in the 2013 Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown. He scored the pole for the event before finishing seventh in a race that included NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regulars Kyle Busch, David Ragan, Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Tony Stewart.

“It was fun to get out there and race with those guys. You are going to learn a ton considering they run in NASCAR’s top series. It was a blast. Look forward to hopefully doing it some more. I know they changed tracks to South Boston this year and we didn’t run it. The timing didn’t work out. But hopefully, we can run it some more in the future.”

If Dillon Bassett continues to be a quick study as he moves up the ladder, he may find himself racing against some of those names a little more frequently.

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