Casey Kelley has been attending races at Florence Motor Speedway in Timmonsville, South Carolina, for as long as he can remember. His dad raced at the 4/10-mile paved oval for many years and took home several track titles. In one championship-winning season in the mid-1990s, the elder Kelley won 10 of 12 races at Florence.
The family history would make Casey Kelley winning a Late Model championship at the track this season that much sweeter.
“It’ll mean the world to me,” Kelley said. “I love Florence Motor Speedway. [Owner] Steve Zacharias and his whole family, they do a lot of work there, and they try really hard, so I like supporting them. They’ve done an awesome job making it better over the last couple of years, and it’s just an honor to race there. I’m very thankful.”
With one points race remaining, Kelley nearly has the track title locked up. With five wins, he’s finished in the top five in all 14 races, giving him a 28 point lead at the top of the standings.
Kelley has been racing Late Models at Florence for several seasons, but he credits his turnaround this summer to joining AK Performance and Kendall Sellers. Kelley and his twin brother Cody both race with Sellers, and Cody is second in the Florence Late Model standings.
“It’s been nothing but success, really, whenever we race with him,” Casey Kelley said. “He brings a lot of nice equipment and good cars to the track, and it’s shown this year with five wins. I mean, I couldn’t ask for much more.
“Just the consistency and AK Performance, the way they work, they prepare the cars very well. They work every day in the shop, and we go over there and we practice a lot. … They’re as nice as anybody out there, and they’ve got the best equipment of anybody, so it makes it a lot easier on me.”
The Kelley family has always been involved in racing; they owned a dirt track in Hartsville, S.C., for many years. After watching his dad race when he was growing up, Kelley said he and his brother knew it was a sport of which they wanted to be a part.
“We’re just following our dad’s footsteps,” he said.
The 28-year-old Kelley has been racing at Florence now for 16 years. He began when he was around 12 in the track’s Young Guns division. He eventually moved up to the Charger class in a car owned by his uncle until the Kelleys bought their own limited late model.
This is the first full season the Kelley brothers have raced against one another. In the past, they would have one brother driving while the other worked on the car, and trade off week-to-week. Eventually, when Casey moved up to Late Models, Cody would race a Super Truck on the same night.
The brothers jumped at the chance to both race a Late Model this season, but racing against his brother – who is also his biggest competition – isn’t easy for Casey Kelley. The good thing about the duo is, while they’re competitors on the track, they’re also each other’s biggest fans.
“We race hard against each other,” Kelley said. “To be one and two, it means a lot. It wouldn’t matter if he was ahead of me, if I was second. He’s a really good race car driver, so to be next to him or ahead of him in points is awesome.
“I like racing against him, but it’s so hard to race against your brother, you know? But it is fun.”
With one points race left, Kelley’s points lead is just about big enough to where he doesn’t have to worry about what happens on championship night, as long as he starts the race.
But he isn’t resting, and he doesn’t want to leave anything to chance.
“I’m just trying to stay consistent and not have any trouble,” he said. “I think the points lead is big enough. I don’t know for a fact, but I think if I start the race, I think I might have it locked up, but I don’t know for sure… Just try to have a good consistent run and try to finish in the top five will be my goal.”
Winning a championship would complete Kelley’s goal, not only for this season, but for all the years he and his family have been racing around Florence Motor Speedway.
“It’ll be awesome,” he said. “It has been a goal of mine to win a championship at Florence. Whenever we started out this year, Kendall, that was what he wanted to do. He said, ‘Let’s go win the championship at Florence,’ and that’s been our goal, so I’m very happy to be able to do it, and I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.
‘It’s just been a good year. Kendall Sellers at AK Performance, they just just bring really, really good equipment, and it just makes the job easier on me.”
Florence will host Night 2 of its Night of Champions on Saturday beginning at 7 p.m. ET. Champions will be crowned in the track’s SC Vintage, Bandoleros, Legend Cars, Street Stocks, Late Models and Chargers divisions.