David Greenslit has been racing different series around the northeast for 16 years, but 2020 may be the most special season of them all.
“This has got to be right up there with the best season we‘ve ever had,” Greenslit said.
Greenslit has a 50 percent win percentage this season, with 12 wins in 24 races. He won a track championship at Claremont Motorsports Park in the track‘s R.E. Hinkley Street Stocks division, and won the Battle of the Belt Championship for the driver with the most points between four tracks in New Hampshire – Claremont, Monadnock, Lee USA, and Hudson Speedways.
All the winning has also guaranteed Greenslit the best finish of his career in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division II standings. His previous best finish in the national points was 16th last year.
Currently, Greenslit is second in Division II, six points behind first place.
“We won opening night at Claremont and just kept rolling from there,” he said.
“We just got a lot more consistent. Most of the nights we were probably the fastest car at most of the tracks we went to. My guys just worked extra hard this year and with the COVID and stuff we started out slow so we really focused on the details on the car and making them fast… It‘s been unbelievable for us.”
Greenslit will race for the final time in 2020 this weekend at Claremont, a NASCAR-sanctioned third-mile oval asphalt in Claremont, New Hampshire.
He was the defending street stocks champ at Claremont and Monadnock, a NASCAR-sanctioned quarter-mile high-banked asphalt oval track in Winchester, New Hampshire, but he and his team went into 2020 focusing on just Claremont and the Battle of the Belt.
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The team wasn‘t even thinking about the national points until about a month ago. When Greenslit saw they were up near the top they started going to Hudson Speedway more because the track‘s higher car count would provide them more points.
Winning in the northeast has been a consistent occurrence throughout Greenslit‘s career. He spent a lot of time at Monadnock, Claremont, and all the local tracks in New England growing up, and would hang around watching a good friend race at Thunder Road Speedbowl in Vermont.
He decided to give the sport a try in 2006 when he was 21 years old.
“I had a boss that gave me the money to buy my first car,” he said. “I just loved it as a kid. It was always a dream of mine to do it and after I got my first car I was pretty much hooked on it.”
Since then, Greenslit has raced 4-cylinders, modifieds, late models, and super stocks. He won the track championship and rookie of the year at Claremont in 2010, and since then he‘s increased his track title total to five – two at Monadnock and three at Claremont.
NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series standings
Greenslit has had a lot of help over the years, but he credits his current crew and his family with helping him to the best seasons of his career.
“It‘s been a great, great year. My guys have worked their butts off on the car and I pretty much owe it all to them,” he said. “Probably the crew I have now is the most dedicated I‘ve had over the years. They just want to work on the cars 24/7 every day, so pretty much every night when we all get out of work we come to the shop and tinker and try to find speed in the cars.
“My wife is a huge supporter of me and lets me do this so that‘s huge for me.”
It‘s that camaraderie between his team and with other competitors that Greenslit loves so much about racing. He recalls a race earlier this season where he and another driver battled it out on the track, but came together as friends after as proof that the sport is unlike any other.
“We go out to battle on the track but in the pits we‘re all really good friends,” he said. “A couple weeks ago me and Ricky Bly had one of the best battles of the season. Pounded fenders and what not. He beat me to the line but afterwards we had a couple beers and it was a great time. It‘s just the camaraderie between everybody.”
Even though 2020 started slow for Greenslit because of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, it‘s been nothing but success since. Now, with this weekend being the final for national points, he has one more race to finish on the best note possible.
“It‘s a mental game. You have to keep your head on a swivel and stay calm. That‘s the hardest thing with racing for points,” he said. “We‘ve got to be consistent and Saturday night we have to win. That‘s the biggest thing.”
Racing will return to Claremont on Saturday and Sunday for the 2nd annual Fall Challenge featuring Modifieds, NEMA Midgets, NEMA Lites, DIRT Sportsman Modifieds, DIRT Sportsman Coupes, Late Model Sportsman, Street Stocks, Exit Reality Pro Truck Challenge, Mini Stocks, Six Shooters, Pure Stocks, Classic Lites, Pro Four Modifieds, and Granite State Mini Cup. Racing will begin at 2 p.m.
