NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — When he was 10 years old, Jerry Symons sat in the grandstands at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway with his father to watch the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing.
He soaked in the action as drivers like Richie Evans, Pete Hamilton, Freddy Fryar, Maynard Troyer, Jody Ridley and Donnie Allison battled for supremacy at the fast half-mile asphalt oval.
It was then when he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to race.
“I just fell in love with it and always wanted to do it,” Symons said. “When I was a kid just sitting up there watching them go around, I wanted to get in there and go.”
Symons’ love for racing was fostered by his father, himself an old-school racer who once drove midgets in the Northeast before he moved his family to Florida. He took his kids to tracks all over Florida to watch racing, but it was New Smyrna where Symons truly fell in love with the sport.
“My dad, he raced midgets back in New Jersey way back when they probably had leather helmets,” Symons said. “He raced a little bit up there, then he moved down here, and the whole family has been down here forever. Then my older brother, he started racing here, and he raced at the DeLand track a long time ago. Then Volusia and here.
“I’ve just always been around it. Even when no one was racing, my dad would take me to races, to the dirt track at Volusia or here.”
Jerry Symons is a six-time World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing champion in the Florida Modified division. His first championship came in 1999. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)
It wasn’t until 1983 when Symons got his first chance to jump behind the wheel of a race car. He’d just graduated high school, and his older brother crashed while racing at New Smyrna.
Symons’ brother said if Jerry could fix the race car, then he could drive it. Symoms leapt at the chance.
“I’ve been here ever since,” he said.
Symons’ career at New Smyrna has been a successful one. He started in the mini stock class before making the transition to the Florida Modified division, where he has become a mainstay and track champion.
At the World Series alone, Symons has registered nearly 50 victories in the Florida Modified class in addition to six championships, with his most recent coming in 2018. Much of that success has come driving for car owner Gene Kelly, the owner of Gene Kelly Roofing, Symons’ main sponsor.
Those wins and championships are a big reason Symons, who is now 58, continues to come back to New Smyrna Speedway to race.
It’s hard to quit when you’re still winning.
“We’ll win a race here and there, and it just keeps you coming back,” Symons said. “If you’re competitive, you know? I’ll keep doing it until I’m not competitive. Once I’m not competitive, I’ll bail out and let my kids do it.
“Like Richie Evans’ quote, ‘If you can win at the New Smyrna Speedway, you can win anywhere.’ And we’ve done that.”
His three sons, Chase, Dalton and Andrew, are the next in a long line of Symons family members who race. Chase will race in the Bomber B class later this week at New Smyrna, while Dalton is currently building a car for the E-Mod class.
Jerry Symons sits behind the wheel of his No. 66 Florida Modified at New Smyrna Speedway. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Andrew recently graduated from airplane mechanic school and is planning to build his own Bomber B car, though Symons wishes his children would pick different divisions.
“I don’t want them all in the same class,” Symons said as he flashed a quick smile. “I’ve seen it out here in the go kart track in the same class. It’s brutal. They don’t give and take.”
Much like his father, Symons hopes to continue to foster the love of racing for his three children so one day they, too, can stand in Victory Lane at New Smyrna.
It’s also not a bad way to keep them out of trouble.
“When I was coming up, my dad, he kept me going,” Symons said. “Right out of high school I’d tell him, ‘Hey dad, I’m not going to race this weekend. The boys have got a party, we’re gonna go to that.’ He was like, ‘No, we’re not going to no party. We’re going racing.’ So he kept us out of trouble in other words. Kept me out of trouble, and I’ve done the same with my kids.
“They’ve grown up racing go karts here at the little go kart track (at New Smyrna). They’ve grown up since they were five years old racing go karts on the weekends. We’ve kind of kept them out of trouble.
“Racing will keep you out of trouble because it’ll keep you broke. You can’t afford any of that bad stuff.”
NEW YORK – Feb. 13, 2024 – SiriusXM today announced extensive audio coverage of the 66th running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, as well as all the events and racing news happening during NASCAR’s annual Speedweeks. Subscribers nationwide will have access to the live race broadcast, in-car audio from some of the sport’s top drivers and daily coverage from Daytona International Speedway.
On Daytona 500 race day, SiriusXM will broadcast live from the track starting at 7 a.m. ET. When the green flag drops (approximately 2:30 p.m. ET) listeners will hear every lap of the race live, followed by post-race coverage that will include interviews with the 2024 Daytona 500 Champion and other drivers. The programming airs on the exclusive 24/7 SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel, which is available to subscribers nationwide in their cars (channel 90) and on the new SiriusXM app.
SiriusXM will also air 10 live Driver2Crew ChatterTM radio feeds on separate SiriusXM channels throughout the Daytona 500. Listeners will be able to hear the driver-to-crew communications of drivers, including Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will also provide live coverage of the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona on Thursday, Feb. 15 (6 p.m. ET), the Fresh From Florida 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday, Feb. 16 (7 p.m. ET), and the United Rentals 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, Feb. 17 (4:30 p.m. ET).
Throughout the day on Wednesday, Feb. 14, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will broadcast live from Daytona 500 Media Day, where hosts from the channel will interview each of the drivers in attendance. Following that, listeners will hear live coverage of Daytona 500 Qualifying at 8 p.m. ET.
On Thursday, Feb. 15, leading into the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona, SiriusXM’s Dave Moody will host a special broadcast open to the public from the Daytona Fanzone (3 p.m. ET). Moody will interview several active and former drivers and preview the evening’s twin races.
On Monday, Feb. 19, on The Morning Drive, hosts Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone will have a live interview with the 2024 Daytona 500 champion driver, crew chief and owner.
SiriusXM NASCAR Radio is the only national 24/7 channel covering NASCAR and delivers live coverage of every NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series race live, with live pre- and post-race programming airing before and after every event.
Between races, the channel features a lineup of hosts that includes active and former drivers, crew chiefs and insiders. Listeners will hear insight and analysis from Larry McReynolds, Danny “Chocolate” Myers, Mike Skinner, Todd Gordon, Mike Bagley, Pete Pistone, Danielle Trotta, Dave Moody, Brad Gillie, Pat Patterson and others.
The channel will feature new programs in the lineup in 2024.
Backstretch Banter with RFK Racing will debut on February 21 and air on Wednesdays at 2 p.m. ET. Host Chris Childers will be joined each week by RFK Racing drivers and executives.
NASCAR.com’s Stacking Pennies podcast, hosted by Corey LaJoie, will debut on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio every Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET.
Gone Racin’, the weekly podcast hosted by veteran driver Brendan Gaughan, will make its debut on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio each week.
Every weekday, listeners will hear The Morning Drive with Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone (7 a.m. ET), On Track with Danielle Trotta and Larry McReynolds (11 a.m. ET) and SiriusXM Speedway with Dave Moody (3 p.m. ET). Late Shift with Brad Gillie and Todd Gordon will air on Mondays and Tuesdays (6 p.m. ET). Front Stretch with Pat Patterson will air on Saturday and Sunday mornings (7 a.m. ET). Danny “Chocolate” Myers will regularly join SiriusXM Speedway and Front Stretch as a co-host.
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion and driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Joey Logano, will also return to host his exclusive SiriusXM show, Behind the Wheel with Joey Logano, on select Tuesdays throughout the season on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
The dawn of another NASCAR season embodies the first-day-of-school feel, especially for the teams. Daytona International Speedway has its enduring splendor, same as it ever was, but for the teams, it’s an expectant feeling of newness – from the new-look personnel alignments to fresh paint-scheme designs that fit like a new pair of sneakers.
Two of the sport’s three automakers have added to the new-day originality upon this week’s Daytona arrival, with Ford and Toyota unveiling restyled bodies for their Cup Series racers this year. The new Ford Mustang Dark Horse and the 2025 Toyota Camry XSE will mount fresh challenges to the reign of the venerable Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which carries over into this season as the current benchmark and winner of the last three Cup Series manufacturers’ championships.
The competition among car makes should stay a prime focus in the ramp-up to Monday’s season-opening Daytona 500 (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Each manufacturer was represented by two teams in testing last December at Phoenix Raceway, but the majority of the Ford and Toyota organizations will experience their first taste of speedway-style racing conditions with the new bodies in Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel qualifying races (7 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Cup Series haulers are scheduled to enter the Daytona garage later Tuesday, with equipment and cars unloading for yet another Speedweek at the 2.5-mile track. How those cars unload in a figurative, performance-based sense is another top question that hangs over the 2024 season.
All the wind-tunnel testing and aerodynamic computer modeling leading up to this week’s festivities should help to inform what that answer might be, especially within the tight confines of the NASCAR Rule Book and the Next Gen car platform.
“Yes, we all look at what each of us are doing,” said David Wilson, Toyota Racing Development (TRD) USA president, noting that the wind-tunnel process has been marked by transparency and equal time among all three manufacturers. “We pay more attention to where we stack up when it comes to that aero box that we have to finish in, in order to get our body submitted. I know on paper, (Ford’s) car looked good in the wind tunnel, so did ours. You know, Chevrolet was the dominant manufacturer by far last season, and I think they’re the bogey ultimately for both of us to chase as we look at 2024.”
Looking at the automaker pursuit in reverse order of last year’s manufacturers’ standings, Ford wound up third in the point total but was first to debut their 2024 model. The Mustang Dark Horse bowed in the days leading up to last year’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway, where Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney finished off his strong playoff run with the second consecutive Cup Series title for a Ford driver.
Zack Albert | NASCAR.com
“I mean, we feel like we’re better and obviously winning two championships is great, and if we didn’t have a target on our back last year, we certainly have one on our back this year,” said Richard Johns, NASCAR Performance Leader for Ford Performance Motorsports. “So we knew that we had to go into this year and be better. The best way that we could be better is coming with a new car and coming with new ideas to try and be better across the board and improve speedways, improve intermediates, improve short tracks and give our teams more ability to make their cars better on a given weekend. We didn’t know that we were going to wind up there, and certainly through the summer months, it didn’t look like we were going to wind up there, but we found performance at the right time and our teams peaked at the right time, and now we just hope that we can do it again.”
Ford teams were able to steady their path after a rocky start to 2023, marked by just one win in the first 13 races. The upswing of RFK Racing just before the playoffs, combined with Blaney’s closing kick and a Front Row Motorsports bright spot with Michael McDowell’s dominant Indy win helped feed some of this season’s optimism.
“We worked as hard as we could on ’23 cars to try and find that performance, and because the box is so small and the tune-ability on the cars are so small, we were able to take a lot of those learnings and roll it right into our (2024) submission,” Johns said. “But we knew where we needed to go, based on our performance at the race track and the simulation and everything. We knew what we needed to do to a new car to get to a higher level of performance, and we just rolled all that stuff forward.”
Johns pointed out the styling cues and character lines of the second edition of the Next Gen Mustang during a tour of the Ford Performance Technical Center last month, and the sharp, aggressive contours of the front fenders stood out. Blaney and RFK’s Chris Buescher gave the Mustang Dark Horse its on-track christening during testing on Phoenix’s 1-mile layout, but the reigning Cup champ said more experience on different track types will tell the whole tale.
“The mindset when you have a new body and stuff like that right, you don’t want to trade off anything, right? You’re just trying to get everything better,” Blaney said during the Busch Light Clash weekend in Los Angeles. “And it was no secret the old Mustang was super-good on the speedways, and I hope we haven’t lost anything on that side of it. At least what you’re working toward, it doesn’t show we’ve lost anything, but we’ve just gained on the mile-and-a-half side. Downforce numbers seem to be better. So I hope we just elevated everything, but we’ll find out next week. I could only tell so much in Phoenix. I think it’s gonna be bigger when we get to mile-and-a-half’s and stuff like that.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
For Toyota, the Camry – the only model the automaker has raced since its Cup Series debut in 2007 – gets a face-lift with its XSE Next Gen racer. The road-going version that gives the NASCAR stocker its new look is scheduled to hit showrooms as a 2025 model this spring.
Denny Hamlin’s victory in the Clash exhibition on the Los Angeles Coliseum’s tiny quarter-mile oval has given Toyota, last year’s manufacturers’ points runner-up, an unofficial 1-0 record to start the season. But it’s the bigger tracks with a heightened aero emphasis where Camry drivers hope that the new sculpted bumpers and quarter panels can make a difference; Toyota has been shut out the last two seasons on superspeedway-style tracks (Atlanta, Daytona, Talladega), a 12-race drought.
“I expect the shape of the bumper, front and back, should be much better for us,” said Tyler Reddick, entering his second season with 23XI Racing’s Toyota operation. “You know, the thing that bit me in the (Daytona) 500 last year is just getting pushed in the corner, and the shape of last year’s bumper was not great for drafting. The shape of it really lifts the back of the car up when you do get pushed, and just that little tap I got from (Kevin) Harvick was enough to spin us around. So hopefully, the work that everyone did there, on the part of Toyota and TRD, helps that.
“We haven’t drafted the car yet, so I guess we’ll know when we get down there. But between Daytona and Atlanta to start the year, we’re gonna get a good grasp on where we’re at, and then have some time to work on it and make it better for later in the year as well.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
No major changes are planned in 2024 for the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which returns as the circuit’s standard-bearer after winning half of the 36 points-paying Cup Series events last year and sealing the manufacturers’ title with two races to go. Five organizations won races for Chevrolet last year, led by Hendrick Motorsports’ 10 victories.
One school of thought intimates that the fresh car bodies could give Ford and Toyota an aero edge at certain tracks if the data-fueled optimism translates to results. The other prevailing wisdom is that Chevrolet teams would continue to power forward, building on their inventory of performance notes and success while their rivals try to gain a handle on their new cars.
Dr. Eric Warren — Executive Director of Global Motorsports Competition for General Motors – said that the tight, competitive balance of working within the NASCAR Rule Book’s constraints should regulate the impact of either of those scenarios, as all three manufacturers strive to push the edges of the Next Gen platform’s aero limits.
“It’s so close. I mean really, honestly, they’re on top of each other,” Warren told NASCAR.com. “So we kind of know what the performance of those cars are, and so it’s not as much of an unknown as before. I would say when the aero balance maybe is a little bit different or if it moves, say, forward a little bit, that’s where understanding your car and the notebook comes in, because you have a lot more comfort in it. And you see that every year when we’ve come out with new cars, it takes a while to really get your hand on them, because there’s a lot of things that are unknown, that the wind tunnel doesn’t show or CFD [computational fluid dynamics] doesn’t show when you get around other cars, they behave a little different. So there’s a little bit of that, but the cars are all pretty close. And so I think it’s not going to be as big a difference as everyone thinks.”
While the NASCAR-ready Chevrolet’s body isn’t changing, speculation remains about what’s next. General Motors ended production of the Camaro last month, and the 2024 model year will be its last – for now, at least. Chevy has raced the Camaro ZL1 each year since the model’s Cup Series debut in 2018, freshening the body for the transition from the sixth-generation stock car to the Next Gen platform ahead of the 2022 season.
Chevrolet is allowed to compete with the Camaro into 2025 and beyond if the company wishes, as NASCAR eligibility rules state that the car needs only to be in production at time it is designed. Where the manufacturer goes next in stock-car racing is still up for conjecture, but Warren offered that the Camaro nameplate – most recently revived in 2010 for showrooms – has life left in GM’s plans.
“I think, as we go forward, our official thing we say is that the Camaro’s story has not ended,” Warren says. “It’s come in and out in the past, and the auto industry and the models, it’s very dynamic and there’s a lot of things going on in it, and we have a lot of great products coming out in the future. So, you know, we’ve done a lot of research, and our goal really is to connect to Chevrolet fans. I think the Camaro has been a great platform for us, but really our connection and performance on the race track is really to connect to those Chevrolet and then across all of our GM products, use the platform to create those customers who end up buying our cars — all of our cars.”
The wait for 2024 is over for Josh Berry, Rodney Childers and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team.
It’s racing season again, but this year, there’s plenty of change for everyone involved in the success of the No. 4 Ford. Berry is driving full-time for a team that isn’t JR Motorsports for the first time since 2010. Childers is managing a NASCAR Cup Series team without Kevin Harvick at the wheel for the first time in a decade. Spotter Eddie D’Hondt is on the roof guiding a Cup driver who isn’t Chase Elliott for the first time since 2015.
Together, the new-look No. 4 team is ready to charge into the 2024 Cup season at full speed, starting with the 66th annual Daytona 500 on Monday (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Berry has been busy since the NASCAR Xfinity Series season concluded in November, ending a two-year stint as the driver of JR Motorsports’ No 8 Chevrolet, the same team he drove Late Model Stocks for in 2010. Those roots were on full display during the fall when he connected with Childers and Kevin Harvick, Inc., to get on track in the No. 62 Ford in an effort to build relationships.
“You know, it was a busy couple of weeks there for sure to go do all that,” Berry said. “But it was a lot of fun. And I think really what it did for us was just kind of expose ourselves to each other early on, and just kind of get a feel for each one of us and how we work and operate.”
Childers, on the brink of entering his 20th NASCAR Cup Series season atop the pit box as crew chief, has been chasing racing for much longer than those two decades. Hitting those short tracks all over again with Berry — Florence Motor Speedway in South Carolina and Hickory Motor Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park in North Carolina — was just the right way to head into the NASCAR offseason.
“I think anything like that’s good. It was really more for fun than it was anything,” Childers said. “We both love Late Model Stock racing, and you know we were able to go and compete and sit on the front row every week and have a shot at winning every week. And I think just being around each other and communicating, knowing each other’s desires and how much we want to win, is a good thing.
“So it’s been easy peasy so far. You know, there’s gonna be ups and downs, of course, but our goals on the 4 team are no different than they’ve been the last 10 years. We still work as hard as we can every week and try to go win practice, win the pole, and win the race, so I don’t think that’ll ever change.”
Those goals may sound ambitious for Berry, a Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender at the top level of stock-car racing in the United States. But Berry has already impressed mightily, both in the Xfinity Series, where he became a force to be reckoned with in the last three years, and in limited Cup Series appearances across two seasons. Last year, Berry made 10 Cup starts — five with Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 9 team subbing for an injured Chase Elliott, three with HMS’ No. 48 team filling in for an injured Alex Bowman and two with the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club team for a then-suspended Noah Gragson, who joins Berry at SHR as a teammate in 2024.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
His best finish across those 10 substitute drives was a career-high second place at Richmond Raceway in the No. 9 Chevrolet, to go along with 10th-place runs with the same team at Phoenix Raceway and the No. 48 group at Dover Motor Speedway. Berry also won the NASCAR All-Star Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway to propel him into his first NASCAR All-Star Race.
It’s no wonder Childers believes “he can run good right off the bat.”
“I think he’s gonna surprise a lot of people,” Childers said. “I think our team will surprise a lot of people. You know, it’s all about just hitting the details, doing the details, working as hard as we can — out-working the competitors and being prepared more than everybody else. The same things that we’ve seen things that we’ve focused on for 10 years.”
Getting experience in 2023 meant seat time in the Next Gen car, a vehicle with sharp contrasts to what Berry had been used to in the Xfinity Series or even his two Cup starts in 2021 when the Gen 6 was still in use. Berry’s hesitant to say he’s confident entering 2024 with that seat time in his pocket, but he knows it doesn’t hurt, either.
“I know that this is going to be hard,” Berry said. “That’s what I learned, especially even more so last year, was how difficult Cup racing is and how good these guys are and how competitive it is. So I definitely got that experience under my belt. .. I think just having that experience and having a couple of good results out of that opportunity definitely eased my mind a little bit going into this transition.”
That transition, by the way, was hardly smooth. The 33-year-old had to navigate giving his full attention to the full-time Xfinity Series job he worked a decade to earn but also had to dovetail subbing at Hendrick Motorsports into his first half of the year. Not to mention his fast track to the Cup Series as a full-time driver was being negotiated with Stewart-Haas Racing, one of the most successful teams in the sport since 2014.
“It was definitely unique, right? I don’t know how really else to explain it,” Berry said. “I think that with everything that happened the first few months of the season, with Chase’s injury and then Alex’s injury, we were just taking it one day at a time. Overall, I felt like I handled it well. I don’t really know, thinking back on it, what I would do different necessarily.”
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR.com
Ultimately, Berry, Childers and the whole of SHR are eager to look forward to what’s ahead rather than dwelling on their pasts — recent or long-standing. Stewart-Haas Racing has won three Cup races since the introduction of the Next Gen car in the 2022 season — two with the now-retired Harvick and one with Chase Briscoe, driver of the team’s No. 14 Ford. New this year alongside Berry is the sophomore Gragson, a former teammate of Berry’s at JR Motorsports, while Ryan Preece is back in the No. 41 Ford for a second season, his fifth full-time.
Childers watched Berry’s 2023 Cup starts with a keen eye, hoping the Tennessean Late-Model-Stock-star-turned-NASCAR-up-and-comer would indeed be the next driver of the No. 4 Ford that Harvick helped Childers bring to NASCAR prominence. He was impressed then and is happy with the work ethic Berry has shown as the 2024 season nears.
“From working out and spending hours and hours and hours at the shop and asking questions and learning every little bit and piece, he’s been on top of it and worked really hard and been in a lot of meetings with us,” Childers said. “And last year, I was really surprised when he ran those few races that he was even able to come down pit road and stop the Next Gen car in the pit box and do all those things because all of it’s completely different than having to do it in an Xfinity car. So I told him out of what I saw last year, that’s what impressed me the most was just being able to pit the car because it took Kevin six months to figure it out after we went to the Next Gen car.”
Berry finds himself invigorated by the atmosphere that permeates the Kannapolis, North Carolina facility, one steeped in a passion for racing that stems from co-owner Tony Stewart down the chain through drivers and crewmen alike. At the shop to have his seat insert molded, Berry realized the man working on it was former ARCA Menards Series driver Chad Blount. David Hyder, winner of over 100 Late Model Stock races during his driver career, leads SHR’s test team.
“David Hyder’s a legendary Late Model Stock guy, right?” Berry said, his face beaming as he mentioned the name. “So me and him are sitting there talking about winning Martinsville. And that just makes it really cool. From the top to the bottom, that’s what it is. It’s a bunch of racers. It’s a laid-back atmosphere. And I think that it’s been a pleasure to really be around and experience that. And I think that just makes it a great fit for me.
“Obviously, to step into the opportunity with the 4 car and with Rodney — you know, look: I’m 33 years old. I have my ways of doing things as a race car driver. If I had a pick of any crew chief in the Cup garage, I’m picking Rodney. Every time. Right? Just because he’s a Late Model Stock guy like me, a short-track racer just down-to-earth type (of) person that I know that I can communicate with. And obviously, his success speaks for itself. So I think for me, it’s just been a no-brainer, really. I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity and to work into this going into the season.”
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Of the women who have racked up accomplishments in United States short-track racing over the past decade, Kody Brusso is a name often overlooked.
The Pensacola, Florida native has quietly put together an impressive career across several disciplines. Along with claiming Outlaw titles at South Alabama Speedway and Five Flags Speedway, Brusso’s accolades include a NASCAR Louisiana State Championship in 2014 driving a Pro Late Model at Revolution Raceway Park.
Brusso’s racing journey takes her to New Smyrna Speedway this week for her second attempt at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. The schedule for Brusso in 2024 now includes a handful of Pro Late Model starts after exclusively competing in the Sportsman class the year before.
The experience Brusso has in both types of cars is one reason why she exuded confidence when her team unloaded at New Smyrna on Thursday.
“We run Outlaw cars at home in Pensacola,” Brusso said. “I race an open wheel modified, which is the same kind of car these Florida Modifieds [at New Smyrna] are. I’ll pretty much race anything that has four tires on it.
“I get in it, and I take off.”
Brusso’s decision to start running the World Series of Asphalt came down to two simple factors: the atmosphere and the notoriety.
Already a marquee event for short-track competitors from Florida since 1968, the World Series of Asphalt has only seen more prestige in recent years as drivers from the northeast, midwest and even Canada now regularly descend upon the Sunshine State every February for a shot to grab a victory.
It was through car owners and local natives Chuck and Willie Burkhalter that Brusso got her first chance to compete in the World Series of Asphalt last year. Her familiarity with the Sportsman class gave Brusso some optimism, but she was still trepidatious on how to navigate one of those cars around the half-mile oval.
Kody Brusso entered the 2024 World Series of Asphalt having only made two starts at New Smyrna Speedway. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
New Smyrna’s old pavement produced plenty of surprises for Brusso when she turned her first laps in her black No. 7 Sportsman. Despite this, she quickly adapted to the maneuverability of the racing surface and feels emboldened ahead of her planned Pro Late Model debut.
“The track rips,” Brusso said. “It’s definitely going to be fun in a [Pro Late Model]. This is their Snowball Derby, and I’m from Pensacola, so I know what the Derby is all about. I’m liking it so far.”
Obtaining experience is a primary goal for Brusso in her sophomore World Series of Asphalt campaign. A short schedule of events for the Sportsman class only provided Brusso two opportunities to showcase her talent in front of New Smyrna’s fanbase and the broader streaming audience.
Brusso capitalized on those two nights. Both Sportsman features concluded with Brusso earning a runner-up finish to Derek Griffith and Adam Briggs, respectively.
Even though she did not obtain a victory in 2023, showcasing consistency more than validated the trip to the World Series of Asphalt for Brusso while also serving as motivation for her to return this year with more speed and knowledge at her disposal.
“The big tracks are my thing,” Brusso said. “The little bullrings have been more of an adjustment for me since I was raised on a half-mile and a 3/8 [mile]. This is right in my wheelhouse, and it takes a driver to do [the World Series of Asphalt], not a million dollars. That’s what we like about it.”
Replicating the success from Sportsman competition into Pro Late Models is a challenge Brusso is ready to embrace. Not only does the entry list for the World Series of Asphalt Pro Late Model division more than double the Sportsman class, but it also features plenty of aspiring young talent such as fellow female drivers Katie Hettinger, Isabella Robusto and Toni Breidinger.
Now that Sportsman division has wrapped up its two-day World Series of Asphalt schedule, Brusso is determined to deliver a strong performance in the No. 31 Pro Late Model prepared by Chuck Burkhalter and Darrell Hensley. Stiff competition stands in Brusso’s path, but she expects to at least compete for a top 10 when she is on track.
A victory in a World Series of Asphalt Pro Late Model event may be a daunting task for Brusso, but she is still going to depart New Smyrna with plenty to cherish and celebrate.
Kody Brusso earned her first World Series of Asphalt victory at New Smyrna on Saturday evening after overcoming a slow start. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)
During the final night of Sportsman competition on Saturday, Brusso overcame early contact to methodically carve her way through the 13-car field. She reached race leader Travis Devendorf by the hallway point and easily overtook him on a late-race restart to add a World Series of Asphalt triumph to her stellar resume.
Rubbing fenders with the established veterans to chart her own course is what has defined Brusso since the start of her career. No matter the circumstances, Brusso has persevered with the resources she has to cultivate an identity as champion driver within the racing culture of the Deep South.
With a World Series of Asphalt win under her belt, the next objective for Brusso is to keep making history by one day earning a title in the crown jewel short track event.
“I’ve won championships twice in two different cars, so I like to knock those barriers down,” Brusso said. “I’m not your typical female racer. I’ll get out here to work on this thing and not BS you around. I don’t come here to take pictures. I’m come here to win races. That’s it.”
The past two iterations of the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna have provided race fans a glimpse into what drives Brusso. Versatile, determined and a hard-worker, Brusso continues to leave an impact as a trailblazer that will one day inspire the next generation of female drivers.
The official 2024 Daytona 500 entry list was released Monday, with a total of 42 entries listed for the season-opening race on Monday, Feb. 19 (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Qualifying for the prestigious Daytona 500 is unlike any other event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, and two of the entries on the official list won’t qualify for the “Great American Race.”
Thirty-six Charter teams have their spots locked in, leaving six Open, non-Chartered entries competing for the final four spots. Two drivers will lock in on speed via Wednesday’s single-car qualifying, and two more will race their way in during Thursday’s Blue Green Vacations Duel races.
The six entries competing for those four spots: Kaz Grala (No. 36 Front Row Motorsports Ford), JJ Yeley (No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet), David Ragan (No. 60 RFK Racing Ford), Anthony Alfredo (No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet), BJ McLeod (No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet) and Jimmie Johnson (No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota).
See the full entry list below, and bookmark the Race Center pages for series-specific leaderboard coverage throughout the weekend.
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NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — One can take a look at Geoff Bodine’s hands and know he’s spent his life in and around motorsports.
The 74-year-old on the weekend of Feb. 10 was putting those robust paws to work at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway, helping friend George Alexander set up his Sportsman car for the track’s annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. A gray “USA” hat was protecting his head from intense sun rays; blue jeans shielding his knees from abrasive asphalt. Completing Bodine’s ensemble was a black t-shirt displaying the cover of his new book.
“All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story“ is what Bodine considers his latest calling in an up-and-down life. He’s proud of the journey, and of the paperback product in which that journey culminates. But the 1982 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year remains humble. This book may be about him, but it’s not for him.
“What I want people to walk away with,” Bodine explained,” is that if you truly believe in God, you might get a miracle when you need one someday.”
Bodine received his miracle when he survived the infamously vicious crash he experienced at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 18, 2000. Many know about the accident in the NASCAR Truck Series race that day. They’ve seen the breathtaking photos and videos, and they’ve heard Bodine’s story about his spiritual experience. He often recalls how, while knocked out from the impact of the crash, he saw and spoke with an image of his deceased father, who in the vision told Geoff his time on earth was not yet finished.
What many don’t know about that accident, though, is the preceding series of life-changing events. Bodine’s book is filled with “the rest of the story” on the Daytona crash as well as many other trials he’s powered through on his way to his status as a racing legend.
“Whenever somebody mentions (the Daytona crash) in some form, I say, ‘Well, let me tell you the rest of the story,’ ” Bodine said about one of the many tales included in the 328-page publication. “This book, we’re proud of it. It tells my story to get to Cup, talks about NASCAR, but there’s things people don’t know about.”
Added Bodine with a laugh: “I tell about how people cheated. I don’t name any names.”
Geoffrey Bodine’s truck tumbles through an accident during the Daytona 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 18, 2000. (Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
Named one of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers, Bodine maintains the idea that he should be dead. Nobody, he believes, should have been able to survive the wreckage his body navigated almost 24 years ago.
Now he’s thankful for the accident. After all, he technically was the one who asked for it.
The years and months leading up to the 2000 season were difficult for Bodine as he was forced to reckon with the mortality of his racing career. His Cup Series opportunities were dwindling as he entered his 50s.
Those professional factors combined with Bodine’s personal struggles pushed him to consider suicide on multiple occasions. When he reached his lowest points, he relied upon his Christian faith. He recalls a specific prayer in which he asked for a way he could repurpose his life to help others. He repeated that prayer for months before receiving an answer.
“I didn’t know it was going to be a crash,” he said. “But, I’d do it again if that’s what it took. … It hurt; it took me months to get back in (a car). But there’s no question in my mind that prayer works. So that’s what I want to get across to people. That’s the main reason I wrote the book.”
Geoff Bodine (bottom row, third from left) is pictured with other members of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers prior to the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on May 14, 2023. (Photo: Logan Riely/Getty Images)
Bodine said he never imagined he would write a book for others to read. In part because he as a driver loathed digesting negative feedback from motorsports media, and he’s never been much of a reader. He’s thankful his sons do indeed like to read.
Once he was moved to start the process, he connected with author Dominic Aragon and Trilogy Christian Publishing. The process took years. Bodine and Aragon met on multiple occasions over the phone and in person so the latter could help the former tell his story. The more Bodine spoke with his brothers Brett and Todd, the more Geoff felt he needed to include.
Finally, Geoff Bodine has a book he’s presenting to the public. He’s scheduled to offer sales and signings at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday and Sunday of Daytona 500 weekend; he’ll also hold a signing session during the Feb. 25 NASCAR weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Bodine hopes his book reaches others who seek spiritual guidance. Ultimately, he’s thankful for the opportunity to publish both his story and his learnings.
“I’m still here,” Bodine said. “How much better can you get? I’m proud of it. I worked for it. I wouldn’t change a thing.
“Although, I would like to be a driver now instead of then, because they get a lot of money now.”
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Toni Breidinger isn’t afraid to put in the work to get better.
Her schedule last season was a prime example of that. In addition to racing part-time in the ARCA Menards Series, she competed in pro late models, ran sports cars in the GR Cup Series and entered three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events.
Such a broad plan figures to help Breidinger improve her race craft as she continues to pursue her goal of racing full-time in NASCAR.
The path remains the same for 2024. Breidinger is preparing to compete in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series races at Daytona International Speedway this week by competing in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at nearby New Smyrna Speedway.
“I ran New Smyrna last year and the ARCA race, and I’m doing the same thing again this year but adding the Truck race on top of that,” Breidinger said. “It’s definitely going to be busy. It was a little overwhelming at times last year trying to make it between Daytona and New Smyrna on the same day.
“I think the biggest thing this year is to continue improving on my race craft. I made some good gains last year, and I think running these late models and running at short tracks and doing the [NASCAR Advance Auto Parts] Weekly Series was a really big part of it.”
Toni Breidinger in action during Night 1 of the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway on Feb. 9, 2024. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)
Late-model racing has been a huge part of Breidinger’s development program over the last 12 months. Working with father-son duo Lee and Michael Faulk of Lee Faulk Racing, she evolved her craft at tracks like New Smyrna, Florence Motor Speedway in South Carolina, and Hickory Motor Speedway and Tri-County Speedway in North Carolina.
The result was a clear improvement in the ARCA Menards Series; she earned four top-five finishes in 2023, including a career-best third at Kansas Speedway.
Breidinger credits the work she’s put in at places like New Smyrna, where people aren’t always watching, for helping her become a better racer.
“These are races that I didn’t really post a lot about, and they weren’t really televised, so people were like, ‘Oh, she’s improving out of nowhere,'” Breidinger said. “But I think it was all the work I put in behind the scenes at all these short tracks that really kind of helped me and kept me in the seat.”
That’s why she’s back at New Smyrna, a track where she admits she’s struggled in the past, as she prepares for another full ARCA season with Venturini Motorsports.
She wants to see that trend continue.
“I think coming back here, even though I struggled with it a good bit last year, I came here knowing I wanted that challenge and wanting to improve and prove to myself that I’ve made gains,” she said. “I almost like going to tracks that I feel like I’ve struggled with in the past.
“I love that we’re racing here every single night. I feel like, for the most part, when you go race it’s every weekend, so you have a whole week to think about, ‘Oh, I want to do this next time.’ Whereas, with these races, you can make that change the following day. It’s immediate changes and immediate improvements that you can do. I think from a driver development perspective, it was a pretty good move for me.”
But what can a short track like New Smyrna teach Breidinger to prepare her for the high banks of the World Center of Racing?
“Obviously they’re two entirely different tracks,” Breidinger said. “The actual driving aspect of it is a little bit different. A big thing [at New Smyrna] is I want to work on my restarts and being really aggressive. Working on my qualifying. I feel like being behind the wheel gives you that little extra boost of confidence, especially going into the Truck race for me.
“I know the ARCA race and the Truck race are going to be full fields. It’s going to be busy; it’s going to be aggressive. These races, I really want to gain some confidence on restarts and work on some stuff out here that I can apply to those big races.”
Breidinger thus far has already seen a performance boost compared to her New Smyrna effort a year ago. She finished inside the top 10 twice in her first three Pro Late Model races against fields of at least 25 cars. In five World Series starts last year, she never finished inside the top 10.
“The biggest thing for me is improving from last year,” Breidinger said. “I think right now we’re within top 10 in speed and just kind of progressing as the week goes. I don’t really want to hit a plateau. I want to keep improving every night.”
When Thursday arrives, Breidinger’s focus will shift to the 2.5-mile superspeedway where she’ll race in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event followed by Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series 80-lapper.
She acknowledges the challenges of racing at Daytona, but she’s also confident that good execution, combined with a little luck, could lead to a couple strong days at the legendary track.
“I think for the ARCA race and the Truck race, Daytona is kind of crazy. You don’t really know what to expect,” Breidinger said. “I want some solid results. I really just want to put together a really complete race. I think I’ve been in a good position before at Daytona in the ARCA race, but I’ve had some mistakes that hurt us.
“I think if we put together a complete race, we’ll get some good results.”
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — It could have been pitch black in the pit area Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway and you still would have been able to see Trevor Catalano’s smile from a mile away.
He had just climbed from his No. 56 Catalano Motorsports Modified after a fifth-place finish during his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut, a result that far exceeded any expectations he had for himself.
It was the culmination of a winter’s worth of work for the Catalano family, who are taking on the colossal task of fielding three full-time entries on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in 2024 for Trevor and his brothers Tommy and Tyler.
“We came down here hoping to finish 20th and just have a good day and hopefully finish all 200 laps,” he said. “After the first run at the beginning I said, ‘I think we have a car that can run inside the top 10.’ I just needed to get comfortable and figure out what I needed inside the car.
“I think we found it in those last two pit stops. We got stuck a lap down on pit road, but all in all it was an awesome day, and I had a ton of fun.”
Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event marked day two of the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing, an annual motorsport gathering that draws drivers and teams from across the United States, Canada and occasionally other countries.
For the Catalano family, including mom Amy, the World Series of Asphalt serves not only as the start to what will be an extremely busy 2024 season, but also doubles as a vacation of sorts for the family from Ontario, New York.
It’s become an annual tradition for the Catalano family to pack their bags and head to Florida each February to race at New Smyrna Speedway, where the weather is admittedly much nicer than the conditions they leave behind in New York.
Amy Catalano during night 7 of the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing event at New Smyrna Speedway in New Smyrna, Florida on February 17, 2023. (Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)
“It’s a family tradition that my kids carried on,” Amy said. “It started with my oldest (Timmy) and we don’t want to stop the tradition until all the kids get to give it a try. We’ve been coming down here for I think it has been 14 years of us doing this.
“Each one of my boys wants a shot to beat mom. I keep plugging along but each year I threaten I’m going to retire and let the boys take over. I feel bad to take it away from each one of them to beat me.”
You would think a trip to Florida in February would be relaxing, but the Catalano family has a hard time sitting still. That’s why they brought seven cars with them from New York to Florida, including five Modifieds and two Super Late Models.
Each car will see action during the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing, with Amy and Tommy each driving the Super Late Models while Tommy, Tyler and Trevor will take turns behind the wheel of the Modifieds. A family friend will also wheel one of the Modifieds one night during the week.
“We brought seven cars with us and no backups. So seven cars that we plan on racing,” Tommy said. “Our goal for the week is to try and keep it fun and that sounds entirely crazy to think because how are you going to keep it fun with seven cars? We brought a whole bunch of people with us that love racing and dedicated some time to coming and helping us.
“Hopefully that is going to play out in our favor. As I was telling somebody a little bit ago, part of keeping it fun is staying realistic.”
The addition of a Super Late Model for Amy to the roster of cars during the World Series happened less than three weeks ago. Amy, a former NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series New York State champion, started her career in Late Models before transitioning to Modifieds.
She always wanted to come back to Late Models to close out her career and saw an opportunity to do that this week at New Smyrna Speedway. She made her first Late Model start in more than two decades on Feb. 9, starting 31st and finishing 24th against a stacked Super Late Model field.
Trevor Catalano, driver of the #56 Catalano Motorsports Modified, during the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour during night 2 of the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway in New Smyrna, Florida on February 10, 2024. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
“I actually cut my teeth in Late Model racing,” Amy said. “I had 12 years in Late Model racing. I got a lot of wins and had a lot of fun. Old technology, not the new technology. I always teased that I’m going to get back in my fenders where I came from before I ended my career, so I bought one and I’m trying to be brave enough to get back in there.”
While a lot of the focus during the World Series for the Catalano family was on Amy’s Late Model return and Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event, there is still a lot for the family to look forward to.
That includes fielding Modifieds for Amy, Tommy, Tyler and Trevor on the same night later in the coming week. The working goal is to field all four cars either for Thursday’s 50-lap feature or Friday’s Richie Evans Memorial 100.
“Most people take vacations and they go and do things. We don’t. We go racing,” Tyler said. “We come to Florida and call it a vacation and we go racing for seven days. It’s a blast.
“We all kind of work on everyone’s stuff to get it all prepared and ready to rip. It’s just fun to work out in the shop with our family and come race.”
No matter how the rest of the week goes, the entire Catalano family will leave New Smyrna Speedway happy. Not only did they get to spend more than a week racing together under the Florida sun, they also got to see Trevor finish fifth in his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut.
Anything else would be a massive bonus.
“A top-five, that wasn’t even in the radar when we left home,” Trevor said. “We could have the worst week the rest of the week and I don’t think we’re going to lose faith in this one.”
