PENSACOLA, Fla. — The inaugural event for the ASA STARS National Tour is just over a week away, March 10-11 with the Sunshine State 200 at Five Flags Speedway.
After 21 years, the ASA name returns to Five Flags to open the ASA STARS National Tour season. The Sunshine State 200 will see super late model racing’s best compete with a $20,000 payday on the line.
An impressive list of 31 drivers are on the early entry list, which includes 20 champions of late model racing, seven super late model crown jewel winners and two ARCA Champions. The ASA STARS Tour debut can be seen on SPEED SPORT affiliate MidwestTour.tv.
In fact, nearly 90-percent of the drivers currently registered have won late model races in their careers.
“The list of drivers is really a who’s who of late model racing and we believe we will have some more entries in the next two weeks,” said Tim Bryant, Promoter of Five Flags Speedway. “The response to this historic event, with the return of ASA, plus having it as our Blizzard Series as well, has been terrific. We look forward to seeing all the fans and racers when they arrive in Pensacola.”
The Super Late Model crown jewel winners in the field for the Sunshine State 200 are Stephen Nasse (All American 400 and Winchester 400) Bubba Pollard (All American 400 and Oxford 250), Ty Majeski (Snowball Derby), Carson Hocevar (Winchester 400), Matt Craig (All-American 400), Casey Roderick (All American 400) and Derek Thorn (Snowball Derby).
Other notable super late model winners include former ARCA Champion Grant Enfinger (The Rattler), Jeremy Doss (Montana 200), Preston Peltier (World Crown & Summer Showdown), Austin Nason (National Short Track Championships) Jacob Gomes (Winter Showdown) and former ARCA Menards Series West Champion Derek Kraus (Idaho 208).
History Behind The Event
The former national touring series made just two trips to the Florida half-mile oval, both coming during the later years of its existence. The first appearance came on May 4, 1997 in the Florida 300. Former ASA champions Bob Senneker and Kevin Cywinski led the field to green that afternoon, but it would be Mike Garvey putting on a show for fans in attendance.
Starting shotgun in the 33-car field, Garvey worked his way from the back to the front twice after a problem during a pit stop and beat out Cywinski and Joe Nott for his first-career ASA win.
ASA returned to Five Flags Speedway five years later on May 6, 2002 for the ASAracing.com 300, a race which included 17-year-old and future two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch.
Once again, Kevin Cywinski started on the front row alongside Russ Tuttle. Cywinksi, David Stremme and Wayne Anderson were among race leaders during the first 200 laps of the event. That year’s series champion, Joey Clanton, would dominate the final third of the race to take his fourth of five straight wins to start the 2002 season over Stremme and Dan Fredrickson.