WHEATLAND, Mo. — Bryan White looks to complete his first full season of racing at Lucas Oil Speedway in style on Saturday by nailing down the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars track championship.
The 21-year-old from Lebanon takes a two-point lead over 19-year-old Mason Beck into Rempfer Memorial Championship Night. When asked if the battle of young guns is fun or stressful, White laughed and said “kind of both.”
“I’d like to be about 20 points ahead of Mason, but sometimes that don’t happen,” White said. His plan is to approach the final night of Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series action the same as usual — even though it basically comes down to which driver finishes ahead of the other.
“You just have to go out and race,” White said. “Whatever happens, happens. You get to paying attention to where he’s at, you’ll mess up and he’ll end up beating you.”
To make things even more interesting, White’s dad, Rob White, is just 12 points behind Bryan. So if the youngsters both have a bit of trouble, Rob White is poised to jump ahead of them and celebrate a championship.
“It’s gonna be one of us three, depending on who beats who,” White said. “We’ll see what happens.”
No matter what happens, it’s already been a banner season for White with two feature victories at Lucas Oil Speedway and seven top-five finishes. He has won eight features overall in his USRA Stock Car.
“It’s gone really good; better than I expected, really,” White said. “I bought a new motor over the winter and it’s really helped out a lot. This division is really fun. Everybody is so close, it’s hard to get just one car that’s faster than everybody else. They’re all really competitive.”
White joked that racing with his dad is fun, and there’s always some bragging rights involved.
“It’s kind of competitive all week long. If one of us beats the other, we get to talk crap all week,” he said with a laugh.
White got his start in racing six years ago in a pure stock at Midway Speedway. By the end of the year, he won two features and a track championship. He moved into the Midwest mod division the next season before the stock cars caught his eye a couple of years ago.
“Scotty (Allen) started them up at Dallas County and that’s when I had my Midwest mod,” White said. “I watched them over there and liked them. I sold my (Midwest mod) over the winter so I could drive a stock car.”
He’s found the USRA Stock Car division not only has competitive racing, but camaraderie that seems a notch higher as well.
The Whites and Will Garner always pit together and help each other on race nights.
Beck isn’t far away and, while an on-track rival, also has offered help if needed.
“We’re all rivals, but friends at the same time,” White said. “A lot of the other classes, it seems if you’re fast and rivals, it doesn’t seem like you talk as much in the pits.”
While he would be happy for his dad or Beck if they emerged with the championship, White clearly would like to be the one celebrating on Saturday night.
“It would mean a lot. Not everybody can say they won a track championship at Lucas Oil Speedway,” White said.