Catchfence

In 2009, the SS Green Light Racing team nearly won the ASA Challenge Series Championship, but came up one spot short as Drew Brannon finished second behind Brian Campbell in the final standings. This season sixteen year-old Iowan Joey Gase steps behind the wheel of the team’s new Chevy Camaro on Saturday, March 27th in the Southern Salute 200 season opener at Florida’s New Smyrna Raceway.

The Sunoco National Tour (formerly the ASA Challenge Series) will have a new name this season with a new sponsor in Sunoco and sporty new Camaro and Mustang bodies on their racecars.

Gase is no stranger to New Smyrna; he and the SS Green Light team raced in the PASS opener in January where the team was relegated to seventeenth finishing position after Joey was caught up in a wreck not of his doing. He also finished fifth in the Crate Late Model points at the World Series of Stock Car racing in 2009.

The reigning Late Model Champion at the Hawkeye Downs Speedway is ready to get back to the fast Florida half-mile. “I’m excited to get back to New Smyrna, We had a very fast car back in January, but we got caught up in someone else’s mess. If we can get the car to handle anywhere close to what we had, we should have a good race on Saturday, I’m ready to go!”

Gase has spent the offseason working on his crate late model back home in Iowa and was also able to attend the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona with the SS Green Light Camping World Truck Series teams. “The experience in Daytona was great, it was pretty exciting when Jason (White) won the pole and almost won the race. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes at a NASCAR race that most people never get to see, it was great, I really enjoyed it.”

Veteran wrench Troy Smith will call the shots for Gase from atop the SS Green Light pit box this weekend, “Joey was doing a great job when we were at New Smyrna a few weeks back. I was very impressed with how much he progressed as the weekend went on. If we get the car good for him, I know he will do a great job.”

“We’ve re-skinned two of our late model chassis with the new bodies, they look pretty sharp with the new Camaro bodies,” Smith added. “I think the fans are really going to enjoy seeing these cars on the track.”

“We’ll have some extra test time when we get to Florida to try to get a handle on the new package. We have to learn what changes we need to make to the set-ups the with these new bodies, but all the teams will have the same challenges.”

Florida legend Jimmy Cope will be on hand for the SS Green Light team to do the spotting and give Gase advice on driving at the tough New Smyrna Racetrack.

Gase will run an A-B-C style multi-series schedule for SS Green Light Racing in 2010. In addition to the Sunoco National Tour, the team plans to run several events in the Pro All Star Series and the Championship Racing Series. The team will also enter Joey in two K&N Pro Series East races later in the season.

The Sunoco National Series team will have three one-hour practice sessions on Friday March 26th along with a practice session at noon, qualifying at 4:00 and the Southern Salute 200 at 8:30 on Saturday, March 27th.

- SS Green Light Racing Press Release