Tracy Hines Opens 2014 Sprint Car Season in Florida
By Tracy Hines Racing PR
NEW CASTLE, Ind.—Feb. 19, 2014— Tracy Hines had a pretty successful trip to Florida last season, winning two of the three Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series races at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala. Making the feat even more impressive was the fact that those races were the first three events he ran in a self-owned machine, after quickly putting a team together in the short couple of months following the 2012 campaign.
With a full year of team ownership now under his belt, Hines returns to the Sunshine State to open the 2014 Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series season this week at Bubba Raceway Park, with a new primary sponsor, The Carolina Nut Company, adorning his familiar No. 4 DRC with a Chevy-powered Stanton Racing Engine under the hood.
The Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series portion of the Third Annual Bubba Army Winternationals at Bubba Raceway Park is set for Thursday, Feb. 20, Friday, Feb. 21 and Saturday, Feb. 22. An open practice night will open the event tonight.
“We are definitely ready to get back to the track,” said Hines. “We have The Carolina Nut Company on-board this year and that has us even more excited to get the season underway. That along with the support of our returning and other new sponsors has enabled us to make some upgrades to our program. We’ve brought on Taylor Courtney as a full-time employee. We built another new car to start the year, and have some engines that we believe will put us in the hunt, night in and night out.”
Hines scored victories on the second and third nights of the 2013 Bubba Army Winternationals. He finished 11th in the opener, after getting caught up in a four-car accident on the fourth circuit. On the second night, he took the lead on the final lap, from Robert Ballou, who suffered a flat tire. In the finale of the 2013 Bubba Army Winternationals, Hines led all 30 laps to earn the win.
“Last year we obviously opened the season on a strong note in Florida,” shared the veteran driver. “We had a good combination for the track, and caught things just right those two nights. Florida is pretty unique compared to the rest of the races and tracks we go to during the season. The surface at Ocala has a sandy-base and they have added some clay, the last couple years, but you still have to do things a bit different than you would at tracks in the Midwest or on the West Coast. We’ll take a look at the surface when we get there and see what changes they’ve made and go from there.”
In his career at Bubba Raceway Park, Hines has made eight starts, dating back to 2011. He has three top-10 finishes in those races and has finished 13th or better in seven of those eight races. Along with his two wins last season, he was ninth in the finale at the three-eighths-mile in 2012.
Last season, Hines competed in 33 races with the Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series earning two wins and recording 20 top-10 finishes. He scored a pair of runner-up finishes at Canyon Speedway Park in Arizona, late in the season during the Hall of Fame Classic. Hines found himself on the podium during the Eastern Storm Tour at Susquehanna Speedway in Pennsylvania, as well as at the Terre Haute Action Track in his home state of Indiana and at I-96 Speedway in Michigan. The native of New Castle, Ind., stopped the clocks first on four occasions with the series in time trials in 2013. He wrapped up the season sixth in points in his first season driving his self-owned machine.
Hines opens the 2014 Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series season with 45 career wins, which is fourth all-time, just one behind Jack Hewitt, two back of Dave Darland and seven in arrears to Tom Bigelow, the winningest sprint car driver in USAC history. The 2014 season will take the 2002 series champion to 22 tracks in 10 tracks over the course of the nearly 40-race season.
“We’ve really worked hard on our short track program this year,” said Hines. “We only have a handful of races on half-miles, so we have to be at our best on the smaller tracks. Last year we had a good set-up for the larger tracks and we strive to have the same consistency on the smaller tracks. We’ve worked hard this off-season and expect to win races and be in contention every time we pull into the pit area.”
Along with contesting the entire Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series calendar, Hines will also race the full Traxxas USAC Silver Crown Series schedule and Honda USAC National Midget Series campaign.
