Haley added that all the track time he’s had in recent months with his UMP car has given him much more of a feel for what he needs each time he gets the opportunity to strap back into it, especially considering he’s struggled in his last few appearances after a very fast start.
“I love the UMP car; it’s got so much horsepower and it’s just a machine when it comes to how you can drive it,” Haley explained. “The little tires are a lot of fun for my driving style.”
“I’d done probably six or seven shows in 2017 and I won my first three, then went to Eldora Speedway’s Fall Nationals and finished second in overall points out of 87 cars. We didn’t do quite as stellar this weekend, but we were chasing the track the whole time and had the wrong shocks on it.”
“It’s tough when I don’t have the full engineering staff like I do on my Truck, but Matt and I make the best of it, and I feel like I’ve come a long way with the car, for sure. We learned a lot and I definitely think we’ll be even stronger the next time I can pull the car back out.”
Now, Haley will shift his focus over to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series opener, which will mark his first time competing at ‘The World Center of Racing’ in the series after age restrictions kept him out of the seat last February.
Despite missing the first two races of the year in 2017, Haley went on to post three top-five and 12 top-10 finishes, as well as a pole at Texas Motor Speedway in the fall, en route to finishing 12th in the final point standings.
Now, Haley said, the goal is simple: win races and bring home GMS Racing’s second Truck Series championship.
“I think the Truck Series is going to be really good to us this year,” Haley affirmed. “Me and (crew chief) Kevin Bellicourt started working really well together towards the end of last season and I think that chemistry will only get better. We want to win races and I think we’ll have plenty of chances to do that.”
“I’m going to put it all out on the line because at the end of the day, I really have nothing to lose. I’m just a kid from Indiana … this is all I’ve got; this is my chance. I took that chance in the K&N Pro Series and ended up with the East championship, so I’m going to do the same thing here and hope for a similar result.”
That quest starts at Daytona on Friday night, but Haley isn’t letting the size of the stage get to him, he’s just treating it as another race.
“I think the thing I’m most anxious for is the fact that it’s the first race of the season and it’s really nice to get things kicked off and get back down to business,” Haley said. “Hopefully we can get things started on the right foot like GMS did last year because they have such good superspeedway stuff. I know we’ll have a shot if we go about things the right way, and then it just comes down to staying out of trouble.”
“Daytona obviously is cool, and I love superspeedway racing; I showed that last year when I won the ARCA race at Talladega. But it’s something you can’t let overwhelm you. You can’t overthink it or let things get in your head … so for me, it’s something I’ll think about if I win, but I’m more focused on just having a good race and getting our team off to a strong start.”
And as for that motorhome? Haley took full enjoyment out of the drive down to start Speedweeks too.
“I love driving the motorhome,” he smiled. “Now, if it’s more than a six-hour drive … then maybe it’s not quite as much my cup of tea, but I enjoyed getting to do that and it was a way to get myself ready for everything else that’s come since.”
