ROSSBURG, Ohio – Logan Seavey may be a fresh face when it comes to both Eldora Speedway and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, but that’s not stopping the 21-year-old from carrying confidence into Wednesday night’s Eldora Dirt Derby.
Seavey, the current USAC P1 Insurance National Midget Series points leader, will make his NASCAR debut driving one of the most potent trucks in the garage, the No. 51 Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Mobil 1, which also sponsors Seavey’s No. 67 midgets, will adorn his truck at Eldora.
The No. 51 has already won once this season with owner Kyle Busch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and despite Seavey’s lack of experience in heavy stock cars, he firmly believes he can add a second trophy to that tally and give KBM their third ‘Golden Shovel’ in six Eldora appearances.
“I believe we can win the race; I really do,” Seavey told SPEED SPORT in advance of the sixth running of the Dirt Derby. “At the very least, we should be able to contend up front, because we have some of the best people and one of the best teams there is in the Truck Series working on my truck and putting their energy into making me as successful as I can be for 150 laps on Wednesday night.
“Being a dirt racer, I’m confident that I can adapt to the race track and adapt to the truck; the speed will come throughout the race … I feel like that’s where I’ve always excelled, no matter what car or series I’ve been in,” Seavey added. “I don’t think you’ll see us turn everyone’s head early in the day, but I think by the end of the night we can sneak up there and definitely be a factor.”
Notably, Seavey has already won twice in the USAC ranks this season, scoring the season-opening Shamrock Classic victory at DuQuoin’s Southern Illinois Center in March and adding a second win on Sunday night at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in Missouri.
He has a 100-point lead following Sunday night’s performance and is seeking to become the third rookie to win the USAC national midget title, following in the footsteps of Danny Caruthers (1971) and Christopher Bell (2013).
The opportunity for Seavey to race for the winningest team in the Truck Series came about thanks to his relationship with Toyota – which supplies the engines for Seavey’s midget team, Keith Kunz Motorsports – and a conversation at a North Carolina dirt track with Jack Irving, the Director of Team & Support Services for Toyota Racing.
“Toyota has done so much for me and a lot of dirt racers over the course of our careers up to now. They’re such big supporters of grassroots racing … and that’s really where and how this opportunity came together for me to race the Dirt Derby,” Seavey recalled. “We had just started talking about me doing some super late model stuff in May … and I was sitting in the grandstands with Jack Irving during the big outlaw kart race at Millbridge Speedway in May, and he turned to me and said, ‘Hey, you want to run Eldora?’
“Honestly, he knew it was a rhetorical question; Jack knew what my answer was going to be before he even asked me,” Seavey added. “It was pretty random, if you want me to be honest with you, but I jumped at the opportunity and the next morning I was at the KBM shop getting fitted in a truck. Things happen really fast when you have good people behind you like I do with the folks from TRD. This is a huge moment in my career and I want to make the most of it, because I didn’t have a ton of backing before I got linked up with Toyota Racing and now we’re doing some pretty amazing things. It’s crazy.”
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