A new year brings new championship contenders.
Austin Hill dominated the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East opener at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway last year. This year, though, Hill has graduated to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series where he will be racing at Daytona International Speedway along with 2015 series champion William Byron, Dalton Sargeant and Rico Abreu.
A favorite headed into the opener at New Smyrna may be HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks driver Justin Haley. The 16-year-old finished 21st at the .480-mile oval last season in just his fourth K&N East start. The Winamac, Indiana, native found his groove throughout the season collecting six top fives and 10 top 10 finishes to finish sixth in the championship standings.
Haley also made an impression at the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West finale at Arizona’s Phoenix International Speedway winning the 21 Means 21 Pole Award and leading 94 of 101 laps before a flat tire took him out of the race.
“I’m super excited to start things off this year based on where we ended things last year,” said Haley. “The HScott with Justin Mark’s guys gave me fantastic handling cars last year and I know they will do the same this year. I can’t wait to get back in the car and I hope we have luck on our side. We want to go out there win races and compete for the championship. New Smyrna is the proving ground for that.”
The season opener will also feature a plethora of new talent vying for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year title. HScott will have three new drivers joining Haley: Harrison Burton, Hunter Baize and Tyler Dippel. Burton, son of former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jeff Burton, has already made a name for himself in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, when he became the youngest driver to start in the series at California’s All American Speedway last season at 15 years, 8 days.
Three NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race winners from 2015 also return with Colin Cabre, Dillon Bassett and NASCAR Next driver Kyle Benjamin. Cabre won the K&N Pro East finale at Dover and is joined at Rev Racing by 2015 NASCAR Mexico Series champion Ruben Garcia Jr.
NASCAR PR
