NWAAS Div. I Pts: Bubar Back at Beech Ridge
Maine’s ’12 Top Rookie Returns; Anders Increases National Lead
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A past track champion and NASCAR state rookie-of-the-year returned to full time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition this year.
Corey Bubar, 22, of Windham, Me., won the season opening NASCAR pro series division feature in May at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Me. He returned to the third-mile paved oval after a year away in touring competition.
Bubar won the track’s NASCAR Division II sport series championship in 2011, and advanced to the NASCAR Division I pro series division in 2012. He won his first pro series feature and topped the state NASCAR rookie standings. He spent 2013 traveling the New England late model circuit.
“We had a lot of fun and success when we won the state rookie-of-the-year award in 2012,” Bubar said. “We got to go to the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series awards banquet in Charlotte and it was pretty cool. I’d like to win the track championship and go to Charlotte again.”
In four races, Bubar’s racing record is one win, four top-fives and three top 10s. He’s fifth in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Maine standings.
Anthony Anders collected two more wins to increase his points lead in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national standings and continue his quest for a fourth straight South Carolina championship.
Anders, of Easley, S.C., won twin 40-lap features at Greenville Pickens Speedway Saturday after finishing sixth at Anderson Speedway on Friday. He started 10th en route to the win in the second feature at Greenville, the third time this season he’s earned the maximum 41 points for a victory.
STANDINGS: NATIONAL TOP 500 | STATE/PROVINCE
NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division I drivers are ranked by their best 18 NASCAR points finishes in series-sanctioned events. Drivers receive two points for every car they finish ahead of – up to 18 cars – and three points for a win, with an additional two points available if the driver starts 10th or lower.
Anders has 17 wins, 24 top fives and 26 top 10s for 684 points. Two-time defending national champion Lee Pulliam is second with 585 and Keith Rocco is third at 550. Peyton Sellers and Ryan Preece round out the top five.
Pulliam did not run his pavement late model in NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition over the weekend; the North Carolina driver competed in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at Pensacola, Florida, on Friday. Rocco picked up his second straight SK Modified win at Waterford (Connecticut) Speedbowl after starting 12th. It was his fourth maximum-points win of the season.
Pulliam has 11 wins and 15 top fives in 18 starts at Virginia’s Motor Mile Speedway in Radford and South Boston Speedway, as well as Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, North Carolina. Rocco has six wins and 15 top fives in 16 starts at Connecticut’s three ovals: Waterford, Stafford Motor Speedway and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.
Peyton Sellers is fourth with five wins and 15 top fives in 16 starts for 543 points after finishing third at South Boston Saturday. And Ryan Preece, who runs Stafford, Thompson and Riverhead (New York) Raceway, remains fifth with six wins and 14 top fives in 17 starts for 518 points after an idle weekend.
Matt Bowling (South Boston, Motor Mile, Southern National and Caraway Speedway in Sophia, North Carolina) is sixth, followed by Dillon Bassett, who has competed at six tracks throughout the southeast in his pavement late model. Tommy Lemons Jr. (Southern National, Caraway and South Boston), Randy Porter (Greenville and Anderson) and Chad Finchum (Virgina’s Lonesome Pine and Tennessee’s Kinsport Speedway) round out the top 10.
Drivers in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series compete for track and U.S. state/Canadian province championships in addition to the national title.
Bubar is a second generation driver. His dad Dan is his car owner and crew chief and won the Beech Ridge sports series championship in 1994.
Young Bubar, a mechanic at Lake Region Imports, is largely self-taught in chassis adjustments and set-ups.
“I read articles in Circle Track Magazine and Dick Berggren’s Speedway Illustrated Magazine,” Bubar said. “I’ll Google stuff to research. I study stories on geometry, suspensions and bump stops. I’ll go to our chassis builder Jeff Taylor’s shop. We explore and study and we’ve found a few things by accident. Those are big reasons we run so good. Dad once set something up the opposite of what I wanted, and it worked.”
Bubar’s Dodge Charger is based on a Howe chassis and Butler & MacMaster Engines maintain the car’s crate engine. Sponsors include Mac-Page Accountants, Ben Morey, a golf pro at Spring Meadows Golf Club in Gray, Maine, and David S. Ingraham Paving. Crew members include Keith Sparks and Jeff Gillette and his sons Jay and Zak. In addition to his dad, other family members include his mom Karen, sister Kelsey and step-sister Ashleigh Landry.
Bubar started racing in the Beech Ridge cage kart division in 2004 at age 12. He moved onto the whiz kid division through age 15. He moved up to the sport series division at age 16.
Established in 1982, the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is NASCAR’s national championship program for weekly short track auto racing. In all, 58 paved and dirt tracks throughout the United States and Canada participate.
Connecticut-based Whelen Engineering is the series’ title sponsor. Whelen Engineering is a leading manufacturer of automotive, aviation, industrial and emergency vehicle lighting. NASCAR tracks and pace cars across North America are among the many showcases for Whelen products.
Sources: NASCAR Home Tracks PR