Rookie Heywood Aces Airborne Test
Earns Track Title, National Rookie Of The Year
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s not every day that a competitor credits a racing accident as one of the key to his season’s success, but that is the case in 2014 for NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Rookie of the Year Nick Heywood.
Heywood totaled his car in the fourth feature of the season in the J&S Steel Sportsman Modified division at Airborne Park Speedway. It could have been a crucial blow for the two-time-defending track champ, but instead turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“I don’t know if we found something in the car that wasn’t quite right when we tore it all apart and rebuilt it or what, but after that it was a rocket ship the rest of the year,” Heywood said.
The 26-year-old from Plattsburgh, New York, hadn’t struggled prior to the June 7 accident – he had finishes of second, third and third in the first three races of the year – but his first win of the season followed in dominant fashion the very next week in the rebuilt hot rod. Four more checkered flags followed.
The end result was a third consecutive track championship at Airborne, and first under the NASCAR banner. The half-mile asphalt oval located in Plattsburgh in the Adirondack park region welcomed Whelen All-American Series sanction for the first time in 2014.
2014 NASCAR WHELEN ALL-AMERICAN SERIES TRACK CHAMPIONS
Heywood also made five appearances at Vermont’s Devil’s Bowl Speedway. All told, he posted five wins, 19 top fives and top 10s in all 26 of his starts. It was a stat line that, as a first-year NASCAR license holder, also earned him the New York and national NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Rookie of the Year Awards presented by Jostens.
“I wasn’t literally a rookie, but it’s pretty awesome when you tell people you are NASCAR [Whelen All-American Series] Rookie of the Year,” Heywood said. “It’s cool. It kind of makes you feel big rather than some small-time hobbyist of a racer.”
Airborne’s alliance with NASCAR made quite an impact this season on Heywood, who realized a number of benefits from the new sanction.
“It was awesome,” Heywood said. “It increased our payouts, our recognition, and it just made for a lot better racing because we got more cars with more talent in the field.”
Heywood’s accomplishments were recognized at the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards on Dec. 12 in the Charlotte (North Carolina) Convention Center at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It was icing on the cake for Heywood.
“The banquet was surreal,” Heywood said. “I had high expectations for it, and it exceeded my expectations by far. They definitely made me feel like I was a champion.”
Prior to earning the trophies and recognition, Heywood felt the impact of competing under the NASCAR banner early on in 2014.
“The whole NASCAR thing is great,” Heywood said. “It’s great for the area, it helps us get sponsors – I gained a sponsor this year just from having the NASCAR name attached – so it helps for sure.”
As for the competition on the track, Heywood had a tougher row to hoe this season compared to his two previous Airborne crowns.
“It was a lot tighter of a championship race this year,” Heywood said. “We had a lot more guys that were frontrunners that could win compared to last year. There were probably only five that could win last year, and this year there were 10-12 that could win on any night and it made for a lot better competition.
“Last year we had the championship wrapped up with two races to go and this year it came down to the last race.”
Heywood ended up edging Travis Bruno by 10 tallies for the Airborne title in the No. 29 Budweiser/Warren Tire/Gallagher Towing Chevrolet he co-owns with his father, Randy Heywood. Mark Lubic and Jared McKee also provided crew help throughout the season.
Heywood, who came up nine points behind Stewart Friesen for the New York state championship, has lofty goals as he looks toward 2015. He’s got a bit of work to do to get his calendar lined up, however. He just started a new job on Monday as a state corrections officer at Franklin Correctional Facility in Malone, New York, and has to make sure to secure all of the necessary time off for his racing schedule.
“As long as everything goes as planned and I have the time off, we’re going to do some more traveling over to Vermont,” Heywood said. “Maybe go for a state championship and hopefully we’ll give it a run at the national championship.”
Sources: Jason Cunningham, NASCAR