| Jason Boyd: A Young Man On A Mission | Boyd Joins Roush Gong Show And Chance Of A Lifetime
By Jack Smith
-KARNAC.com
He is perhaps one of the most misunderstood of the young crop of talented race cars drivers that have come to the fore in the last several years. Disregarding the abuse at the hands of message board critics over the years, Jason Boyd only has one goal in his sights.
Beating the field to checkered flag is the only reason he shows up to the race track.
A curious search on KARNAC shows a tremendous amount of winning efforts in Open Wheel Modified and Late Models, and now that the emphasis has turned to Super Late Models, fans should expect more of the same.
He has been successful enough rubbing fenders on Florida short tracks and elsewhere that Roush Racing has invited the 23 year old Orlando driver to join the select group vying for the coveted Craftsman Truck Series ride.
Jason is one of 25 talented race car drivers who are a step closer to realizing their dream of becoming a NASCAR star. Roush Racing has narrowed a field of 1,667 applicants to just 25 candidates, among them fellow Florida racers Jeff Choquetteand Travis Kittleson.
Thes chosen few are now competing for a fully sponsored ride in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with legendary racer and team owner Jack Roush.
Roush Racing is teaming up with Discovery Channel to capture all of the excitement and drama of the competition on film, with unprecedented access to the gong show. The select group of racers will compete on and off the track, testing their skills behind the wheel as well as their marketability and fan appeal. The series is being described as high-energy, and will come to audiences as a 13-part series and will debut on the Discovery Channel this fall.
It is not hard to understand why Jason Boyd would be in that group once you take a look at his accomplishments. In May 2001 he won both the Super Late Model 50 lap event and the 50 lap Modified events at Orlando, the Dick and Jerry Joslin Memorials.
In October of 2000 Boyd, driving the #15 Boyd Racing Engines Chevy qualified on the pole in the Late Model 100 lap final race, charged to the front and held off a furious run by Scott Bramlett #26 to get the feature win at New Smyrna Speedway. In 2004 Jason Boyd won the FASCAR Goodyear Challenge Series Championship, the top late model series in Florida. In August of 2000, Boyd, along with 45 other racers went to USA International Speedway for 100 laps on the 3/4 mile speedway. He started in the second row, took the lead on the second lap and led the rest of the way.
Those races are just a sampling of the wins Boyd has put together since starting as a mini stock driver at the old asphalt covered Volusia Speedway in the mid nineties, as a fourteen year old. And winning is what racing is all about, especially when you are talking about getting to the big show, the NASCAR top three.
After only ten races or so in the mini stocks he jumped straight to Late Models where in 1998 he won the track championship and finished 6th in the NASCAR Winston Racing Series. Jason added Modifieds and Super Late Model races to his resume beginning in 2000, and things have accelerated for him since.
Boyd has been around racing literally since he was a baby, "My dad used to change my diapers in the grandstands". Jason's father Dennis Boyd built the motors for many of his cars, and lots of other Florida winners as well. "My father has built motors for 30-40 years and as far as I am concerned he is the best out there," Boyd said.
The older Boyd still builds the motors for his son's limited cars and the youngster speaks with pride when he says, "he is a hard working man and if it weren't for him I wouldn't be where I am today, that's for sure".
Other strong influences in Boyd's life have been Leroy Porter, Daniel Keene and Dick Anderson. "I played football for one year and then quit so I could race, it is all I've ever really done", he explained.
"Leroy Porter used to pick me up every Friday to go to Speedworld to race, and then being curious and progressing is what brought me here to where I am today", the young man obviously understanding the importance of his roots.
One thing you notice quickly with Boyd is the seriousness with which he takes his trade and that he has not had an easy life, "I have had a hard long road, I am a low budget team, I don't have money, I have had to win one race to go to the next", adding "That first time when I went to Lakeland and won them three out of the four races I had to borrow $500 to buy a set a tires, and borrow money from somebody to get in."
Boyd got an opportunity to race in the ASA (American Speed Association), actually replacing Wayne Anderson in the #86 Frankie Grill car.
But Boyd's best racing opportunity to date is quite likely happening right here in 2005 with the team of Dick Anderson, crew chief, spotter and driver management, combined with a car owned by Jesse Stovola of the famed Stovola Brothers, and motors built by Dan O'Connell. As of this date Jason Boyd is leading the FASCAR Sunbelt Super Late Model Series, as well as being it's top rookie. With one win (Lake City) and finishing no worse than fourth, it is apparent that consistency is the theme.
Jason is very high on his relationship with the legendary Anderson, "Honestly me and Dick work together like father and son. We haven't fell out of a race, and I myself have become a smarter racer".
"Before If I didn't win I would wreck; I am telling you in the last six months that I have raced for Dick, I am 100% better than I was a year ago, just from what I know now", Boyd stated.
And that is a scary thought for the competition, considering Boyd's past success, and since January when this pair of talented youth and tested experience got together this has been a solid team.
"I am very happy with him," Anderson told me, adding "Jason has always had the raw talent to go fast, but he needed a little temperament with it, so it is working out pretty good with me and him teaming up".
According to Anderson, "He's got all the talent and with me with 40 years of experience I'm holding him back a little bit where he doesn't run too fast too early, he's starting to look like a real mature race car driver".
"I was holding him back at Lakeland the first half of the race, I have just seen too many of them races, you just have to be there at the end, you know." Boyd finished second in the 200 lap Florida State Championship Super Late Model race at Lakeland a week ago, riding on the rear bumper of Fain Skinner for the last 25 laps.
 The "100% better" Boyd after the race said, "I could have run into the back of him or bumped him and went by him, but I didn't, Fain Skinner is a good friend of mine. When I got behind him, I got too tight I couldn't get off the corners, I couldn't turn the car to get underneath him. That was because I didn't have any air hitting my front nose." So Boyd was very happy with a second place finish on one of Florida's biggest races of the year, and certainly one of the most grueling.
Another veteran observer of the Florida late model scene, FASCAR General Manager Don Nerone, had this to say about Boyd's past and his prospects, "He has come a long way, we have both given up on him a few times", Nerone said with a chuckle and grin through the telephone line.
After a thoughtful story about giving talented unknowns a chance, Nerone summed up his feelings on Boyd in typical Nerone style, "If they get so unlucky as to put Jason Boyd in a real good car, he is going to show off, because he is a member of what I call the two-tenths club. I see drivers that you could put in anybody's car and they are going to go 2/10s quicker. They are just two tenth's faster out of sheer guts and determination."
"Dick Anderson is a member of the two-tenths club, and he would probably tell you the only person he knows is a member of the club right now is probably Jason Boyd and that is why he grabbed him", Nerone said in conclusion.
For now the cameras have already started rolling around Jason Boyd, Discovery Channel has been to the house and begun filming all aspects of a race car driver off the stage of a race track. Boyd said they filmed everything, his garage and routine activities during the day.
One thing that will work to further mature Jason, just as it usually does all of us, is a new baby. In this case the five week old daughter Morgan Nicole is changing his life.
"It is the best thing that has ever happened to me", Boyd said and then letting a wry sense of humor show, "I would recommend it to everybody at least once".
Boyd has been working in the construction business as a superintendent building new homes for the last eight months, the first job outside of racing he has ever had.
But regardless of how Boyd fares with the Roush Gong Show, competition in Florida had better prepare for this Boyd and Anderson team, because as Boyd said, "I go there for one reason, that is to set fast time, that's to lead every lap and that's to win the race, I don't go there for any other reason. This is not a hobby to me, this is my job".
His 'job' at present is to win the Sunbelt series championship and get the rookie title.
If the folks at Roush pick this driver for the 2006 Craftsman Truck Ride, they are going to get as serious and focused a racer as Florida has produced in the last 10 years or longer.
Maybe they will get lucky.
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