Alex Yontz, of Walnut Cove, NC, will join the American Speed Association (ASA) Series tour in 2004.

The 17-year-old Yontz began racing go-karts in 1993, at the age of seven, and stayed with the karts for seven years, gathering many racing honors along the way. Among Alex's karting records are: Winning back-to-back Grand National Championship Races in 1996 and 1997; WKA North Carolina Champion in 1997; WKA National Champion in 1997; SERCA Champion in 1998 and Dirt World Champion in 1999.

In 2000, Alex wanted to move on to bigger and faster cars, and made the move to the Legends cars, picking up a feature win in only his third time out. He went on to win the BF Goodrich Points Series North Carolina Asphalt Championship that first year (Young Lions); took second place in the Wendy's Summer Shootout Series (Charger Division); finished second in the Concord Motorsports Park Series (Charger Division) and completed that first season 7th in National Points.

The following year Yontz moved up to the Semi-Pro Division, picking up 17 wins and 30 top five finishes on the way to the 2001 North Carolina State Championship.

At the age of 15 Alex entered his first Late Model Stock Car event at Hickory Speedway. He surprised many of the veterans in the field by qualifying 9th out of the forty cars that made qualifying attempts that day. He ran in the top fifteen throughout the event, only to be caught up in someone else's accident near the end, and ended up with a DNF in that first Late Model event.

The 2003 season was his first season of concentrating fully on Late Model competition. He competed at Orange County Speedway and finished 12th in year-end points despite running only a limited schedule. In post season special events Alex qualified 17th for the prestigious Taco Bell 300 at Martinsville Speedway and was running a strong 12th when he suffered an engine failure. He went back to Orange County Speedway for the UARA Series touring event, qualifying 10th and finishing a strong 6th. Alex completed his 2003 season with the annual NASCAR Late Model event at Myrtle Beach Speedway where he again qualified in the top ten and ran with the leaders the entire race.

Alex, a senior and Honor Roll student year at South Stokes High School in Walnut Cove, is looking forward to joining the ASA Series, which has produced such champions as Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Alan Kulwicki, Matt Kenseth and many others. Alex will comptete for the ASA "Rookie of the Year" title in 2004.

The Yontz Racing entry will carry the colors of Certainteed Building Materials and Yontz Home Improvements.

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