By Jack Smith

"It really gets the wheels turning when you hear about that much money, it gets the juices flowing and you think about how you can go after it." That was veteran short track ace Eddie Hoffman's reaction to learning about the $100,000 Bonus offered to a driver who can win all three ASA Late Model Triple Crown races in 2008.

ASA Late Model Series President Ron Varney broke the news about the added prize on The Real Racin' USA weekly "ASA Fastlane" show recently. The series signed a deal with O'Reilly Auto Parts to sponsor the newly created Triple Crown, with races at the O'Reilly Raceway Park ,Salem Speedway and Memphis International Raceway and Memphis Motorsports Park. "We'll have a $100,000 bonus if anybody can win all three races, that is pretty exciting", Varney said. "Anytime you can throw up that $100,000 mark up there, that's pretty big in this asphalt side of it," he added.

Varney explained, "We are very excited about it, O'Reilly's is excited about it, we have been trying to get together with O'Reilly for a few years now, and Terry [Wall] kind of helped get this deal put together, and we are real excited, not only what we are going to be doing with O'Reilly's this year but what could come for the future."

There has been a blizzard of news coming out of the ASA Late Model Series in 2008, before a race has even been run. At a press conference at Tri-County Speedway, site of the ASA Late Model Challenge Division rainout earlier in the month, Varney announced that the series will be the support race for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Gateway International Speedway on September 6th.

The ASA Late Model Series kicks off its Southern Division Championship chase this weekend at Bronson Motor Speedway, near Gainesville, Florida.

The full interview with Ron Varney is available on Real Racin' USA at www.asafastlane.com.


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