BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Danny Dietrich is ready to depart his snow-covered dash automobile homeland of Pennsylvania for the nice and cozy climate of Florida to compete with the American Dash Automobile Collection Nationwide Tour at Volusia Speedway Park.
Dietrich, 36, of Gettysburg, Pa., will enter his Weikert’s Livestock Inc, Maxim Chassis No. 48 with a Travis Racing Engine, owned by Chris and Mindy Hiser, for his first ASCS look outdoors of the 360 Knoxville Nationals.
He and the Gary Kauffman Racing workforce will compete within the opening nights of the 54th annual Federated Auto Components DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia, Jan. 30–Feb. 1.
The “PA Posse” standout has been a DIRTcar Nationals entrant yearly since 2017 with the World of Outlaws NOS Vitality Drink Dash Automobile Collection and has loads of laps round Volusia’s quick, half-mile confines in his common 410 dash automobile.
He raced Volusia for the primary time with a 360 engine within the automobile on the ultimate two nights of the 2024 Germfree Southern Dash Automobile Shootout, garnering back-to-back fifth-place finishes.
So, what brings the veteran winged racer again for extra 360 dash automobile competitors at Volusia this yr?
“It simply makes it higher for us to go down there and get some laps in earlier than 410s begin up the week,” Dietrich mentioned. “We don’t have the race in Georgia like we’ve had in years previous, or the race at Ocala like we now have in years previous, so it’s all the time good to get some laps [at Volusia].
“And it’s most likely even higher for us, being that we’re not having to depart one monitor and go to a different. We will simply go to Volusia and camp out for every week or so.”
Whereas Dietrich is keen to get the native 410 dash automobile season began again dwelling, the motion round Pennsylvania doesn’t start till March. Racing two weekends at Volusia additionally offers he and his workforce the extra advantage of getting forward of their competitors at dwelling by turning laps and wrenches on the monitor earlier than most others.
“I simply take pleasure in going to Volusia and beginning the season off, having the crew again across the monitor and within the trailer, and simply getting again into the swing of issues,” Dietrich mentioned. “Volusia hospitality is superb, and actually the fan base has grown a lot through the years, simply an increasing number of. Yearly, it looks like there will get to be an increasing number of followers strolling by means of the pit space.
“It’s good for the racers and good for the groups to get down there and get gelling earlier than issues actually get kicked off again right here in Pennsylvania.”
Dietrich is well-versed within the high-speed nature of tracks like Volusia. However does he view his weekly expertise on the massive tracks as a bonus over the touring stars of ASCS?
“By no means… under no circumstances,” Dietrich mentioned. “We simply don’t have something right here in Pennsylvania like Volusia. Volusia might be about as near Eldora as it’s something, if I needed to give an opinion. It kinda races considerably related so far as the form of it — not saying we stand up on the fence like we do at Eldora or something like that — but it surely positively has some similarities so far as how spherical it’s, and also you don’t actually drive very straight across the monitor.”
DIRTcar Nationals kicks off a brand new period in ASCS Nationwide Tour historical past with the primary, full-length schedule constructed beneath the brand new possession of World Racing Group, which bought the sequence final March.
“I believe having ASCS down there may be positively going to assist the scenario with the 360s, and in Florida as effectively,” Dietrich mentioned. “To have ASCS concerned and taking up Volusia might be actually, actually good for 360s as a complete — possibly even throughout the entire nation. Kinda will get them one other good monitor and one other good forefront the place they get the publicity they need to be getting.”
