Success rained throughout Mason Mingus’s 2013 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards season. Despite not seeing victory lane the 18-year-old finished second overall for the Win-Tron Racing team in the points standings. Soon after the ARCA season had been completed Mingus and WinTron announced that they would compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) at the treacherous Talladega Super Speedway.
The Mooresville, North Carolina based team of Win-Tron have entered the No. 35 Chevrolet into the Fred’s 250 for Saturday’s NCWTS event. This isn’t just Mingus’s debut but also Win-Tron’s in any of NASCAR’S top 3-series. Mark Rette, the 2009 ARCA champion crew chief will lead the efforts for Win-Tron Racing in the series 19th race of the year
“While, I’m most excited about this opportunity, the key is to get the seat time in the truck and learn how to handle it in the draft and how the air affects them compared to an ARCA car. I’m most nervous about figuring out who I can draft with and catching onto the two very different styles of drafting between the truck and an ARCA car.
Mingus has 34 starts throughout his ARCA career, which include five top-five finishes and 25 top-ten finishes as well as 2-second place finishes at the 2.66 mile Super Speedway of Talladega.
Friday’s practice was the first time Mingus took to the track, he did so very cautiously. He ran a total of 15 laps and ended up 31st at the finish of final practice. The team was feared to not run around other trucks because they have no back-up truck. Mingus did as told and ran mock qualifying runs as they are forced to qualify in on time.
Not running around other trucks might not benefit the rookie come Saturday when 36-trucks are stacked together within 2-seconds of each other.
Either way this weekend could be the deciding factor to whether Mingus will make it to the biggest stage in NASCAR. Restrictor plate racing can be friendly or deadly and Mingus knows that very well.
“This is like an early, early Christmas present,” said Mingus “I’m really excited about the opportunity to race (again) at Talladega. Everyone at Win-Tron Racing has worked very hard to put a truck together for me. I have had success at Talladega in an ARCA car and I hope to continue that success over to the trucks.”
“You have to enter races like these with the best outlook possible, but at the same time, you can’t be disappointed if your weekend doesn’t pan out. This is Talladega after all.” said the Brentwood, Tennessee native (Mingus)
Qualifying played into Mingus’s hands as mentioned before he’d have to qualify in on time and he did so in dominating fashion. Rolling off early in qualifying wasn’t an advantage for Mingus as he’d come out 8th out of 37 trucks. After 29 more trucks took times Mingus locked himself in the field and will start in the 12th position.
In addition to Talladega, Mingus and Win-Tron Racing will also compete in the final two NCWTS races of the year from Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway (November 8) and Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway (November 15) respectively.
