Growing up in New Mexico isn’t the greatest home state when chasing a NASCAR career, however, Jamie Dick is one of the uncommon racers who has advanced through the racing ranks and become a well-know driver despite growing up in a non-racing environment. Despite his environment not being best suited for racing, Dick has progressed to the NASCAR Nationwide Series and is quickly becoming a force to reckon with.
Dick stunned the world at Daytona International Speedway last Saturday after qualifying his No. 55 Viva Motorsports seventh. After shocking the NASCAR universe with the qualifying run he disappointed himself and the fans after finishing a dismal 27th position.
“It was definitely a disappointment.” Dick told me following the DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona. “Anytime you start in the top 10 and your run in the top five but you don’t finish up there, it is a disappointment. But, we just have to learn from our mistakes and be prepared to capitalize next time we are in that position.
Dick’s career high finish was posted at Talladega Superspeedway last season after he finished in 12th position. With the prior success at restrictor plate racetracks, it seemed that he would thrive this weekend in Daytona. However, sometimes things don’t go as planned.
“After we qualified 7th, we knew we had a good car.” Dick explained to me. “It had been hard to pass during practice and testing, so I knew that starting up front was going to be important. Between our starting position and our strong car, I had high expectations for the race. I felt like I had more control over our finish then most races. But those expectations weren’t based on our 12th place finish the year before at Talladega. Our team has changed a lot since then and the circumstances going into the race at Talladega were much different than this weekend in Daytona”
Viva Motorsports and Dick are entered into this weekend’s Nationwide Series event at Phoenix International Raceway. The team’s setting high, but reachable, standards in the desert state.
“I expect to finish in the top 15 and I will be disappointed if we don’t finish in the top 20”
Dick is hoping to improve upon last year’s 35th and 22nd place finishes last season at Phoenix. He explained to me that he thinks the team can improve on those decent finishes.
“We can definitely improve on those finishes. The 35th place finish was because of a wreck we were caught up in at the beginning of the race. In the second Phoenix race last year, we had about a 22nd place car and that is right where we finish. Hopefully, we will be a little closer on the setup and we will bring it home with a much higher finish.”
Dick and Viva Motorsports are hoping 2014 is their breakthrough year where they can prove their one car organization can compete even with the top competitors in NASCAR. And this weekend in Phoenix will be a trial for the team to see whether they will accept the challenge.
