The draft can be the great equalizer and sometimes leads to producing some special results for some drivers that fans do not normally hear about finishing up front. That happened last month with the NextEra Energy Resources 250 as Jimmy Weller brought his No. 08 Geneva Liberty Steel/Engine Parts Plus Chevrolet home in the ninth position.
“It turned out a lot better than I thought it would,” Weller commented. “I trusted my guys with it being my first trip there.”
Weller added that working with veteran spotter Rocky Ryan, who also spots for Marcos Ambrose, helped the learning curve. Weller was also surrounded by veterans on track, including Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Busch.
On the topic of Cup regulars running the lower tier divisions, Weller is fully open to the idea.
“I think it’s cool when they come down,” he said. “It teaches you as you see what Kyle did at Daytona and pick up on that. It also gets more people watching the race because of them, and brings more notoriety to the series.”
Before his performance at Daytona, a lot of people didn’t know Weller, however he has been around the NASCAR ranks for awhile, with experience in the NASCAR K&N Series. The Youngstown, Ohio native has made 20 starts there over the past three years, scoring three top 10s along the way.
Weller got his start in racing on dirt racing in the big dirt modifieds, following in his dad’s footsteps.
“Dave Blaney, his dad Lou – he was the greatest around here,” Weller said. “My dad got his start from him. I started off in modifieds and then ran sprint cars for a year.”
Weller had success on dirt, scoring a BBRP Tour win at Wayne County Speedway at the age of 18, while scoring a championship at Sharon in Sprint Cars a year later. As a result, he was named one of the Top 25 Under 25 in Sprint & Midget Car News’ list at year end. Missing the following season due to injury, Weller returned to Big Blocks for the first half of 2006 – before switching to asphalt Late Models in 2006.
“Dave Blaney lived only 15 minutes from my house so he’s the one that moved me down to Charlotte and I worked out of his shop,” Weller said. “He’s been the one that has really helped me with this.”
Weller said going from dirt to asphalt was a challenge – but it was a fun challenge to tackle.
“First time we got out on the track with the late model and it got loose, I thought I did a good job saving it – ended up in the wall,” he said. “It’s just completely different. It was a lot of fun – it was a big challenge. I think that was the fun part in having to learn something all over again.”
Weller had had success in the late model ranks, recording a pair of wins at New Smyrna Speedway during their World Speedweeks while finishing seventh in the PASS Late Model Series in 2011.
Weller is scheduled to run at least 12 races this year with SS Green Light Racing and the goal is simple – to keep getting better.
“We’re going to a lot of these places for the first time,” he commented. “Just want to keep learning and getting better.”
Weller isn’t scheduled to run Martinsville Speedway, which is the next stop for the truck series.
“It may change now that we’re up in points after Daytona so we might do it,” he commented. “But we’re probably going to stick to our schedule. (Crew Chief) Jason Miller is excited for that race as he’s won some races there before. He’s really looking forward to going back and hopefully he can keep the momentum going.”
Looking ahead five years, Weller says that he wants to keep moving up the ranks, but added that right now he’s focused on his truck deal.
“I’ve always wanted to race so anything that I get to do racing wise would be good enough for me,” he continued.
Jimmy’s native to Hubbard or/and Liberty Ohio.