Kyle Busch understudy wins
June 27, 2008 - 9:00 pm
Kyle Busch made it into Victory Lane a day before winning Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race near San Francisco, and he was 2,800 miles away.
Las Vegas native Alex Haase, 18, drove a Kyle Busch-owned Super Late Model to victory Saturday in the Pro All Stars Series at Wake County Speedway in Raleigh, N.C.
Haase moved near Charlotte, N.C., early this year to live and work with Busch as a development driver for Kyle Busch Motorsports. They have been friends since their fathers worked together at a Southern Nevada Ford dealership several years ago.
The win was the first for Haase in the highly competitive PASS series. He took his first lead on the 47th lap and won the 150-lap Capital City Clash.
“It is a small place but real racey,” Haase, who started sixth in the field, said of the quarter-mile oval. “It is a real unique track. … Kyle was pumped.”
Haase was featured recently on NASCAR.com. Follow his racing at ProAllStarsSeries.com.
• CLARKS BATTLE ON — Since budding stock-car driver Spencer Clark died two years ago in a traffic accident, his parents have kept his presence alive in motor sports through their Spencer Clark Driven foundation.
While Debbie Clark can’t tolerate the emotions of being at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s Bullring, where her son’s career blossomed, T.J., Spencer’s father, shuns bigger races at bigger tracks.
But they decided a few weeks ago to enter their son’s former NASCAR West Series car in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World West Series race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., with 16-year-old Alex Kennedy of Aztec, N.M., driving.
Kennedy stunned the field by placing 11th in his road-course race, but T.J. Clark said he might field the car only one more time.
“The weekend was really, really hard,” he said. “I just still miss my guy.”
The family’s foundation is set up to give young racers a chance to compete in first-rate equipment. The Clarks field a Legends Car at the Bullring full time for Dylan Kwasniewski, who is third in Semi-Pro points with one win.
They’ll add a second Legends Car for Connor De Phillippi, 16, of San Clemente, Calif., in the Bullring’s annual Night of Fire event Thursday. De Phillippi is a national go-kart champion and winner of the last Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shootout.
• SUPERCROSS — Live Nation Motor Sports has announced its 2009 AMA Supercross schedule. The season will begin Jan. 3 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., and conclude May 2 at Sam Boyd Stadium.
Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.