His first chance will come on Saturday, February 10th, at the ARCA 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series event at Daytona International Speedway. It will be Tim’s second start at the famous super speedway, and he hopes that his second time running the race will lead to his first time in Daytona’s victory lane.
“It’s going to be a pretty busy week and a half,” said Russell. “Our plan is to not run the first two nights of Speedweeks and get ready for and then run the ARCA race on Saturday. It’s going to be pretty busy, but we have some great people helping us on both ends, so hopefully it will all come together.”
Tim Russell will be jumping behind the wheel of the No. 9 Hagans Racing Rinnai machine for the ARCA race, and he knows that this car has run good before at the track.
“I am really excited about going back to Daytona. I know that we have an awesome team with Hagans racing. Bobby Blount is my crew chief and the whole group is just awesome. They are a fun bunch to be around, and I know that we will have a very well-prepared car there.
“Matt (Hagans) ran really strong there last year in this car, and we are going to run that same car this year. Hopefully it will be one of the cars up front. I felt really good in the car when we tested it at Daytona back in December. Matt qualified
that car third last year, and he finished third in the race, so I am looking forward to trying to duplicate that run and maybe do a little bit better.”
After Saturday’s event at Daytona, Tim will head over to the newly-repaved New Smyrna Speedway where he will partake in the remaining Speedweeks event in his No. 36 Rinnai Super Late Model, which will be about seven more nights of racing.
“I really think we have a really good shot at winning the ARCA race, so if we win that, I don’t know if we will be racing at New Smyrna on Sunday,” joked Russell. “We might have a long night on Saturday night. But I am looking forward to heading back to New Smyrna as well.”
Tim is no stranger to New Smyrna’s victory lane. He has won there while in
the Late Model ranks and he claimed victory in the Clyde Hart Memorial Super
Late Model event there last summer. But when he heads back this time, it is
going to be a whole new game, on a whole new piece of asphalt.
“New Smyrna is going to be totally different than it was when I won there last
year. Nobody is going to know what to really expect, and everyone will be on
a somewhat level playing field. It’s going to be a whole new and fast ball
game. Everyone is saying that it is going to pick up like seconds, but we will
see. I hope that we are able to bring home wins in both cars next week.
“I know that our game plan is to go test New Smyrna this week and then get
everything ready for there before we head to Daytona. “My team will be over
there for the first few days of Speedweeks just checking everything out Friday
and Saturday, determining what we need to do.”
The ARCA 200 ARCA RE/MAX event will get underway next Saturday, February 10th, at Daytona International Speedway and will be broadcast live on SPEED. Speedweeks festivities will get under way February 9th and last until February 18th at New Smyrna Speedway.
If you would like more information on Tim Russell and his future racing plans, contact Amy Hayes at (704) 455-2051 and check out TimRussellonline.com for all the latest Tim Russell racing news.
