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Baton
Rouge, Louisiana (July 30, 2002) - With 22 of 34 O'Reilly SUPR Late Model
events run, Rodney Wing continues to lead in the battle for the 2002
Championships. Wing has
proven to be a tough competitor this year but he's driven a rocky road to
be in this position. Rodney Wing claimed the 2000 Behind the Wheel/Ashley Brothers Race Cars Rookie of the Year and after a solid start to his 2001 season, Wing split with his car owner Billy McDonald. Wing spent the remainder of the 01 season running in the legendary K-3 car of Randy Thompson focusing his efforts in his home state of Mississippi. But as the 2001 season wound down, Rodney and Billy started talking about getting back together and soon the team was preparing for a full out assault on the 2002 O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Championship. And the B&K Underground Directional Boring team has proven to be a formidable combination as Wing has led the O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Championship standings since winning the third race of the year at Baton Rouge Raceway. Wing coupled a pair of runner-up finishes in the season opening Mardi Gras Nationals and a win at Baton Rouge Raceway to propel himself to the top of the standings, a place he has not relinquished through the halfway mark in the season. Still,
the competition for the O'Reilly SUPR Late Model Championship is really
heating up with Kenny Merchant and David Ashley clearly within striking
distance. As the tour heads
into the Armadillo Nationals, we share with you an interview that our
staff reporter Steve Molnar had with Rodney Wing a few weeks back
following a rain out at Texarkana 67 Speedway on June 29th. When the rain came down at Texarkana 67 Speedway on June 29th Rodney did like many other drivers would, he pointed the new Wildside rig down the road in search of a race. He found one at Boothill and I got a chance to sit down with him and reflect on his season to date. Q: We’re at the halfway point in the season and you’re still leading the points, how does that feel? A: It feels good I just hope we can hang on to it. Q: Yeah Kenny’s closing in and David’s right there too. A: Yeah I think about it, it’s in the back of my mind all the time but we’re really just trying to keep our eyes looking forward to get the best finish we can every week. You know there ain’t nothing else we can do. Q: Does it change the way you race? A: I think a little. You know I think I don’t I stick it in quite as many tight holes with drivers that I’m not real familiar with that I think I usually would. And I think this has really helped me anyway in as far as not just points but in tearing stuff up and taking unnecessary chances that I think I have been bad about taking. I’ve calmed a lot of that down. Q: You’ve finished in the top 10 in every race but about 2, that’s a pretty strong accomplishment. A: And those two that we didn’t finish was 11th and 14th so knock on wood, we haven’t fell out any yet. You know we’re just trying to finish them and finish the best we can. Hopefully the points will take care of themselves. Q: Is it good to be back with Billy? A: Yes Q: Were there some growing pains the first time around? A: Yeah, basically. I just think the lack of communication and we’ve hopefully ended those communication woes and we seem to have a much better relationship now. Q: What about working at Boland Performance. How is that helping you with the racing? A: I think that helps me just as much as anything or more. You know I certainly wouldn’t be right here if it weren’t for that man there (Boland). Just from the get go it takes most people so long to learn and it just seems that my learning process, you know it’s still going on, but the early stages of it to where you learn a lot, a whole lot every week. I had him there just to coach me every weekend. Any situation I get myself into and really don’t know how to handle, he’s been in that situation numerous times. It just seems like any situation he’s been there a dozen times. Q: But working in the shop, does that help you with car setup and things like that? A: Yes, we’re helping customers, getting feedback from them, what their car did, this way, that way, helping them solve problems and I think that helps us too. Just being around it all the time helps. Q: You run a totally different set up than Mike? A: Yes Q: So its not like you’re going out on the same set up or anything at all? A: No, his driving style is a little bit different than mine. I think we communicate enough that we kind of know the changes that we have to make from his setup for it to suit me and from my setup for it to suit him and we work off of that and we can communicate and compare notes pretty good. We keep that in that back of our mind. Q: Mississippi has adopted the spec motor rules and yet you still travel to run with SUPR. Is that by choice on your end, more Billy’s choice or a combination? A: I think it’s just a combination. I feel like in this area around here, you know the south, the part of the country we live in I feel like this is probably the best series around and its close to home for Billy and he’s got a lot of friends running it. He likes doing and I enjoyed myself when I running on my own for the Rookie of the Year. I think it’s a good bunch of guys to run with and we really enjoy it and we’re just going to take a shot at the points this year because we had our ducks in a row we felt earlier in the year than we normally do. Q: What are your thoughts long-term with your racing career? What would you like to do? A: You know I really don’t know. I guess we’ve been racing4 years and I never thought I’d be riding around in something like this (new hauler) right now so I really don’t have a clue. I mean every time it seems like we kind of got to a point where, I remember the first time we got an enclosed trailer, it was just awesome or we got nice new truck with air conditioning to pull it with, it just seems like things keep getting better as far as that’s concerned. I’m just going to take it a race at a time. Our goal this year is to try to win the SUPR Championship. If we can get that done we just take our time over the winter and formulate a plan for next year, what we might want to do then. Q: You’ve traveled to a couple of big races at other tracks in other parts of the country. Is that something you’d like to do again? A: Yeah I enjoy that. That’s something that you really have to have the financial backing to go to for a guy without considerable amount behind them. It takes everything you have just to get there and its kind of a fat chance you can make it in a lot of them races with hundreds and hundreds of cars so that’s a deal that is nice and I think is a good experience and everything like that but you really need to have some money behind you to do that. I’m not sure as far as our plans but I would enjoy doing some of that. Q: So right now this is the right place for you to be? A: I think so. Q: How has the reaction now that the spec motor has been in place in Mississippi for over a year now. Is it pretty much generally accepted as the way to go? A: Oh yeah, I think has helped racing a hundred percent in our area. It is noticeably different as far as even just noticing it from selling parts at Boland Performance, setting up cars and just seeing the population and the popularity of Late Model racing in general just grow vastly in the Mississippi area. You have guys that, you know every like Pro Street and IMCA Modified driver, most of them want a Late Model but they’ve always thought you had to have a $30,000 all aluminum engine to compete and now that they see that you can have an engine not much more than what they’ve got. Must of them can take their engine and buy some SUPR heads and put on it and have a competitive engine if not a slight advantage in a lot of situations. Q: So it has increased your business at Boland Performance? A: Oh yeah, it’s helped a lot.
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