Seven weeks ago things changed at ASRS, and many would have said that was not for the better.  But, at ASRS, the changes have been good.  Good for competition, good for the community and good for the racing quality.

After completing the Super Truck Series with a dramatic championship battle that went down to the last race, ASRS focused it’s efforts to the bigger tracks that have attracted many to ASRS for years.

Driver Cody Rose, who has been a member of ASRS on and off since 2010 said it best “We are going to see more winners this years”.   That statement could prove correct, although Robby Baskins has won the first two Camping World Truck Series races, both Jason Kristen (Super Trucks at Charlotte) and Stephen Pearce (Xfinity Series Daytona) both picked up their first career ASRS wins.

Shawn Musick joined in the praise of the reformatted ASRS by saying “This is alot of fun and we have a great group of drivers here now, the egos are gone and everyone wants to help each other out”.  Musick, who has yet to win at ASRS has been close and watched as a dominating performance at Iowa ended when he was collected in a late race crash.

Speaking of cautions, they are down.  Just two cautions flew last night at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Camping World Truck Series race, down from six in 2015.  That race was decided by green flag pit stops as a long green flag run of nearly 40 laps ended the race.  If you polled most drivers they would agree that green flag racing is much more exciting than following the pace car around any track.

When ASRS was founded in 2002 it was a short track league and through four different platforms (NASCAR Racing 3 in 2002, NASCAR Heat 2002-2004, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season 2004-2011 and iRacing 2011-current) the format stayed true to the short tracks, it was the “bread and butter” of ASRS, with the Camping World Truck Series the only “big track series” when it was created in 2005.  ASRS has continued that tradition each year, but originally the short tracks were off the schedule for 2016.  After the changes earlier this year and with the rebuilding process at full speed short tracks will become a major part of the 2016 campaign and as ASRS President Jim Foose puts it “hopefully for many years to come”.

“The changes for 2016 were not easy to make, but we listened to our membership and went with their ideas as well as myself taking a more hands-on approach to developing drivers and building our membership base” Foose said.  “I’ve spent some time working with many of our new faces over the past six weeks just offering driving assistance, help with learning new tracks and trying to offer then advice based on what I’ve learned doing this for the past 15 years.  My goal from the beginning of this league has been to give the average Joe a place to have fun and race, I’ve always tried to be budget minded and make it easy and affordable to race with us, our partners over the off-season did not share the same philosophy.  Now, running a season is not cheap, but the track buying plan I designed for many of our rookie members keeps track purchases in 3 item packs designed around bi-weekly pay checks, it has helped a few drivers pick and choose what to buy and when to buy it to maximize the value they will get from each track.  After 2016, they will have all the content required to run both the Camping World Truck Series and the Xfinity Series, barring any track additions to those schedules.  After 2016 they could expand their track inventory to include tracks used in other series and they will still be able to compete for the full season on with us with very little investment required in year two or three.”

ASRS is proud of the growth and new drivers we have brought on board over the past seven weeks, things are looking to build up to a great season with close racing and many winners!  Join in the fun at www.americansimracing.com