This Saturday at Toyota Speedway ...
Toyota All-Star Showdown Phenom Pena Returns To Drive King Taco’s NASCAR Super Late Model At Toyota Speedway This Saturday, April 10, 2010 BUT WAIT … THERE’S (LOTS) MORE … Sergio is a big story, but not the whole story at Toyota Speedway … Woodland Hills’ own Nick Joanides, will lead the Super Late Models back to Toyota Speedway after his opening night win over San Fernando’s Rip Michels. One more thing: these two dudes (and a number of others SLM Speedway regulars) all got spanked pretty good by Sergio at the All-Star … Think that they’re going to come to heel behind a (now seventeen year-old) kid? Suuuure … Riiiiight! This should be … “interesting”. And, friends and neighbors, there are five other divisions that’ll be let loose on the twin oval tracks at Irwindale on Saturday night: The Justice Brothers Mini Stocks where Jacob Rogers from Riverside has the lead over Alta Loma’s Rod Schmitt; the Legends Cars with Brent Scheiderman from Alta Loma (must be the water!) leading those points over Michael Smith of nearby Rancho Cucamonga; the Langer’s Juice S2’s with Rod Johnson Jr. of Canyon Country first in points over Fillmore’s Travis Thirkettle; the Southwest Tour Trucks with Jeff Williams, Neil Conrad, and Michael Zimmerman one-two-three in points; and the first running of the wild, unpredictable, heart-stopping, Pick-Your-Part Outlaw Figure 8’s! It’s actually almost too much show, with Adults (still after 12 years) only paying $15 and kids 12 and under in for free. Gates open at 4PM, the must-attend King Taco On-Track Autograph Session is at 5:45PM and the on-track action explodes at 7PM! AND NOW WE CAN REVISIT THE SERGIO STORY … (REMEMBER HE’LL TEST THIS THURSDAY NIGHT AND BE AVAILABLE FOR FEATURE INTERVIEWS ON FRIDAY) By now every NASCAR short track fan in the nation knows the story: Young phenom skips his high school classes back in Virginia to qualify on the pole for the most important NASCAR all-comer short track race of the year, the annual Toyota NASCAR All-Star Showdown in late January. Said 16 year-old then simply drives one of the smartest, cleanest races that anyone had ever witnessed to a paint-coat-thin second place behind ‘Cup winner Home Depot driver Joey Logano … And when, later that night when he goes before the cameras and the bright lights for an interview he’s just as good on his feet answering Doctor Berggren’s questions as he was when he was standing hard on the gas for 200 laps on a track that he’d only just seen for the first time in person the day before! Cinderfella? No … Sergio! That’s Sergio Pena to give him full name-above-title credit (DOB: Feb 13, 1993!) and the brilliant young wheelman is coming back to Toyota Speedway at Irwindale this Saturday night to race for King Taco’s Position-One Motorsports team in the super-fast, aptly-named Super Late Models. “We’re obviously more than pleased to have Sergio back this Saturday night at the Speedway,” said track GM Bob DeFazio. “This young man gave the fans a real thrill when he was here for the All-Star, and now they’ve got a chance to welcome him back to Irwindale this weekend.” Of course it’s a slam-dunk that Sergio will be at the King Taco On-Track Autograph Session at 5:45PM, and just as certain that the line to get his signature will be a busy one. By the way, this time Pena isn’t cutting classes to run at the Speedway, he’s on Spring Break and is doubtless looking forward to writing about what he did on his school vacation … as a NASCAR phenom. Here’s a couple of thoughts about Pena and his electrifying performance at Toyota Speedway in the All-Star. Be advised that this one won’t be on national TV so fans will have to join the fun live and in person at “LA’s Half-Mile Superspeedway” for another great night of NASCAR Home Track racing! “… After watching him race Saturday, I would say he’s a star of the future. He had never been to this track before, is still a junior in high school, and was able to go head-to-head against a Sprint Cup race winner for more than 200 laps. He had the better car and probably should have won the race, but wasn’t as good on restarts as Logano.” - Matt Myftiu, Oakland News Press “… He raced his way into a qualifying spot, then won the pole, then darn near won the whole 225-lap thing, posing the biggest scare Joey Logano has faced since he thought there were monsters in his closet way back in 2004. Oh, and Pena is only 16 years old. Really. I'd bet there are Sprint Cup drivers who have burger wrappers and drink cups in their cars older than Pena. Now, Pena can't come over to the bigs until he's 18, but if he can run this well, we might be looking at the future of racing right here. Rookie of the year 2012, anyone?” - Jay Busbee, Yahoo Sports “… Got to tell you, I was impressed. I was also impressed with the interviews the kid gave and that can be big when the Cup teams come knocking on the day after his 18th birthday … Yep, I think I got a glimpse of stock-car racing future over the weekend.” - Jim Pedley, NBCSports.com THANKS AGAIN! Stokes