Josh Brock made a statement last weekend at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville (TN) that he is a driver to watch this year. While he hasn’t been a regular on the Super Late Model scene the past few years, the Corbin, Kentucky driver brought home a fifth-place finish in the North/South Super Late Model Challenge featuring the ARCA/CRA Super Series and Southern Super Series, kicking off his 2017 campaign in style.
“It was a great weekend for us at the North/South Challenge,” Brock told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “We unloaded with a really good car to start working with and with the help of Chris (Wimmer) we really got it tuned in. We had a very strong run, especially with 35 cars, great competition and great drivers.”
Brock started racing when he was 12 years old in the Mini-Stock division at Corbin Speedway (KY). He moved up to Late Models in 2009 and ran the Ken-Tenn Series in 2009 and 2011, earning two wins and 11 top-five finishes over the two-year span.
Now the 24-year-old driver wants to recommit to racing full time and is doing so the best way he knows how. His plans are to race the entire ARCA/CRA Super Series schedule along with a handful of the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour races.
“We knew this year we wanted to get back into racing full-time and run a big series,” Brock stated. “We knew to be competitive that we had to improve our program, so we bought two new cars from Fury. With help from Jeff Fultz and everyone at Fury Racecars, it really stepped up our programs and it was one of the best decisions that we have made.”
While Brock doesn’t have significant Super Late Model experience, his solid run last weekend proves he can quickly handle the learning curves. He did spend plenty of time behind the wheel of Pro Late Models and believes that experience will continue to help him as he jumps into full-time Super Late Model racing.
“The experience I have in Late Models helps a lot,” Brock said. “The biggest thing that we are doing now versus the past is taking our program to the next level, and professionalism.”
The Kentucky driver could even have his eye on a shot at the 2017 ARCA/CRA Super Series title. His fifth-place finish in Nashville made him the second highest finishing CRA driver, putting him second in the point standings early in the year.
“With the great run we had it will definitely raise the bar for 2017. We just need to go into every race this year and have strong runs and grab some wins.”