Matt Long Racing Continues to Improve on 2009 Season

Concord, NC – Matt Long and his GazZu Energy Drink Racing Team have found themselves behind the proverbial eight ball most of this first quarter of the racing season. The Concord, North Carolina driver took delivery of a new Rocket Chassis at the beginning of the year and held high hopes of great things to come. However the team found itself struggling just to make feature events. Long had hoped to contend for the Fastrak Champions Series Southeastern Title this year but he missed the show at a pair of early season touring events which all but knocked him out of contention. “I was really beginning to get worried. Nothing we did made the car better. We were mediocre at best most of the time. I was beginning to think I had forgotten how to drive or something. We had a couple of sparkles in the pan at I-77 and Carolina but no where near as good as we had hoped.” Long says.

But it appears that the team has turned the corner after finding their success formula at an NDRA Weekly Racing event at the Lancaster Speedway. Long and team worked on their machine late into the afternoon before heading to Lancaster on Saturday. “We found something that we had just been overlooking. And when we went out for hot laps I finally felt like I was in a Rocket again.” said Long. After posting some very fast times during hot laps, Long’s draw forced him to start on the tail of a heat race. “The heat was only eight laps and we moved up to finish fourth. We had a great car and I was really looking forward to racing in the feature. For the first time this year I felt like we had a car capable of getting to the front and racing for the win.” added Long.

Long started his machine from seventh in the field of sixteen NDRA Crate Late Models. But just when things seemed to be looking up for the 25 car, Long was involved in a lap one tangle. Undaunted Long tagged the tail for the restart. Just a few laps later Long suffered a flat tire. “I was thinking ‘here we go again’, but the guys got my tire changed and got us back out. The car was hurt pretty bad on the right front but we were still able to keep moving forward. We dug in and missed the rest of the trouble and finished fourth. It was a tough night but it gave us some confidence again. And that is something we were in desperate need of after everything that has happened so far this year.”  

Long and team will now take the next two weekends off as Matt attends to his Corporate Sales and other duties at the Lowes Motor Speedway and the Dirt Track at Lowes Motor Speedway as they gear up to host two weeks worth of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and World of Outlaw Sprint Car action. “I hate to take off after finally getting some momentum going but we are going to be very busy at Lowes Motor Speedway the next two weeks so duty calls. But we are pumped and we will be ready to go back after it at Carolina in couple of weeks.” Long is set to return to action on Friday, May 29th at Carolina Speedway in Gastonia, North Carolina and then move over to I-77 Speedway in Chester, South Carolina on Saturday, May 30th.

Matt would like to thank his fans and sponsors for their continued support. Matt’s 2009 sponsors include: GazZu Energy Drinks, Circle K, Heintz Brothers Performance, RaceCeiver, Motorsports Design and JM Adams Oil and Roustabout. 2008 associate and product sponsors are Stock Car Steel, SRI Supplies, Genesis Shocks, Jani-King, Q Racing Oils, Hypercoil Springs, K&N Filters, ButlerBuilt, Simpson, KELCAR Motorsports Media and Circle Racing Wheels. Matt has also added Woodward Power Steering, F&K Rod Ends, Five Star Bodies and Jim Cook Transmissions to the product sponsor list.

May 30 – I-77 Speedway – Chester, SC – Fastrak WRS