Chase King enjoying life as a racer and car builder

Racing has virtually always been a part of Chase King’s life. The Seymour, Tenn. resident grew up watching his father Mark compete on area ovals of both asphalt and dirt until finally making it into the ranks of NASCAR. And the young driver and chassis builder hopes the sport will continue to be part of his life for the foreseeable future.

After a stint working for National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member Scott Bloomquist in his Mooresburg, Tenn. racing shop, King made the move to go out on his own while also continuing to aid Bloomquist on a part-time basis.

King now owns and operates Stinger Race Cars by KCW out of a shop located in Knoxville, Tenn. And the 24-year-old Seymour High School graduate is happy with the progress his chassis program is making, especially after a series of solid runs by himself, brothers Pierce and Mack McCarter, and Layne Clifton in the latter part of the 2016 season.

“It’s all going pretty good right now,” King reported in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “Pierce and Mack McCarter got the first two cars that we built and ran some Super, Crate, and Steelhead races in them. Then we got Layne. About the time we got Layne’s together, Mitch McCarter(father of Pierce and Mack) called me and asked me if I wanted to drive their car with a steelhead motor.

“We actually tore the car all the way apart and put it all back together from bare frame to race ready and took it to Scott’s and he actually helped me fine tune a couple of things on it,” King further explained. “We ended up winning one and a couple of weeks later we got Layne in his and the first time out he finished third in the Steelhead Nationals at 411 and then he got his first ever win a little later. That was pretty cool.”

King finished second in the Steelhead Nationals back in November with Clifton coming home third in that race behind eventual winner Rusty Ballenger.

In a separate interview, Clifton was quick to sing the praises of King’s Stinger Race Cars efforts.

“We’ve only raced it four times, the first being the Steelhead Nationals,” Clifton commented. “We qualified fastest overall and finished the race third that night. The next race was a weekly show that we qualified second and finished second. The third race in the car was on the night of the Street Stock Nationals at 411. We qualified first and got our first win.

“And finally the fourth race was The Leftover at 411,” Clifton continued. “We went into the day hoping to only make the race because we had never ran against Super Late Models before. Making the race proved to be an understatement as we qualified fifth in Group A and locked into the show starting eighth. We finished the race seventh and were also the highest finishing Steelhead car in the race.”

King pointed out that it is every bit as satisfying to him for the drivers in his race cars to have success as it is for he himself to run well.

And after the solid results his cars earned in 2016, the chassis builder has reason for even more optimism going into the new campaign as he has added a new driver to the stable for this coming season. The reigning 411 Motor Speedway Late Models champion will also compete in a Stinger Race Car.

“Oh yeah, I get as much enjoyment out of seeing those guys do well as I get out of running well myself,” King declared. “We’ve got Trevor Sise on board here for this year so that will be good. Me and him will be running some steelhead stuff and Mack and Pierce will be running Crate and Super Late Models. Layne will also be in the steelhead so I think we’ll have a good year.”

So what caused King to get into the business of chassis building?

“It’s probably the part of racing where there’s not a lot of people who do it, or are capable of doing it as far as having the equipment,” he said. “It’s something you can just use your imagination on. There’s not a black and white way of doing it. You can kind of use what you know and throw some stuff together and see what happens.”

Clifton pointed out that King’s imagination has paid dividends for his racing exploits.

“I’ve been driving these things for a big part of my life and I have to say that this Stinger is by far the best car I’ve ever owned,” the young driver boasted. “We went from running eighth or tenth every week to competing for the win every week. I can’t thank everybody at Stinger enough, their support has been phenomenal.”

King, who works as a fabricator on Sweet-Bloomquist Race Cars, attributes his relationship with Bloomquist as a major factor in the success he has experienced in building his own brand of chassis.

“He’s been a huge help,” King insisted. “He’s probably taught me about ten years worth of knowledge in the past two or three years that I’ve been on my own and doing stuff for him at the same time. I’ve actually worked with him for about the past five years. He just sped my learning curve up a bunch and saved me a lot of trial and error that I would have had to do on my own. Man, he’s awesome. We’re actually building cars up there too so we stay covered up all the time. There’s always something new happening so we’re always learning something.

“I go up there at least two days a week to help build frames and parts then I’m usually here Wednesday through Saturday most weeks,” King explained of his schedule.

King is just as excited about the upcoming season as a driver as he is as a car builder.

“I think I’m finally going to get to run a whole year,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever got to do that because circumstances haven’t worked out, but this year we’ve got our B&B Motor and I’ve got my own personal car going together. It should be ready by mid February to early March if everything stays on track. I think we’re going to try and just stay around here and run 411, Smoky Mountain, and just a few select steelhead races. I hope that steelhead series they’ve been talking about takes off because I’d like to run something like that.”

King likes the place he is in right now in terms of both his driving and his car building.

“I enjoy that everybody on our team is having fun and we’re running good. I hope it can just stay like that. I just like the camaraderie of it and having all our buddies running good is my goal. We just want to stay consistent and have fun.”