Shane Clanton
Smoky Mountain Speedway hosted its first World of Outlaws Late Models event in almost a decade last year and the winner of the feature was Georgia’s Shane Clanton. The national touring series will return to the Maryville, Tenn. track this Saturday night for yet another $10,000-to-win race.
Clanton comes into this weekend having posted eight top-10 finishes so far on the WoO tour and is ranked third in the series standings. However, the 2012 winner of The Dirt Late Model Dream at the famed Eldora Speedway has yet to win a feature event in 2014. He hopes to change that fact with a return to the site of previous success.
“It always feels good to get to race close to home,” Clanton said in a recent phone interview. “Last year in the World of Outlaws race was the first time I had been to Smoky Mountain and we were able to win there, so we’re looking forward to coming back up.
“We’ve had some good runs up in Tennessee. I think I’ve won on just about every track I’ve raced on up there and I like coming up that way.”
Clanton has raced at Smoky Mountain since his WoO triumph of a year ago and he hopes that experience provided information that will lead to another visit to Victory Lane at the 4/10 mile clay oval.
“We tested some stuff up there in the NDRL race a couple of months ago,” Clanton declared of the track’s big weekend of racing back in March. “Whenever we run in a series other than the World of Outlaws we try some new stuff and try to make ourselves better. When we come back up there this time we’ll go back to a more basic package.”
Clanton’s #25 Capital Race Car
During this most recent off season, Clanton made news by parting ways with car owner John Kennedy to go on his own. He does, however, continue to work with Marshall Green on the development of their Georgia-based Captial Race Cars. Clanton believes that program is going in the right direction.
“I feel pretty good about where we’re at right now,” the driver declared. “Marshall Green and I have been working hard on these Capital cars and we think we’ve got a good piece. We work on them everyday trying to keep improving and make them better. We just need to be a little more consistent and get a couple of wins to keep up with (Darrell) Lanigan and (Rick) Eckert right now.”
Not only does the track provide good memories for Clanton, but he also likes racing there for another reason.
“The layout of the track makes it unique with the long straightaways, and I feel like it suits my driving style pretty good.”
