Rusty Ballenger
At the beginning of the 2014 racing season Rusty Ballenger was in a transition phase, and it was a transition he wasn’t sure he wanted to make. The 2013 Late Model track champion at the 411 Motor Speedway was having to shift away from his steelhead engine in favor of a crate power plant due to the track’s decision to make that class of cars its featured division.
In the end, however, the transition was not only a smooth one, but a successful one. Not only did the 24-year-old driver win races in his Crate Late Model, but he also raced his good friend Ryan King right down to the last lap of the last points paying race for the track’s Late Model title.
“We really enjoyed it,” Ballenger said of his team’s efforts last year with the crate engine. “We ran better than we thought we would and it is a lot cheaper form of racing. But on New Year’s Day we ran my steelhead motor in ‘The Hangover’ in that super race and we really like it too. We’re just kind of going to go back and forth with it.”
Indications are that 411 Motor Speedway will incorporate much more steelhead Late Model racing back into its schedule for the 2015 season. At the same time, track owner Mitch McCarter has been at the forefront of starting the new United Crate Racing Alliance. That organization will sanction a series of crate races to be held at 411 and several other tracks in the region.
“We’re not going to chase points here at the track this year,” Ballenger declared. “We were thinking about doing that crate series but we can’t really afford it right now. We’re probably going to run half of them. We’ll go to Duck River and we’re going to go to Cleveland a lot. We’ll probably go to Boyd’s some and to I-75 for the NeSmith(Dirt Late Model Series) races. We’re going to run here when nothing else is really going on. We’ll run all the Super Late Model races here and hit all the different tracks this year.”
Rusty Ballenger’s #29 MasterSbilt.
For much of his racing career, Ballenger has focused on running at 411. Now the Seymour, Tenn. driver looks forward to branching out to other facilities on occasion.
“It’s definitely going to be different,” he said in an exclusive interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “I want to try new tracks and get better at them. We’ve figured this track out here over the years. We went down to Boyd’s(for the Cabin Fever), that’s a real tough track for me. We barely made the race, but we’re learning there to get ready for that big race in June. It’s going to be exciting. I’m excited about Duck River, Ryan(King) said that’s a good track that I’ll really like. We’re just looking forward to this year.”
