Matt Hall, who calls Spokane, Wash. home, looks forward to the next stop on the Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series, NASCAR Touring schedule, September 2, at Tri-Cities Raceway. Hall began his late model career on the historic .500-mile paved tri-oval and hopes to have his best career finish on his home track in West Richland, Wash.
In recent weeks the 21-year old has turned the NSF Resources race teams fortune in a positive direction after missing three events during the early portion of the season. Hall earned a career best 10th place finish at Wenatchee Valley’s Super Oval in July.
Hall, a Totem Travel Rookie-of-the-Year contender, has moved to 16th place in the 2001 Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series points standings. Hall trails Ralph Hubbert by six points for third place in the rookie standings.
As Hall learns to compete with the elite Pacific Northwest drivers in the NASCAR ranks, experiences gained from running the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series at Tri-Cities Raceway are being applied to the touring division.
“I’ve grown up down there at Tri-Cities. When I got into late models I ran Tri-Cities because it was one of the hardest tracks around the Northwest,” Hall said.
Hall’s biggest struggle in 2001 has been finishing races. He hopes a change in engine builders will turn his DNF’s into top-10 finishes. The Hall Motorsports team selected A.C. Nutter to provide engines for the No. 28 team for the remainder of the season. Nutter Racing Engines currently power two of the top-5 race cars in the 2001 championship points standings.
“We’ve been trying to get our motor program going, now that we’ve met up with Nutter Racing Engines, it’s seems every thing is falling into place and we’re excited to go to Tri-Cities” Hall said.
Selecting Nutter has paid dividends already according to Hall.
“He’s a great guy to deal with and he’s close. We don’t have to go back east or California, plus he comes to the track and helps you out which makes it really nice for the team. We’ve spent our money on two race cars and now we finally have them built and we finally got our Nutter motor, things seem to be coming together,” Hall said.
The potential for an upswing in the season’s final weeks has Hall excited for the month of September.
“We’re going to make sure that we finish on eight cylinders and start getting some top-10 finishes, hopefully even some top-5’s. I’m looking forward to returning to Tri-Cities, I know the track like nothing else,” Hall said.
Hall took over the driving duties of the Hall Motorsports Chevrolet after their former driver, Greg Biffle, moved to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Hall draws from conversations with the former Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series competitor for advancing his own driving career.
“Going to the shop and learning what they did with the cars for the set-ups has really helped me out. I learned what his driving style was and it really helped me at Tri-Cities for my late model ride. He took me aside and really taught me a lot of things about racing that I would have never known,” Hall said.
Hall is the only driver from the Inland Empire running the Northwest series on a full-time basis. He selected Tri-Cities Raceway to gain experience at a NASCAR track before moving up he says. Without the support of Spokane based businesses; he would not be enjoying the modest successes of the current season.
“NSF Resources has really helped us out this year and we’re hoping they’ll help out even more next season. Oxarc of Spokane has been a big help to us, but the biggest help for us this season is getting our motor program, we haven’t had one all year,” Hall said.
The Spokane driver hopes to one day race in his home town and is encouraged by the possibility of a .500-paved oval to be built on the east side of the city.
“If they get the promotion in the city that the series is coming to town and a nice track facility, there’s the possibility to make some money there. The city has some die-hard race fans,” Hall said.
Sunday, September 2, qualifying is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. The Tri-City 125 takes the green flag at 9. This is the eleventh of fourteen events on the 2001 Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series schedule.
The Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series is one of nine NASCAR Touring Series that blanket the United States. NASCAR Touring brings special events to many NASCAR Weekly Racing Series tracks and some NASCAR superspeedways and road courses. NASCAR Touring Series can provide a competitor with an entire career, or they can provide valuable experience to competitors moving through the NASCAR ranks. Corporate sponsors make significant contributions to NASCAR Touring Series point funds. The sponsors include Anheuser-Busch, Raybestos Brakes, Featherlite Trailers, Gatorade, Goody’s Headache Powders, O’Reilly Auto Parts, RE/MAX International Inc., and R.J. Reynolds brand Winston.
