Fullerton, Calif. -– Eric Norris will be returning to the NASCAR Winston West Series for the fifth straight year as the West’s oldest racing series opens its schedule this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. Norris, who finished fifth in the Winston West championship standings in 2001, re-signed his primary sponsor Jani-King International earlier this week. 2002 will mark Norris’s fourth year driving for Jani-King, the world’s largest franchiser of commercial cleaning services.
“It’s been a real long off-season of not knowing where we’d be racing this year,” commented Norris. “I’m just glad we were able to work things out with Jani-King and return to the Winston West Series where we know we can win lots of races and the championship.”
Norris’s 2001 season was full of missed opportunities, beginning with his 2nd place finish to Ken Schrader at the season opener in Phoenix. The veteran driver clearly had the car to beat at a number of races in 2001 until mechanical gremlins or plain bad-luck would dash his chances of winning. Norris is confident 2002 will be his year.
“It’s exciting for me and this Jani-King team to be returning to the Winston West Series with a clean slate, because we know how close we were to winning four or five races last year and really making a push for the championship,” Norris explained. “If we capitalize on our opportunities this year, we’ll be tough to beat. We want nothing less than the championship.”
Norris heads to Phoenix with a veteran team and crew chief Mike Harvick, who guided Norris to his first-career Winston West win at Bakersfield in 2000. Last year at Phoenix, Norris qualified 2nd but quickly showed his strength, taking the lead at lap 1 and holding it for the first 61 circuits around the one-mile paved oval. An excellent re-start by veteran NASCAR Winston Cup driver Ken Schrader with 2 laps to go kept Norris from the win.
The Winter Heat Presented by Bosch will be televised by NASCAR’s new Speed Channel on a tape-delay basis. Dates and times will be announced shortly.
For more information on Eric Norris and Norris Racing, visit www.NorrisRacing.com.
