True to form, Stephen Nasse intends to stay true to himself and doesn’t regret his actions last month in the aftermath of a Snowball Derby altercation with NASCAR driver William Byron.
In fact, the brash 21-year-old believes he actually came out ahead due to his decision to retaliate against the NASCAR young gun before criticizing the short track pay-to-play model on Twitter immediately afterwards.
Some derided the Florida native while others praised his honest and politically incorrect tone. Like him or hate him, Nasse is a throwback to an era long before young drivers were expected to professionally court multi-million dollar contracts.
He works tirelessly on his own equipment and even beat near-deadly case of pneumonia back in 2013. In short, there’s a lot to like about the polarizing figure and Nasse has gained a considerable amount of new fans because of it.
“Nah, I don’t regret it at all,” Nassse said of the Derby experience. “The only thing that was tough about it was getting back to the shop and having to work on a beat-up race car … The good thing is my whole crew stood behind me.
“None of them were sour about fixing my wrecked race car. They were happy with what I did and stood behind me 100 percent. They were happy to help me fix the car.”
This is what Nasse does:
His confidence in himself inspires both loyalty and devotion from his crew and acquaintances. That roguish charm seems to have rubbed off on short track fans too. Over a hundred fans reached out to Nasse on Twitter asking for shirts and hero cards and the former prospect obliged each of them.
“We actually got a lot of appreciation,” Nasse said. “We sent out a couple hundred shirts and hero cards. There are going to be a lot of guys out there wearing some Nasse gear and that’s really cool.
“Hopefully we just picked up some fans. We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing, I’m going to be me, and we’re going to race and we’re going to try to win some races.”
That goal begins on Sunday during the CRA Speedfest 200 exhibition event. This is his third start in the Georgia pre-season event and he has finishes of 15th and 19th. It’s also his first start in the race since 2013. He will roll off 10th.
After what happened at the Derby, he wants to again generate conversation, but this time for winning.
“The big part for me on Sunday is that I’m happy we qualified as well as we did,” Nasse said. “I knew we were capable of racing our way to the front, but it’s just riskier when you start 15th — and that’s where I thought we would be.
“So if we can stay in the top-10 we should be able to avoid some of the wrecks. If it happens, it happens, and there’s nothing you can do to avoid it. We’re going to race hard and try to race for the win.”
In other words, it’s Nasse being Nasse.
