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Derek Griffith’s Speedweeks Reward is the Pursuit of a Rattlesnake

When walking through the garage area before the Rattler 250, most everyone in attendance makes some degree of historical sense.

There’s Ty Majeski looking for a record-setting fourth victory alongside fellow favorites Bubba Pollard, Stephen Nasse and Carson Hocevar.

Even if it’s been a decade, two-time winner Grant Enfinger doesn’t look out of place, because he grew up racing at South Alabama Speedway before becoming a regular in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

And then there’s two-time and reigning World Series of Asphalt champion Derek Griffith.

Okay, that’s different.

The 24-year-old from Hudson, New Hampshire is quite the decorated short track racer with his two Speedweeks championship and another during the 2018 Pro All Star Series season, so what validation is there to be found in traveling to isolated Kinston, Alabama this weekend?

“It’s the Rattler,” Griffith said. “Cool race at a cool racetrack and always wanted to come and just never had the opportunity. We came out of Speedweeks in really good shape and decided to make it down.”

Not only did Griffith and the DG12 team make it down, they’ve taken to it very quickly, topping the charts in a practice session and turning the fifth quickest lap in time trials on Sunday.

He’s never seen the place until Thursday afternoon but it’s familiar at the same time.

“It’s like a mash-up between like three or four tracks back home,” Griffith said. “There’s a little bit of Claremont because there’s two different corners, both a different length. The straightaways are super long like Lee and Dillon, which isn’t back home, but a track we’ve raced on with PASS. Once you learn to roll them, they get fun.”

Griffith is having fun.

The ARCA Racing Series regular says his car was fast out of the truck, owning to a good notebook from those similar tracks, but he felt like it took a whole day of Thursday testing to post competitive laps.

He’s spent a lot of time talking to Stephen Nasse to prepare for the race.

“He really emphasized how the exit of (Turn 4) can make a huge difference,” Griffith said. “I worked on that all day and I think we have a really good car. So, if we can ride it out and keep the tires on it, I think we can have a shot at a top-five, top-three definitely.”

The Rattler can be a coin flip whether it’s clean or overly destructive, but Griffith says that’s likely dependent by the quality throughout the field.

“I’ve raced with a good majority of the field,” Griffith said. “We’ve raced some of these guys at Oxford and most of them at New Smyrna. It’s an interesting mix but these are guys you can race with and I think it’s going to be a good show.”


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Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.

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