At face value, it’s probably a little jarring to think of Stephen Nasse as a touring series championship points collector, but through the first three Southern Super Series races of 2017, it’s starting to grow on him.
Nasse leads the southern Super Late Model tour standings by four points over Bubba Pollard and is starting to come around to the idea of chasing a championship. When his season first began during the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway, Nasse expected to chase big money events and compete in the occasional weekly race where time allowed.
He finished fifth and 10th in the first two races of the season at South Alabama Speedway and Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville respectively and that was enough for the championship lead. That took him to the next two races this weekend, a Gulf Coast doubleheader, at Five Flags Speedway and Mobile International Speedway.
He finished fifth on Saturday which was enough to keep him in the top spot entering Saturday’s 95 KSJ 95. Known for being an aggressive trophy chaser, Nasse is employing a more conservative strategy in 2017 and he believes it’s made him a better racer as a result.
“We’ve gone to all these races with the same mindset — to race like we are in a championship,” Nasse told Short Track Scene on Friday night. “I’ve focused on being smooth and just getting to the end, especially in these longer races. So now we have these 100 lappers and that’s going to change our mindset too.
“I think we’ve always had a good mindset. We haven’t changed our goal to win races and that’s what we’re going to do this year. We’re going to win races.”
It helps that Nasse and team have built fast race cars too. His DLP Motorsports No. 51 is as fast as ever and support from FURY Race Cars has made a considerable difference. Nasse has a championship race car under him and now it’s up to the 21-year-old to simply execute.
Further, he expects to contend on Saturday night.
“I think our program is the best it’s ever been,” Nasse said. “We had a pretty good shot last night and an even better shot tonight at Mobile. It’s my kind of race track. Big and fast — a little more like New Smyrna and we’re good there of course.
“I’m looking forward to getting after it.”
And again, while Nasse is going to stay true to his win chasing ways, expect a little more conservatism out of the Floridian. If he’s first in the standings after Saturday night, that will earn him a guaranteed starting spot into the 100 lap U.S. Short Track Nationals event at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“We’re first in points and looking to be smart going into Bristol,” Nasse said. “We want to get to that guaranteed starting spot. I’m just trying to play things smart right now.”
Meet the new and improved, Stephen Nasse.
Southern Super Series championship standings entering the 95KSJ95
- Stephen Nasse Ldr.
- Bubba Pollard -9
- Kyle Plott -9
- Chandler Smith -9
- Garrett Jones -10
- Casey Roderick -12
- Paul Kelly -29
- Connor Okrzesik -31
- Donnie Wilson -31
- Augie Grill -59
