Austin Wayne Self hopes to roar in Talladega rumble

[NickHolt]

AM Racing, Austin Wayne Self hope to roar in Talladega rumble

TALLADEGA, Ala.: A prime opportunity is near for Austin Wayne Self and his AM Racing team and they intend to deliver.

Saturday marks the second and final superspeedway race of the 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season and the chance for Self to earn his first top-10 finish of the season in Saturday afternoon’s Chevrolet Silverado 250.

In the series’ season-opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in February, Self was heading to the front in his No. 22 GO TEXAN | AM Technical Solutions Chevrolet Silverado, but the team was eliminated in a multi-truck accident that left the team with a sour finish.

Before the accident, Self had one of the fastest trucks on the track and with the direction of crew chief Eddie Troconis, there is little doubt in Self’s mind that once the green flag waves on Oct. 3, he’ll have a chance to finish what he started at Daytona.

“Even though we don’t always have the best of luck on the superspeedways, I always get excited about going to tracks like Daytona and Talladega,” said Self.

“It’s an opportunity for a smaller team like ours to have a presence on the bigger stage and compete for the win. Last year, the race had a surprise in Victory Lane with one of the smaller teams and that certainly is the motivation for our AM Racing team to go out on Saturday and keep that trend going.”

It was a superspeedway that Self-earned his career-best NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series finish. In 2017, Self, finished second in the season-opener at Daytona. Self still has flashbacks to that race more than three years ago and knows what it will take to be in a position to contend for his third career top-five finish.

“We had a strong truck that night,” Self recalled. “We had two trucks in the race with JJ Yeley as my teammate. We avoided the carnage in the race and both trucks were able to finish in the top-10.

“Coming to the checkered flag, there was a massive wreck on the backstretch and being at the right place at the right time allowed us to skate through the melee and finish second – and with the intensity level expected to be high on Saturday, it’s going to take a certain amount of luck and skill to aid us in getting a good finish.”

For the second time this season AIRBOX Air Purifier will serve as the primary marketing partner for Self’s No. 22 Chevrolet this weekend at Talladega.  

“In a time where everyone is looking to be a little healthier our partnership with AIRBOX Air Purifier is one that has a lot of potential,” said driver Austin Wayne Self. “AIRBOX Air Purifier is doing great work and is quickly becoming a spectacle in its industry and to have them on board for one of the popular races of the season makes sense. Hopefully, Saturday is a good race for us and we can shake the last few races where we’ve been fast – but had rotten luck.”

Even out of the Playoff picture, it’s still business as usual for the AM Racing team as Self expects the upward performance trend to continue to climb aboard his No. 22 GO TEXAN | AM Technical Solutions Chevrolet Silverado from now until Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway in November.

“We’re a relatively small team, but sometimes David can beat the Goliath and at times we’ve been able to show that on track with our heart and passion of racing,” added Self. “We have a lot of people, including our partners who are devoted to our race team and focused on seeing our team succeed not only in 2020 but as we start to think ahead to 2021.”

In addition to primary partners AIRBOX Air Purifier and GO TEXAN, AM Technical Solutions, Don’t mess with Texas, CForce Bottling Company, Flying Circle, Kreuz Market and Prasek’s will serve as associate partners in the 19th race of the year.

In 102 NGROTS races, the 2014 ARCA Menards Series Rookie of the Year has two top-fives (second at Daytona 2017, fifth at Michigan 2019) and seven top-10 finishes. The Texan maintains an average finish of 18.8 during his five years of competition.

The Austin, Texas native is nestled 18th in the championship standings with five races remaining.

For more on Austin Wayne Self, please visit awsracing.com, like his Facebook page (Austin Wayne Self) or follow him on Twitter @AustinWSelf.

For more on AM Racing, please visit AMRacingteam.com, like their Facebook page (AM Racing) or follow them on Twitter @AMRacingNASCAR. 

The Chevrolet Silverado 250 (94 laps | 250.04 miles) is the 19th of 23 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races on the 2020 schedule. The 38-truck field will take the green flag on Sat. Oct. 3, 2020, shortly after 12:00 p.m. with live coverage on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90). All times are local (Central).