January 21, 2025

Fayetteville, TN — Casey Clark, a grassroots dirt racer in the Deep South, saw a 2024 season filled with learning curves, a family move, and wholesale changes to his racing program. 2025, however, is set to bring new challenges with a new race car to go along with it all.

Clark, a longtime Alabama native, was a guest on a December episode of Liberty Racing Review’s “Hot Laps of Liberty” livestream. On the stream, Clark took the time to chat about his 2025 plans while also reflecting on the past couple of years.

“Really excited about what we’ve got going on for 2025,” said Clark. “We moved from the Modifieds back to Late Models and had a little learning hump to get over. We ran a 602 car a few times and had some good finishes. Did a little bit of traveling, tried some new tracks, did a bit of learning.”

After the 2024 season concluded for Clark, he set his eyes on a brand new slate for 2025 and beyond. Clark purchased a 604 Crate Late Model, and has been putting in the work to get it up and running for his next season of action.

“Friend of ours had a crate car for sale and was downsizing from three cars and they were gonna focus on their Super program,” said Clark.

“They gave us a heck of a deal on it. We just tried to throw a Hail Mary, sold the whole racing program, trailer and all. This is the nicest car I’ve ever had. I feel like we’ve got a piece now where I don’t just have to run at a local show with seven cars. I can run a CRUSA event somewhere with twenty-five cars and be competitive.”

Another chapter in Clark’s recent life was that of a family move, albeit small, from Alabama to Tennessee. While the move has not impacted much, it still contributes to a new, clean slate for Clark and his family as they head towards whatever 2025 has to offer.

“My race car stuff’s still over at my parents’ house, so I kinda got lucky that we only moved about twenty minutes away from them. If I walk into my backyard, I can see Alabama. Quite frankly, I don’t think we’d be able to move that stuff. We live in a HOA and I don’t think they’d like that too much. But the job change and the move here in the last few months just came at the right time.”

Clark also spoke on some prospective tracks and series for his new program, highlighting sanctioning bodies that he thinks feature the best rulebooks in the area.

“I would like to go up and do some stuff in Georgia and North Georgia Speedway. I’m really happy with the tire package that they released. I wish more tracks would follow suit,” said Clark.

“I really like Talladega Short Track, but it’s a long haul to go down there and try to conform to those tire rules. I think we’re gonna try to go to some of the UCRA events and hit up some of those Eastern Tennessee tracks. I think their rules package for crate cars is the best that I’ve seen. They make provisions for the Ford crate engines, and they give you a bit more lenience with your local guy being able to fix your engine.”

Clark also candidly joked that these new fixations for 2025 don’t have much to do with his family’s move to Tennessee, seeing as how he still lives in the same general area, simply moving across a state line.

“Geographically speaking, I’m closer to the Hazel Green, Alabama Walmart than I am to the Fayetteville, Tennessee Walmart even though I have a Fayetteville address,” jested Clark. “We go by the Walmart scale around here.”

In addition to the new 604 Late Model, Clark also talked about some projects in the works on the Limited Late Model side of things, with a long-term end goal set on Super Late Model racing.

“We’ve got some stuff going around in the back of our head for a bit of Limited Late Model racing. We got Brady Claybrook at Claybrook Performance putting us together a nice blue oval motor to break out later on in the year,” said Clark.

“I’d like to get another twenty races in this year. We had kind of a slump last year. Didn’t get to run as much and I had to get some job stuff situated, so we only ran about eleven times. I’d like to get a good, solid season in, and towards the end of the year and into 2026, kinda focus more on limited racing. We have this vision of how we’re wanting to have our limited motor put together that would also be fairly competitive for local Super shows. The end goal for local short track drivers is always Super Late Models. That’s where you want to be on a Saturday night.”

Regardless of the results that 2025 will produce, Clark is simply grateful to be doing this, and shows a genuine appreciation for the sport that only comes when you’re a hands-on, blue-collar racer.

“If we get there, we get there. If we don’t, I’m having a blast doing what I’m doing. I’m doing it with my family, and I’m getting to hang out with my friends and my dad. My son’s starting to go with us more often, so as long as we’re going out there and having fun, that’s all that matters to us.”

To watch the episode of Liberty Racing Review’s “Hot Laps of Liberty” stream that Casey Clark appeared on, check out the video below.

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Photo: Reid Scott