Turning 18 years old just a few weeks ago, Justin Haley was able to secure his second career victory in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards in a rather eventful General Tire 200 at the Talladega Superspeedway. Haley started 23rd and had to battle against battery issues throughout the race. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rookie had to also avoid the accidents that happened. His crew chief Kevin Bellicourt spoke about the struggles but the good luck they ended up having in the end.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s a lot of different things happening, some of this is about luck,” Bellicourt said. “When we were having our battery issues I think we were sitting in second and we had to troubleshoot real quick and when we realized we didn’t have anything terminal going on we decided to put a little more money in the bank with the fuel so I brought him down and topped him off and that ended up working out hugely to our advantage at that late caution where we didn’t have to worry about fuel during that last restart.”
It was his first start ever on a superspeedway, and Bellicourt was impressed with Haley’s performance.
“He drove an excellent race,” he said. “I was on him before about being patient and smart and he was aggressive but never over aggressive and just really impressive to watch and everything worked out perfect and when it happens like that it’s pretty cool.”
OnPitRoad.com asked Haley about the experience he gained and confidence going into his return to Talladega in October driving the No. 24 for GMS Racing.
“I think the biggest thing it did was just [show] how these superspeedway races play out,” Haley said. “You can only watch it on TV so many times until you can go and experience the draft. The trucks punch a bigger hole in the air and it’s a completely different animal when your drafting. [There’s] a lot more bumping and shoving in that series, so yes, it definitely helped in a fact, but I am still going to have to learn how the trucks work with their aero, not only here but at the mile and a half’s also.”
