Kevin in front of someone's carLast week I had the pleasure of hosting the 2009 American Speed Association Member Track National Champion as he had his tryout with Joe Gibbs Racing. Tommy Cloce won the championship after having an outstanding season at Adirondack International Speedway, an ASA Member Track, in New Bremen, NY.

I met up with him at the airport on Monday, November 23rd and took him over to Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide Operations where he met with Mike Sibley, crew chief for the JGR NASCAR Camping World East Series. There he got fitted in his car that he will be driving in his tryout on Tuesday. After his fitting, Ed Fennell of Joe Gibbs Driven Racing Oil gave Tommy a detailed tour of the Nationwide shop then took him over for a tour of the JGR Cup shop.

After his tour, it was a two hour drive down to Dillon, SC where he spent the night before heading to Dillon Motor Speedway for his tryout. On Tuesday, he arrived at the track and was met by owner Ron Barfield. Yes, the same Ron Barfield who competed in NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Truck Series events some under the eye of Bill Elliott.

A few years ago, Barfield took an old dirt track located about a mile outside of Dillon and turned it into a paved 4/10-mile oval which his pretty much operated by members of his family.

Barfield and his crew spent the morning drying the track off and by 2:30 p.m. the track was safe enough for Matt DiBenedetto, JGR driver, to get behind the wheel and shake down the car. After two runs, he turned the wheel over to Cloce who spent the next hour and a half in the car. After each run he would return to the pits where he and Sibley would discuss how the car was feeling and what adjustments should be made.

At the end of the day, Cloce had the car running the same lap times that DiBenedetto ran earlier. Everyone agreed that the test went very well. Sibley accomplished the goals he was looking for and Cloce got more than what he expected. “I would say a lot more,” Cloce exclaimed. “These cars in the past really haven’t impressed me at times that I have driven them in the past and today really changed my mind. They went in the corner, they cut to the bottom and they came off the corner. I am really, really pleased for the opportunity to do this and looking forward to telling everybody back home about it.”

After a successful test, Cloce returned to Concord where he spent the night at the Embassy Suites across the street from Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

The next day was a busy one as I surprised him with a visit to Speed 51 where he was interviewed and then an up-close tour of Hendrick Motorsports thanks to a friend I met a week earlier at the ISCARS race at Hickory. It was a unique opportunity as the ASA Member Track Champion got to not only visit the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion shop but the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion’s shop as well.

After his visit to Hendrick, it was back to Joe Gibbs Racing where he had the opportunity to meet with JD Gibbs. The two had a great visit where Gibbs presented him with his 2009 ASA Member Track National Champion jacket and the two talked for about 45 minutes where they discussed their racing careers, families and friends they have in common. It was like two old friends getting caught up since the last time they saw each other.

The visit with JD Gibbs was the last item on his busy schedule...well almost. The last thing was getting back to the airport on the busiest travel day of the year and home in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Overall, he has memories to tell his three boys, his father Ed Cloce and other family and friends. Like he said all week, he got more than he expected.

For me, I gained a new friend and an appreciation of what happens in these shops that are scattered around the greater Charlotte area. It was a fun trip for both of us.