Casey Call looked in his rearview mirror last weekend at Lee USA Speedway and saw nothing.
And to a young and unproven stock car driver like Call, that meant something. There was no sign of any fellow drivers from the Granite State Pro Stock Series. And no sign of Tyler Reddick, a two-time NASCAR champion and one of the hot young stars on the elite Cup Series circuit.
Instead, Casey saw only the asphalt track zipping away from his car like a video game, lapped traffic up ahead. That’s when he knew that his team – led by his dad and crew chief, Chad Call – had the best car that day. But Casey still needed to finish the job, and he knew a caution flag near the end would bunch traffic and give Reddick the break he needed to win.
And that’s what happened. But the kid from Pembroke outdueled the Cup star, riding side by side over the final two laps and winning the Keen Parts 150 by .06 seconds, the closest finish in the speedway’s history.
“The moment when I looked in my mirror and said, ‘Wow, I don’t see them anywhere,’ ” Casey said during an interview at his home in Pembroke, “that’s when I realized, ‘Hey, we got something tonight.’ ”
And in doing so, the 18-year-old driver elevated his name within the racing community as he works his way up the ladder of stock car racing in New England. He’ll worry about the national Cup Series later.
Casey won $10,000 at Lee, by far his biggest payday ever. He sent a strong message to his rivals on the Pro Stock Series, announcing that his team had finally figured out how to optimize speed on a new circuit, following a disappointing season last year.
And he had defeated a Cup driver, saying he had the better car, strategy and timing on restarts.
“At one point, we got almost half a track out in front,” Casey said. “We checked out pretty far. People can say that you cannot have a perfect Super Late Model or Pro Late Model. They say you can never be perfect. I beg to differ. In this race, we were spot-on.”
Race weekend, held each July at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, gives Cup drivers the chance to sneak away from their weekend responsibilities and compete on some of the small tracks in the Granite State, in some of the lower racing divisions.
Giants like Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. used to show up and race. And while Reddick’s name doesn’t carry the same weight as those two, he won consecutive season championships on the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and that’s just one level below Cup racing.
He won his first Cup Series race at Road America in Wisconsin earlier this month. He’s 13th on this year’s points list, and his duel in the sun with a local kid on July 15 brought Casey some publicity that could help him in the future as he tries to secure sponsorship dollars, enough to drive on the Cup Series.
“At 3 years old, he was doing three-foot jumps,” said Casey’s mother, Tabitha Call. “He jumped around trees on two wheels and never flipped it over.”
They told him to ignore the point standings, have fun, reach his potential without worrying about his point total.
“If you go for the points,” Tabitha said, “then you’re not going to have a good finish, or you might mess up.”
Casey and his father said they’re in a great place. They have some sponsors, easing their financial burden. They’re familiar with their stock car now after buying it last year and limping through the season on the Granite State Pro Stock Series.
Chad said that after years, he’s finally grown accustomed to the advanced technology and knowledge needed to make a stock car go fast. The chassis, the tires, the engine, all require attention to detail.
Meanwhile, Casey is a natural, Chad said, with the instincts needed to gain an edge. His father said he wasn’t surprised when his son began nailing restarts with just the right touch, instantly creating friction from tires to track, rather than spinning his wheels before the grip took hold.
“I just know how he is,” Chad said. “He has a way of making things happen when he needs it to happen.”
Casey mentioned the fine art of minimizing wear on tires, keeping them fresh through cautious racing, while driving aggressively enough to stay up front. It’s a delicate balance. Worn tires can cost a driver 1½ seconds on a lap, an eternity in the sport.
“Maintaining and not wearing out your tires, that is your biggest challenge,” Casey said.
He’s won 16 championships and 300 races since he began competing about 12 years ago, his parents said. Cup drivers can get their first shot at the Series in their early 20s, sometimes younger.
Casey said he’s not concerned with reaching that level. Not yet. He’s having a blast rising slowly. One day, maybe a corporation will invest in him for Cup racing, “but I’m happy just doing my thing. I’m enjoying where I am right now.”
He nailed it nine days ago at Lee USA Speedway, hitting speeds of 105 miles per hour, running the perfect race and blowing the competition away, right from the start.
It was only after a restart late that Reddick was able to join Casey at the front. They ran side-by-side over the final two laps.
“(Casey) picked up the throttle so early, the car visibly jumped out away from Tyler,” Chad said. “I knew it was all over at that point.”
The win injected the team with confidence after a disappointing 2021 season. Chad, Casey and the squad’s other three members had not yet mastered their black No. 90 Chevy. There were growing pains, a different car, different competition.
Now, this father-son duo feels like they can beat any race car team, anytime.
“We wanted to turn our program around so we could go and win races,” Casey said. “It’s been a tough road getting to this point.”