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TRUCKS: Feese Breaks Through
Turner Motorsports driver will run his first race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend...
Jim Rising  |  Posted September 20, 2011   Charlotte, NC
Blake Feese scored his best career finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Good Sam Club 200. (Photo: CIA Stock Photography)
There was never any doubt in Blake Feese’s mind that he would be a race car driver. His entry into the sport resulted from a bribe from his father.

“I was misbehaving in school,” said Feese, who this year is competing part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he drives the No. 32 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado. “I wasn’t paying attention. I was practicing signing my autograph in elementary school. Every time we did a homework assignment it was on a race car driver.”

Feese’s father sat him down and explained the deal: If he made the honor roll and stayed out of trouble he would be allowed to run in the final quarter midget race of the season in Springfield, Ill.

“To me that was that Brickyard 400 of quarter midget racing,” Feese said. “That’s the race you want to be in. I was about nine years old and I was so happy, that I cried. And I was on the honor roll until I graduated from high school.”
It’s a long way from there to Atlanta Motor Speedway, where earlier this month Feese scored a career-best Truck Series finish with a gritty fourth-place run in the Good Sam Club 200.

“It’s a reminder of why you get into a race car,” Feese said of his run. “It’s been a long time since we had everything go our way. It was one of those nights where everything just went our way, where you feel like the good Lord is watching over you.”

The team had to work hard for the top-five finish.

“Earlier in the day we were struggling getting through the bumps in (Turns) 1 and 2,” Feese said. “We were decent in 3 and 4 but we didn’t have the speed we needed and driving–wise I wasn’t where I needed to be.”
Feese’s Turner Motorsports team went back to the garage and performed several setup changes after practice that made the No. 32 more competitive in race trim. Feese attributes the adjustments made by crew chief Doug George and the way the race played out as the keys to his top-five finish.

“We worked on the chassis and actually freed the truck up a great deal,” George said. “Blake was struggling with the bumps in (Turns) 1 and 2 and we worked on that and got him comfortable in the truck and then he got fast.”
In the race, Feese made contact with the No. 15 Toyota of Josh Richards and bent some sheet metal. This changed up the pit strategy which ultimately ended up to the team’s benefit, giving them enough fuel at the end to avoid another stop.

Feese ran second to the eventual race winner, Ron Hornaday Jr. for several laps.

“Believe me, to run second to Hornaday was a highlight of my year,” Feese said. “He is like a second father to me and to look up at the scoring pylon and see the No. 33 was leading and the No. 32 was second that was a good feeling.”
Blake Feese drives the No. 32 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Good Sam Club 200. (Photo: CIA Stock Photography)

Last week the No. 32 truck was piloted by Steve Arpin at Chicago Speedway but Feese will drive the balance of the season for Turner Motorsports, making the next seven races the longest consecutive stretch of his still-young NASCAR career.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where the trucks race this weekend, is unfamiliar territory for the 29-year-old Saybrook, Ill., native. His strategy for the 1.058-mile oval?

“I follow the lead of Doug George. I let him crew chief and I drive and we’ll be fine,” Feese said.

With its flat turns and tight racing groove, NHMS presents the team and driver with some challenges.

“Since he has not been there he’s going to have a pretty big learning curve there,” George said. “We’re going there with the same setup we used last year that nearly won the race, so I think we should be pretty decent.

As recently as year ago Feese was doing anything he could do keep his face out in front of the racing community. He drove himself to races, walked around the garage and even gave rides at the Richard Petty Driving Experience.

“When you’re not driving your confidence level constantly drains out of you. And if you don’t replenish that with racing and more important running well, you lose that edge.”

Fortunately, for Feese, that doesn’t seem to be a problem at the moment.

Jim Rising is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com.
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