- Mason Mingus, the runner-up for the 2013 ARCA Racing Series championship, was in Mobile on Tuesday to kick off ticket sales for the 2014, set for on March 22.
He highly recommends it.
"One of my favorite tracks," Mingus said of Mobile International Speedway. "I really wish I would have gotten to run a super late model here after coming here in an ARCA car. It doesn't get any better racing than this because the heavy cars crammed on a little track like this -- it's all about tire conservation, and when the tires go away, cars start moving around the racetrack and people start wanting to beat and bang a little bit, and that makes it a lot of fun.
"I think it was one of the best atmospheres that we went to (in ARCA). There're not a lot of tracks where we fill every single seat in the stands and people are up on their feet cheering at the end of the race. Mobile is definitely one where we do. It's really cool when you park on the frontstretch, if you finish in the top six. Then you get out of the car and everybody's cheering and every seat is still filled -- nobody left early -- and everybody's been camping there for a week. There's really no better atmosphere. I think it's very comparable to the Snowball Derby."
However, Mingus doesn't know it he'll be back in the ARCA Mobile 200 field in March. He's one of 10 drivers who have raced into both Mobile ARCA events.
"It's tough to say," Mingus said. "I think we have some pretty exciting things that are falling into place for us for next year. I'm going to do everything I can to try to be here. I'm not sure we're going to run the ARCA Series full-time or not. We're still working the details out and seeing how much sponsorship we can get. As far as ARCA races that we're going to run, this would be one on the top of my list."
Driver Mason Mingus talks with crew members about the No. 32 Diamond Equipment-Call 811 Before You Dig Toyota during practice for the ARCA Mobile 200 at Mobile International Speedway in Irvington, Ala., on March 2, 2013. (Mark Inabinett/minabinett@al.com)Mingus, a 19-year-old from Brentwood, Tenn., could sum up his 2013 ARCA experience in one sentence: "We wish Frank (Kimmel) still had only nine championships."
Instead, Kimmel won his 10th season title in 2013, and Mingus, in his first full ARCA season, came in second. He finished in the top 10 in 18 of the 21 races, including a fourth-place showing at Mobile after earning the pole position on the Irvington half-mile oval.
"We went out to try to win the championship and to win some races," Mingus said. "We feel short of that a little bit. But we had competitive cars all year.
"I thought it was a good season. I wish we would have won the championship, but we had a lot of fun, and I was able to learn a lot running these heavy stock cars and seeing a lot of different type of racetracks. Hopefully, the experience I had is going to pay off going into the truck series or whatever I may be doing later."
Mingus can't say what the 2014 season holds for him yet.
"To be on the racetrack would be our goal right now," he said. "Once we figure out what we're doing, then we'll start setting goals and figuring out what we want to do."
Mingus got a taste of the NASCAR world last season with three starts on the Camping World Truck Series. He made his debut at Talladega Superspeedway in October, but an oil leak ended his race almost as soon as it began.
"I wish we could have run more than four laps at Talladega," Mingus said. "You finally get your first break, get your first truck start and something breaks like that. It was tough to handle, but it was a really cool experience to go through the whole weekend. It really set in after we went through driver intros and rode around in the back of the truck and waved to all the fans. That was really cool. That's when it kind of set in that I was making my NASCAR debut.
"But we moved on from there and got better throughout the three starts. So, hopefully, we can run up front next year if we get the opportunity."
Mingus was still on the Gulf Coast after competing in the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola on Sunday. The fast qualifying times kept Mingus from earning a spot in the Derby on Friday night, but he won the 50-lap last-chance race on Saturday to make the Snowball field.
"Before this weekend, I would have never guessed that would have been the pole or that would have been the bubble to get into the show," Mingus said. "But that's a product of a Derby. If you bring all the best short-track racers in the country together, you're going to have some good times.
"During the (Snowball Derby), we broke two wheel studs on a pit stop, and they made us come in and fix them. So we went a few laps down fixing that. After that, we developed a little bit of a miss for a while. It was a tough day for us. I thought we had a pretty decent car, especially as it went on and it started to cool down a little bit, we got even better. There're just some things you can't avoid."
Mingus finished 29th on Sunday while Chase Elliott dominated the race. However, in postrace qualifying, the Georgia teen's car was disqualified for having a prohibited tungsten, rather than the prescribed lead, weight. The violation stripped Elliott of his victory.
"I think that was definitely a harsh punishment for what they found," Mingus said. "That wasn't going to make him win the race. But at least it was fair, and anybody would have been treated the same.
"When you move up in racing in NASCAR and the ARCA Series, they don't typically disqualify any driver. They get fines or suspensions. But as far as short-track racing, I've seen it happen a lot. It's definitely tough to be that driver that has it happen to him. But you learn from your mistakes and you move on. He'll have a chance to win another one, and I wouldn't be surprised if he does win another one."
Tickets for the ARCA Mobile 200 can be purchased by calling 251-343-2929 or by visiting the ticket office at 4742 Airport Blvd. in Mobile.