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driver's EDUCATION : It's a rough road, but Jack Bailey steers toward NASCAR goal

Stafford's Jack Bailey is still chasing his NASCAR dream.

By JONATHAN HUNLEY
THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Date published: 2/18/2006

By JONATHAN HUNLEY

MULTIMEDIA: Interactive presentation tells Bailey's story.

THE PATCH Jack Bailey wore on his racing uniform last year branded him.

It said "NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series." But it might as well have read "Fill-in driver."

The patch meant he was qualified to compete at small, local tracks. Most of his time has been spent at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas.

But ever since the Stafford County native was 10 years old, he has wanted to be a regular in what's now known as the Nextel Cup Series and to race in the Daytona 500.

You won't be able to see the 23-year-old in tomorrow's 500, but he's moving full-throttle to make it there someday.

Bailey competed in six NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races last season, and that's where that "Weekly" patch comes in.

Though the Truck Series is the least prestigious of NASCAR's three main series, it's still the big time.

So when Bailey ran in Truck Series races, the patch was a dead giveaway that he wasn't a regular.

For example: By his fourth truck race, the Las Vegas 350 on Sept. 24, he felt as if he belonged among the NASCAR drivers you see on TV. Most treated him cordially, and he even struck up a conversation about snowboarding--one of his favorite off-track pursuits--with Nextel Cup regular Kyle Busch.

"Of course," he said later, recalling the moment, "there I am with my Weekly Racing Series driving suit on and patch and everything, so it's like they know I'm just a fill-in, you know, weekly driver."

Bailey hoped to run full time in the Truck Series this year, but he couldn't secure the corporate sponsorship necessary for a racing team to take a chance on a rookie.

"It's all about dollars and cents," Bailey said. "It's not about talent anymore."

Now it looks as if he will drive a car in the Hooters Pro Cup Series, a racing circuit a notch below NASCAR's three elite divisions.

It's not where he hoped to be now, but it's not a consolation prize, either.

"I really want this ride," Bailey said.

That's what it's like for a driver trying to make it big in NASCAR. Stock-car tracks may be flat or banked, but the journey to a full-time ride is filled with ups and downs.

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Date published: 2/18/2006