Chase Austin says he’s not going to Kansas; future of Trail Motorsport in doubt
Chase Austin has announced that the Trail Motorsport team he drives for has withdrawn its entry for this weekend’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway, and he remains without a contract with the organization.
The team members were told at a meeting Tuesday that funding issues were the reason for the withdrawl, Austin said in a news release.
“I don’t have a clue what Trail plans to do moving forward; I don’t have a contract at this point,” said Austin, who has not competed in the last two Truck races. “I’ll just keep praying, keep digging and make the most out of any seat time I can get until the right opportunity comes. And I definitely still believe it will come.
“They say that every cloud has a silver lining, and I really believe that, There are a lot of other talented young drivers out there, and some of them will give up on their dream when times get really tough. With my faith in God, and with the faith that others continue to have in me, the only way I can fail is if I quit. And I can promise you that’s not going to happen.”
Austin, who is from Kansas, was told last week that the team would attempt to race this weekend, and he went to a Kansas City Royals game to help promote the race for NASCAR. The news release says that his future with Trail is “tenuous at best.”
“We had set a deadline of Monday for the truck to be ready to shake down at Rockingham, and that didn’t happen, so I knew what we were going to hear in the meeting [Tuesday],” Austin said. “I’m really more disappointed for the team [members] than for myself.”
Trail Motorsport competed in the first two Truck events as it hired MRD Motorsports to field an entry for Austin, who finished 13th at Daytona and 23rd at Auto Club Speedway in California. According to a lawsuit filed March 23 in North Carolina Superior Court in Cabarrus County, N.C., Trail Motorsport paid $66,000 to MRD for the Daytona race, but MRD alleges that Trail has not paid the $66,000 it owes to MRD for the race in California. That suit is pending.
A message left through a team representative and e-mail request for comment from owner Patrick Shelton were not immediately returned Wednesday.
