Jimmy Lang

As the 2007 racing season progressed, young Jimmy Lang grew from an up-and-coming Late Model prospect to a weekly threat for victory in some of the toughest series in the Southeastern part of the country.

With the start to the 2008 season now under his belt, Lang proved that his emergence as a race-winning contender every time he takes his #86 machine to the track will continue in the new year. Lang led the way for a large portion of the ASA/Crate Late Model 100-lap feature during SpeedFest 2008 weekend at Lakeland, Florida’s USA International Speedway before eventually bringing home an impressive third-place finish to kick off what is shaping up to be a breakout season.

“We did good all weekend long,” said Lang after climbing from his podium effort at SpeedFest. “We were pretty fast all weekend. We had a top-three car all weekend long. We were even leading the qualifying race last night and finished second in that. Then in the feature, I’m not sure how many laps we led, but we were stronger at the end.

“This was awesome. I haven’t been down in Lakeland in three years. We ran a Hooters Pro Cup car here a while back, and it was just awesome. Our car was great as soon as we rolled it out of the trailer. I haven’t been on this track in three-and-a-half years or more and we were fast right out of the trailer. It was an awesome weekend.”

“We have progressed a lot, and a lot of people were telling me about that too. People were telling me they only saw me and one other person hang in on the outside like that here at Lakeland – Kyle Busch. I was just driving it, so that’s pretty impressive.

“Starting off this season like this is a big boost of confidence. It makes me have good self-esteem this season coming up. We didn’t do too good last year at the beginning of the season. The last couple of races, Steve and Rusty with Performance Concepts started helping us out and we started getting a lot better, so I have a good feeling about this year.”