Ray Black Jr. stepping up to NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2016
Ray Black Jr. is taking the next step in his NASCAR career and will compete fulltime this season in the Xfinity Series.
Ray Black Jr, SS Green Light Racing
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Black, who competed fulltime in the Camping World Truck Series last season with SS Green Light Racing and finished 11th in the series standings, will remain with the organization as it moves up to the Xfinity Series this season.
“It’s a much bigger stage with some of the best racing competition in the world. The Truck series was a great starting point for me in NASCAR, but it’s always good to keep challenging yourself, and I feel that’s what this move will do for me,” Black, 24, said.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to show everyone what I can do.”
The move is also a big one for SS Green Light Racing, owned by Bobby Dotter. It will be its first fulltime foray into the Xfinity Series.
“We ran one Xfinity race with Ray last year, and it went much better than everyone expected,” Dotter said. “Ray really took to the feel of the car. Our goal was always to be in the Xfinity Series with Ray, we’ve just sped up that timeline a little bit.”
Black will compete in the No. 07 Chevrolet with sponsorship from ScubaLife, which was with him in the Truck Series.
In his first full season in Trucks, Black had one top-five and 12 top-15 finishes. He earned a career-best finish of fifth in last year’s season opener at Daytona.
“We might have a little bit of an adjustment period with the Xfinity cars since we haven’t consistently run them other than the race we did at Texas in the fall last year, so we do have a lot to learn,” he said.
“Once we get a feel for the cars, I think we should be good to go. We really got some solid momentum going in 2015, and I don’t see why we can't better that in 2016.”
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