SMT: Greenville-Pickens preview

GENE PACK HOPING FOR HOMESTATE ADVANTAGE AT GREENVILLE-PICKENS SPEEDWAY

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 3, 2007) -- Gene Pack is hoping to have a home-state advantage this Saturday night at the legendary Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway when the green flag flies to start the An American Revolution 150.

The personable Myrtle Beach, S.C. driver is the only resident of South Carolina entered in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour's second visit to the legendary short track.

The inaugural NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour race at Greenville-Pickens last April saw defending series champion Junior Miller take the victory while Pack finished 11th.

"I love this race because I just don't get the chance to race in South Carolina all that much," Pack said. "North Myrtle Beach is where I call home these days so it's pretty cool to race in front of my home crowd. I won a race at Myrtle Beach Speedway last year and that was pretty neat, but it just wasn't a NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour race and that's something I want pretty bad. Maybe that good luck will carry over to Saturday night at Greenville-Pickens."

The Pack family name is well known in Southern Modified territory and record books as Gene Pack races on a regular basis against his son, Brian, on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. Since NASCAR took over sanctioning of the Tour in 2005 the elder Pack has been painfully close to winning a race only to walk away a bit short.

That fact is something Pack would dearly love to change this weekend.

"To win my first Whelen Southern Modified Tour at Greenville-Pickens would be really sweet," Pack said. "I've been trying to win one of these races for a long time and we've been close to pulling it off. We've had a little bit of bad luck in the first couple of races this year so hopefully we're going to have that turned around. We deserve a break because we've been working hard so hopefully we can catch that break at Greenville."

The history behind legendary promoter Tom Blackwell's track and the backstretch wall that has the names of past track champions painted on such as Ralph Earnhardt and David Pearson is something that is not lost on Pack.

"That really makes the track special," Pack said. "I guess the bad part of it is I know I'm getting older and I've raced against a lot of those guys before. I've raced against Dale Earnhardt before as well as Dale Jr. a couple of times. All I can say is it would be very special to win at Greenville-Pickens just because the track has so much history behind it. This is good old school racing and I'm really looking forward to this Saturday night."

Fast Facts

What: An American Revolution 150

NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour Race #3

Where: Greenville-Pickens Speedway, Greenville, S.C.

When: 8:00 p.m., Saturday, April 7

Track layout: Half Mile.
Distance: 150 Laps, 75 miles.

Posted Awards: $24,272

2006 winner: Junior Miller
2006 polesitter: None. Inaugural race qualifying was rained out.

Records: Qualifying: None; Race: 153-lap race record: Junior Miller, 1 hour 8 minutes 55 seconds. 66.602 mph. April 8, 2006.

Pre-race schedule: Saturday -- Practice, 1-2:30 p.m. Qualifying, 6:00 p.m. Note: All times subject to change.

-credit: nascar