Jason Hogan All American 400 summary

Hogan Leads Laps, Finishes Third In All American 400
22-Year-Old Says He'll be back Next Year to Get the Top Prize

CONCORD, NC (November 9, 2004) -- The All American 400 has always been one of the crown jewels of the short track racing world and something that young Jason Hogan has always wanted to win. On Sunday, in the return of the All American 400 weekend at Nashville's Music City Motorplex (TN), Hogan was just 10-laps away from All American glory.

Hogan led the 300-lap event with just 10 laps remaining, but a fading sun and warn tires made Hogan's #92 SpingHill Suites/ARP Bodies/Universal Chevrolet tight coming off the corners. Although he held off the charge of eventual race winner Chuck Barnes Jr. for nearly 40 laps, he eventually slipped back to third by the time the checkers flew.

Still, Hogan was pleased with his performance, which led all of the Southern drivers in contention at Nashville.

"I'm not disappointed with third at all," said Hogan. "We brought an old car out of the woodwork and got a top-three finish out of it. They'd better be glad I didn't bring my good car; that is all I can say. The other car at the house is a lot better than this one."

Rules for the All American called for teams to run the new "ABC" body styles. Hogan's new car has an "outlaw" Super Late Model body on it, and the team didn't want to change it for just this one race.

"The new car works so well with that (outlaw) body at Opp (AL) and Lanier (GA) and other places; we just didn't want to change it just yet. This is a great racecar here, but the new one is just a little better. So, I think we did pretty good for the first time in an ABC body. That isn't something us Southern guys are used to running."

Hogan started the race 12th, but quickly moved into the top-10. After some stellar pit stops by the Hogan Motorsports crew, Jason found himself in the top five, where he raced most of the afternoon, and eventually moved into an uncontested second place.

On lap 238, Hogan took the lead from Wayne Willard and held onto the top spot for the next 52 laps, despite a car that was quickly losing its handle. A late-race restart with just five to go allowed Jason, now in third, to take a shot at the front two cars again, but he could not wrestle the ill-handling car back to the front.

"The sun started going down and the car got tight on me at the end. I gave them a last little shot there at when I was in third, but that is all I had. I laid it all out there on the line. I didn't have anything left at the end of the race."

Giving it "all that he had" left Hogan in a good mood after the race.

"That was some good, hard racing," added Hogan. "We really came in here expecting to win, but even though we didn't, we raced good and hard. Sure, we'd have liked to have won, but it doesn't always work out that way. I think we showed some of those Northern guys that there are some tough guys down South too. It is really pretty cool to be the top Southern guy at the finish.

"The whole weekend was great though. It is awesome to see this race coming back. It is great to see the Sunoco (Super Series) and Southern All Star guys working together like this. There is a lot of improvement that needs to be made, but they've made a huge step in bringing it back to what it used to be. Give us Southern guys another year to get used to the ABC bodies and we'll be even tougher."

Hogan will now set his sights on the Asphalt World Championships at Concord Motorsport Park (NC) on Sunday, November 21st. Hogan finished ninth in the event last year.

-jasonhogan.com.