No one would blame Cameron Hayley for getting homesick.
The 19-year-old NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver resides in Sandusky, Ohio where his ThorSport Racing team is based – 1,891.3 miles away from his hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Most of the tracks he races at are even farther away.
Distance has not stopped Hayley from chasing his NASCAR dream. Although it’s located on the opposite side of Canada, Hayley will have a homecoming of sorts when he performs in front of his fellow countrymen in Sunday’s Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (1:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1) – the NCWTS’ only road course race of the season.
“Not only is this a track I’ve been to before, it’s also in my home country,” said Hayley, who ranks sixth in the NCWTS standings on the strength of three top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 14 starts this season. “I just hope that I will have a good run for all of my Canadian fans.”
An alumnus of the NASCAR Next initiative highlighting the sport’s top up-and-coming drivers, Hayley is still searching for his first NASCAR national series win. If he takes the checkered flag on Sunday, he would be the first Canadian to win a NASCAR national series race since Ron Fellows visited Victory Lane in Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2008.
Racing in his first full-time NCWTS season, Hayley has gained momentum lately, logging six top-10 finishes in his last eight starts, including a career-best fourth-place showing at Pocono. He made his series debut at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last season, finishing 11th and believes his prior experience there will help him on Sunday.
“We’ve done really well at tracks that I’ve been to in the past this year, already,” Hayley said. “I’ve been to Sonoma a couple times and that place was really difficult. You look at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and think, ‘it can’t be as difficult as Sonoma,’ but it’s a very fast race track, and fast race tracks are not forgiving. It takes a lot of finesse and a lot of guts to go out there and get it done. We are bringing a really good truck, so I think this will be another good race for us to go out and get a solid top five, if not a win.”
Source: NASCAR Wire Service
