Will Rodgers, the 22-year-old NASCAR K&N Pro Series West (NKNPSW) standout will make his K&N Pro Series East debut in Friday afternoon’s Finger Lakes Wine Country 100 driving for Jefferson-Pitts Racing.
Rodgers born in Hawaii has run the full K&N West schedule this season but caught the attention of many at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway when he won his first series pole and came precariously close to beating Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick for the win, instead he finished an impressive second.
With no Cup Series regulars expected to compete in Friday’s race, Rodgers easily has been tapped as a pre-race favorite.
“I’m excited to be heading into Watkins Glen this weekend following our strong performance at Iowa Speedway,” Rodgers told CATCHFENCE.com. “After our second-place finish at Sonoma Raceway in June, we are very confident in the road course program we are bringing.”
Much like Sonoma Raceway, Rodgers has never competed at the 2.45-mile course of Watkins Glen, but given his road racing background, the Murrieta, Calif. resident is hopeful he can find his
grove quickly.
“I’ve never been to Watkins Glen, but I have been spending time on iRacing and reviewing film to be as prepared as possible. This will be my first K&N East start and hope to put on a good showing.”
Starting his racing career in go-karting at the age of eight, within 14 months, Rodgers was the 2005 Hawaii State champion. While hailing experience in karting, motorcross, off-road trucks, UTVs, road racing cars and even in the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car class, Rodgers is now trying to make a home in stock cars.
Through nine races in the West division, he has earned one pole, six top-five and seven top-10s and currently ranks fourth in the championship standings.
“Making the transition to NASCAR over the past year has been a long time coming in my racing career,” Rodgers added. “I have a lot of experience in various other forms of racing, all of which have helped in that transition and ultimately have made me competitive even with my lack of experience compared to others.
“The top level of NASCAR is my ultimate goal and ensuring I have a place there is very important. Every race this year has been about developing as fast and as well as possible so we continue moving forward. However, the one big piece we need to do that is funding.
“This is something I have been working extremely hard on for some time and hope to find a break soon. Once that happens we can begin to think of NASCAR for me as more of a home.”
Despite his challenges with funding, Rodgers can’t deny that he instantly earned the respect and recognition of his talent from Harvick.
Harvick, a Calif. native himself, repeatedly praised the run by Rodgers in interviews after the race, as did Harvick’s crew chief, Rodney Childers.
Rodgers even watched Harvick earn his first Cup win of the season from atop the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing pit box the following afternoon.
The praise continued during Harvick’s “Happy Hours” show on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio the following Tuesday when Rodgers was the special guest.
While the exposure has leveled off, Rodgers is eager to prove that Sonoma’s run wasn’t a fluke and he can adjust to any track and contend for the win.
“Exposure and recognition is what this weekend at Watkins Glen is all about,” sounded Rodgers. “We have proven once what we can accomplish on a road course, now it’s time to back that up. Like at Sonoma I will have some good competition.
“Racing with past winners of that race like Ryan Truex and Scott Heckert. For someone at my level and amount of experience, it’s crucial to show we can be versatile in driving conditions and adjust to different types of tracks quickly and successfully. I’m hoping to have a very similar weekend like the one we did at Sonoma racing with Kevin Harvick.”
Harvick who began his NASCAR career competing in the Southwest Series and what is now K&N Pro West, the Sonoma race was a chance to help garnish some attention towards the series that he believes will continue to funnel future NASCAR stars.
“I see some kids from the West Coast don’t get the opportunities that they probably should get because so much of what we do is on the East coast and it’s sometimes hard to get a break because they might not be able to afford to race on the East Coast,” Harvick told Motorsport.com.
“If we can shed some light on this particular series and this particular group of young drivers, like Will and some other guys that ran up front most of the day, that’s really the main objective – to get try to grow the series.
“It’s definitely become more important to me as I get later in my career. I want to try to help build the West coast racing into what it used to be.”
For Rodgers, he doesn’t want to forget his roots, but he is hoping to earn the opportunity to build a name for himself in the K&N East – an opportunity he hopes will lead to more chances in NASCAR’s other national series.
“I believe doing well at races like Watkins Glen that are in the lime light of the bigger series will help my career. We experienced this at Sonoma earlier this year,” Rodgers said. “One thing is for sure, I refuse to give up.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
