It’s hard to believe that Chad Boat is poised to make just his second NASCAR XFINITY Series start of the season in Saturday’s Winn-Dixie 300 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, but Boat says his team has been focused on building a successful family-owned program.
Billy Boat Motorsports launched a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series mid-season last year with driver Mason Mingus. That partnership continued into the 2015 season and while the dedication has been focused on building Mingus a solid foundation, Boat is glad to be back racing.
“We really worked on single car runs being that we have to qualify inside the top-33,” said Boat. “We’re not exactly where we want to be, but the Billy Boat Motorsports CorvetteParts.net guys are going to work hard and try to find some speed.
“I think we’ll be fine in qualifying, but we’re not where we want to be, but we’ll keep working hard on it.”
Boat will find himself in a nail-biting situation Saturday. The son of former IndyCar driver Billy Boat must qualify on-time to ensure his participation in the second restrictor plate race of the season. With 45 cars on the grounds in Talladega, five drivers will fail to qualify. And with no points to fall back on, Boat will have one lap to guarantee himself into his 16th career NXS start.
While the recent adrenaline pumping knockout qualifying format kept may have worked slightly better for a team like BBM, Boat is welcoming the change back to a more traditional format.
“I think we’re for this change,” added Boat. “It’s not in my hands really, it’s what the guys did at the shop and how they prepped the cars and the engine builders. It all happens at the shop, that’s where the speed is going to be. I think definitely puts more in our hands, you know where the draft was so up in the air whether a good guy caught a good run or you caught a good run, so (this) definitely puts it back into the team’s hands.”
The view is surprising, especially considering the Phoenix, Ariz. native qualified third in the season-opening race at Daytona.
In four prior restrictor plate races, Boat has a best finish of 24th in his XFINITY Series debut at Daytona last February after starting last.
While BBM primary focused is centered around Brentwood, Tennessee native Mingus, Boat said he’ll like compete in a few Truck Series races himself later in the season. He noted that the addition of a second truck program could help their team overall, but it also would offer the chance for Boat to stay in the seat as he irons out his remaining XFINITY Series races.
Following Talladega, Boat hopes to compete in the XFINITY race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway on May 23.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
