Last month 17-Year-Old Blaine Perkins made his ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards debut at the Kentucky Speedway driving for Mason Mitchell Motorsports (MMM) where he earned a ninth-place finish. The West Coast driver raced as high as second in his debut. Now he turns his attention to the 2018 season where he will run a five-race schedule with MMM. Perkins will make his 2018 debut at the Talladega Superspeedway. He will also race at Pocono Raceway (June), Michigan International Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway and the Iowa Speedway. But first, he will participate in the ARCA composite body test in less than two weeks time on November 7-8.
“I am very excited to add five more races with MMM in 2018,” Perkins stated. “We liked what we saw at Kentucky and I believe that this will be an amazing opportunity to run some of the bigger tracks that NASCAR races at.”
Mason Mitchell Motorsports completed their fourth season in ARCA earning a win at the Pocono Raceway in 2017.
“I’m excited to finally announce our plans with Blaine, Owner Mason Mitchell stated. “Blaine and I have known each other for a few years and have always wanted to work together. After we worked together at Kentucky it was a no brainer that we wanted to have him be part of MMM in 2018.”
Perkins gained valuable seat time in his debut spending the majority of the evening racing among the leaders and gaining experience with the ARCA Racing Series.
“Kentucky was a great learning experience and a great way to get to know the series, drivers and cars. I was able to learn how drafting works and began to understand how the aerodynamics work at a speedway.”
Before the test at Talladega, Perkins will with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West at Kern County Raceway Park on November 4th. He finished eighth earlier this year at Kern in the second race of the season. He currently sits ninth in Pro Series West points heading into the final race.
“The Talladega test will be a great opportunity for me to learn how the cars handle on a superspeedway. I believe the biggest differences, will be the drafting and banking. I have never been on a track more banked than Kentucky, and have never experienced the drafting that comes along with restrictor plate racing. We selected tracks to race at next year by wanting to get more of the bigger track experience. I’m looking forward to all the races next year but Talladega is definitely one I will have highlighted on my calendar. I have grown up watching NASCAR and have been to Talladega before to watch, and to imagine I will be racing there is dream come true.”
In the last two seasons, Perkins has made 26 starts with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West earning one top-five and 14 top-ten finishes. His best finish came in his rookie season (16) where he finished fifth at Colorado National Speedway.
The Bakersfield, California native began racing with the SRL Legends Tour in 2012. During his first full-time season in 2013 he earned three-top five finishes and finished runner-up in championship points. From there he made several starts with the SRL Southwest Tour as well as the Lucas Oil Modifieds. In 2016, he made the jump up to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West tour earning one top-five and ten top-ten finishes and finishing tenth in points.
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