In the months leading up to the 2024 racing season, Bradley Fezard and the No. 938 V&H Fresh Race Team decided it was time for a new challenge.
After graduating from the Micro Sprint ranks, the Bonnerdale, AR driver spent 2022 and 2023 bouncing between Midgets, 305 and 360 Sprint Cars along with nearly every other category of open-wheel dirt track racing out there.
However, running full-time on a national Sprint Car tour was always the goal, and Fezard made that goal a reality in 2024 when he signed up to chase the Rookie of the Year Award on the American Sprint Car Series National Tour.
“We had ran some series before in the past with the Micro Sprints with POWRi and NOW600,” Fezard said. “We took off of that and decided just to do some of the OCRS Sprint Car stuff, a little Midget stuff, and then we dabbled in the ASCS Sprint Cars. Once we ran with the ASCS guys, we decided at the end of last year that we would like to go back to committing to a series and stick with the same group of guys. We figured that would be the best way to learn and move our program forward.”
Going into the season, Fezard knew he would have to place his full focus on 360 Sprint Car racing if he wanted to have a chance at being competitive at the division’s highest level. That meant cutting down on extracurricular races in other car types, and he believes that decision has paid dividends in accelerating his learning curve on the National Tour.
“I think when you run back-to-back every weekend, the same car handling the same way with the same amount of power, I think it does a lot for us,” Fezard said. “Trying to hone in on setup skills and everything just for that one particular class. I think it’s been a big help for us.”
But regardless of how prepared and focused a team might be, taking on a national schedule for the first time is still one of the most daunting tasks in dirt track racing. Fezard knew that going in, and he’s been gaining firsthand experience ever since the green flag flew in the season opener at Super Bee Speedway in April. Two top 10s in the first 24 races isn’t what he had in mind, but he remains confident that success will come.
“This year has been very challenging for us,” Fezard said. “We’ve had a lot of new challenges, and I feel like we’ve faced a lot of adversity, bad luck, part failures and things. Sometimes you have those years where things just don’t seem to go right no matter how hard you try.”
Given the four-week break in the National Tour schedule, Fezard and team elected to travel south to Mississippi’s Greenville Speedway to take on the ASCS Hurricane Area Super Sprints on Saturday night. His only goal was to shake off the rust and prepare for three-straight weekends of National Tour competition, but it quickly turned into a night that he hopes will turn the tide on his season.
“In the Heat Race, we actually passed for the lead and a caution came out and we got put back to second, so we made the redraw,” Fezard said. “Usually if there’s a redraw, I’m always drawing the highest number, but we actually drew the two, so we started on the outside of the front row.
“We ran third for the first five to seven laps or so, and the leader [Brady Baker] got taken out by a lap car. So the rest of the race was trying to chase down the leader [Michael Miller]. We were right with him, right on his bumper most of the race, but the track ended up rubbering up right above the middle. So it was kind of a one-lane track, it was a little difficult to get around him.
“But we were definitely hunting for our first win of the season. With the year that we’ve had so far with the National guys, we definitely could have used a win to build off of a little momentum there. But we’ll take a runner-up.”
With 10 races to go in his debut season, Fezard sits 12th in the standings, 126 points behind Terry Easum in 10th. Earning a spot in the top 10 would make for an ideal end to a trying rookie campaign, and the head of steam gained from his Greenville performance could propel him into doing just that.
“Running week in and week out with the National guys, it’s really the best in the country. Pretty difficult to run competitively with them once, let alone every week,” Fezard said. “Being able to get a runner-up, it helps boost some confidence going into the next few weeks. We’re still looking for our first top five of this season. That’s what our goal, our plan really is for the remaining races.”
Fezard will kick off the final stretch of the National Tour season this weekend at Benton Speedway (Friday, Oct. 11) and Paducah International Raceway (Saturday, Oct. 12). Tickets will be available at the track, but if you can’t make it, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
