ARCA/REMAX Series
Photos and story © 2006 Dwight Drum
Web work by Gary Larsen

Matt McCall, another of the final four competitors in Driver X was selected to drive limited Busch and ARCA RE/MAX Series schedules for Robert Yates Racing. McCall will share driving duties of the No. 90 Ford Fusion with Nextel Cup Series driver Elliott Sadler and newcomer Stephen Leight. McCall ran the Daytona ARCA 200, where he qualified and raced up front all day, finishing in the second position.

Matt McCall
Driver, No. 90 Ford Fusion
Robert Yates Racing

"I wouldn't use the word difficult at all."

Nothing more exciting happens to a young driver than to be chosen for development by a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup team. McCall, at 24, is in active training with the elite ARCA field for Robert Yates Racing. He'll learn before he advances and learn more once he advances. The ABC program, ARCA, Busch and Cup has been a ladder to success for sometime now. It's also a ladder with reverse steps. Development is exactly that, develop or drop off. We bring you development in motion, a young driver on the drive, on the edge to be the next Robert Yates Racing star.

Time: Early 2006
Place: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona, Fla.
Event: ARCA/ REMAX Daytona 200

Dwight asked Matt McCall:

"I guess I'm pretty low-keyed. I'm a humble individual. Grew up in a small town. Real family oriented. I'm not really much about going out and living it up. I'm just hanging out and racing. That's pretty much how it's been. "

"Probably from my dad. He's always been martial arts and I have too. That probably has a little bit to do with it. It's sort of a similar situation, a competitive sport. I think once you start racing, you just get hooked. It gets more and more. I don't think it will ever change really."

"That's a good question, really. It's hard to pinpoint what's going to change and what's not going to change. I'm sure everything changes. That's just what life's all about. It's hard to say which way it's going to go. I don't think I'll ever lose it and hopefully it will just be gaining competitive stuff."

"I just race. The biggest part is to stay focused, the big mental part of it there to bring out. Make sure you're sort of hyped up a little bit, but maybe not too over hyped or you'll over do it."

"I don't think it's difficult when it's your lifetime dream to be a professional race car driver. It is difficult at times, but it's the kind of job that you love to do every day. You can't ask many people where they work, they love their job and that's all they want to do. I wouldn't use the word difficult at all."

"When you're out there by yourself, the speed, you really don't feel as much when the track's that big. It's a lot like driving down the Interstate, If you're driving 70. Then you go to a small road driving 70, it's just the difference in the feel. It's sort the same on a racetrack. The bigger the racetrack, the speed, you don't get quite the sensation. Some of the tracks for example Bristol, the speeds aren't as high, but the banking will give you the sensation that you are going a lot faster than you are at a track like Daytona."

"I'm not much of a fortune teller here, but to be able to just to keep developing up would be the direction to go. We run eight Busch races with this development deal and the ARCA Series. Hopefully next year it will turn into a full deal and blossom from there. "

"It's probably just the aspects of the competitiveness of everyone. Everybody here is a good race car driver. Everybody has good teams behind them. Week in and week out it seems like there are people you're going to be competing with all the time…either at your level or at their level. That's probably the biggest thing, adjusting to this level ARCA and Busch. At the local level you can out- equip somebody, have just a little bit better stuff, maybe a little bit better than them. It's not always the case, but that's probably the biggest thing when you get to this level. "

"I definitely thank Citifinancial for making it work for the ARCA operation. They're doing all the Busch races, and also M&M's and UPS, Ford Racing and Robert Yates Racing."