By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Travis Harvey of Burlington won the Southern N/T Nationals 8 this month at Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris, Texas.
Harvey defeated Justin Swanstrom in the final round.
That result, with an accompanying $200,000 prize, gave Harvey his second Nationals victory following last year’s success.
“I really don’t know what to say, but thank God,” Harvey said in a postrace reaction. “It’s crazy how things work out. I wasn’t supposed to be here, but I guess it was meant to be.”
Harvey was filling in for Tommy Youmans Racing when scheduled driver Lyle Barnett backed out because of his expectant wife.
“Tommy and Lyle gave me a killer car, and I’m stoked to bring it home,” Harvey said in the event’s aftermath.
Harvey was a fill-in when he won last year as well when he captured a National Hot Rod Association Pro Mod victory at zMax Dragway in Concord.
Harvey has won Piedmont Dragway championships in three different seasons in the Big Dog Shootout.
Robert Isley, a longtime observer of the region’s motorsports and former general manager at Ace Speedway, said that it’s safe to say that Harvey is Alamance County’s most successful dragster since Ronnie Sox and Herb McCandless.
