Inside Line Promotions – WATSONVILLE, Calif. (July 20, 2026) – Trey Starks tied for the most positions gained last Saturday during the Howard Kaeding Classic finale at Watsonville Speedway.
The NARC King of the West Sprint Car Series doubleheader was a work in progress for Starks, who made his debut driving for Chase Johnson Racing.
“I think it’s the first time I’ve been on a track of that size in probably 10 or so years,” he said. “It took me some laps to get up to speed and to get the car how I liked it for the track conditions. I think we improved every single time we got on the track and we really started to come on strong at the end when the weekend was basically over. It was rewarding for me to work through the trouble we had and make improvements and bounce stuff off Chase and his guys. It was a very rewarding weekend and a ton of fun working with those guys. It was also great to participate in such a special event. It was fun to mix it up with those NARC guys on their home turf, too.”
Starks qualified 10th quickest and placed fourth in a heat race to open Friday’s competition. He started 10th, dropped to 15th and climbed back into the top 10 two thirds of the way through the main event when he got upside down in turns one and two.
“I had a solid qualifying effort that was just right outside the front row bubble for a heat race,” he said. “We were pinched down low on the start of the heat race so we dropped to fourth on the start and that’s where we ran. In the feature, we fired off okay, but I got into the frontstretch wall a couple of laps in. We had to fight our way back to the top 10. I was wrestling the car a little bit. I pulled a pretty big wheelstand down the front straightaway. When I set it down I buried it into the curb too hard and all but saved it, but barely tipped it over. It hurt the wings, but we didn’t have enough time in the work area to get it back out.”
Starks kicked off Saturday’s program by timing in 19th quickest. He finished seventh in a heat race to garner the 19th starting position in the main event.
“We changed a handful of things to try to change the attitude of the car and got caught being a little behind in qualifying,” he said. “For how the car was I don’t think I was on the right part of the track. I started to feel a little better in the heat race. We took a couple more big swings going into the feature and this time we hit what we were looking for. As soon as we fired off, I felt really good. I started picking off cars right away and worked close to the top 10. We had a crash or two that helped as we inherited some spots. We restarted ninth or 10th with around 10 laps to go and I was able to move around a lot more than the guys in front of me. We worked our way into seventh and I felt like we had really good speed compared to the guys in front of us.”
Starks improved throughout the race, ending with a dozen positions gained to place seventh. It was his 18th top 10 of the season.
“The next one will be in September with the World of Outlaws at Bakersfield and Ventura,” Starks said of his next scheduled races with Chase Johnson Racing. “Then we’ll do Merced in November for Chase’s race.”
Next up for Starks is the Fred Brownfield 360 Nationals this Friday and Saturday at Skagit Speedway in Burlington, Wash. He has won the event three of the last four years.
“It’ll be a good show to get back to,” he said. “We’ve had good success at it and our 360 program has been good this year so I’m looking forward to a lot of cars and another two-day show. I’ve been pretty good there the last couple of weeks so we’re rolling into it with some pretty good confidence.”
Starks also plans to race on Sunday at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash., with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour.
QUICK RESULTS –
July 17 – Watsonville Speedway in Watsonville, Calif. – Qualifying: 10; Heat race: 4 (3); Feature: 20 (10).
July 18 – Watsonville Speedway in Watsonville, Calif. – Qualifying: 19; Heat race: 7 (7); Feature: 7 (19).
SEASON STATS –
22 races, 9 wins, 16 top fives, 18 top 10s, 19 top 15s, 20 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Friday and Saturday at Skagit Speedway in Burlington, Wash., for the Fred Brownfield 360 Nationals; and Sunday at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash., with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.StarksRacing.com
X: https://twitter.com/Starks55Trey
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TreyStarksRacing?fref=ts
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
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Article Credit: Inside Line Promotions