In the aftermath of his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in April at Richmond Raceway, Bubba Pollard was grateful for the experience but wasn’t sure he would do it again.
There were a lot of reasons for that sentiment, of course.
Most notably, making more starts would require bringing money to the table, and the 37-year-old Super Late Model ace just doesn’t have that kind of bandwidth. His race at Richmond came with the support of Rheem and JR Jones but it was a definition one-off to pay tribute to one of the great grassroots racers of his era.
Pollard was content to be the Dick Trickle of his generation, not that he embraces that kind of praise, instead just wanting to be ‘Bubba,’ the third generation racer, track operator and waste disposal worker. More than anything, beyond his family, he loves winning and is the most successful driver in his discipline of this era.
Seemingly, SANY America out of Peachtree, Georgia wants that guy too, and that’s how Pollard ended up returning for his second Xfinity Series start, this time with Sam Hunt Racing.
“A lot has happened,” Pollard said. “I’m a racer and I want to race. I’m not necessarily saying I want to race at that level but it’s always fun to do and I won’t say a full-time deal, but I don’t know what it may bring.
“It takes a lot of good partners and sponsorship like SANY to come on board and make happen. There were times, while we were meeting that I was questioning doing it, because I’m older, got a family, and enjoy what I do.
“But I talked to people for advice, and they said I wouldn’t want to regret it, look back and say I wish I would have done it and didn’t.”
Pollard is all-in, whatever direction it goes, and it comes back to the fact that a company of that magnitude wanted him.
“That meant a lot to me,” Pollard said. “The biggest thing is that they could have picked anybody and they chose me because we’re right down the road from them and I felt like I couldn’t let them down when they believed in me, and showed that kind of dedication.”
That includes Pollard getting an agent, Kurt Smith over at Rising Star Management Group, due to the relationship they had built while son Sammy Smith was running Late Models before going full-time Xfinity Series racing. It also helps that Pollard’s cousin, Philip Bell, is the crew chief for the JR Motorsports No. 8 driven by the younger Smith.
Pollard has a lot of trust in Smith to help navigate whatever options these partnerships open up.
“They’ve been really good to me,” Pollard said of Rising Star, “and I couldn’t have done this without them so we’ll see where this goes.”
Where is this going exactly?
“We’re going to race Late Models as much as we can and as for everything else, just try to put races together but it’s up in the air right now,” Pollard said. “I’m going to get through the (Snowball) Derby but Martinsville before that, but more than likely, we’re still going to be Late Model racing.”
Pollard is excited to race with Sam Hunt and the team he has built because he views them as definition racers. But he is also excited to race their No. 26 car, because that has been his family number for most of his racing career in Late Models, outside of a brief stint driving for the legendary Ronnie Sanders and his JR Motorsports races in Xfinity and Late Model Stocks.
And yes, he tried to get his 26 font on the car for Martinsville.
“Yeah, yeah, that would have been cool,” Pollard said. “I don’t think NASCAR was going to let that happen. We talked about it but I still think being able to race the 26 in the Xfinity Series is the coolest. We could have ended up in the 24 car but it worked out to be in the 26.
“At first, I told them I didn’t want to do the diecast deal, but for the 26, I’m going to do it one more time.”
Pollard knows and admires fellow Georgia Late Model racer turned NASCAR prospect Corey Heim and is aware that he’s nearly taken that car to Victory Lane. It inspires him to give it the same kind of run next week.
“It’s a good car and Corey is a really good race car driver and I’ve tried to study him as much as possible,” Pollard said. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to talk to him before the race but I know he nearly won the pole for the spring race and to sit on the front row, that car has speed.
“I know it’s there and I just need to get after it.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
