Shane Huffman feature from a few years ago

(NOTE: This story appeared in the Hickory Daily Record.)

Former track champion is still racing in the big time

By Tom Gillispie

Hickory native Shane Huffman remembers Hickory Motor Speedway fondly. He had enough victories to keep him happy.

After a successful kart racing career, Huffman started racing a 1984 Mustang in Hickory 4-cylinder Mini Stocks division in 1994.

“We bought it from a guy who had won a race with it,” he said, “and we actually won 10 races that year. And we started a month or two into the season because we weren’t ready earlier.”

He sold the Mustang at the end of that year and got a ride in Phil Murray’s Big Daddy Racing Limited Late Model car. He won three races in it.

“We felt pretty satisfied with year, but you always want more,” he said. He says he won 10 races and the track Limited title in 1996, then moved up to Late Model in ’97. He won four races that year and 10 more in ’98, finishing second to track champion Dexter Canipe Sr.

Then came the monster ’99 season, when Huffman won 20 of 30 races he ran, most of them at Hickory. He won the track and Blue Ridge Region titles.

“We missed the (Winston Racing Series) national championship by .001 of a point, and there was a $100,000 difference” between first and second place, he said.

Huffman moved on to the USAR Pro Cup Series in 2000 and says he still regrets it.

“That year ruined my career, just about,” Huffman said. “They say stuff like that builds character, and that was one of the most character-building years you’ve ever heard of. We had motor issues; we’d be running good and something would break or fall off the car. It was just a terrible year, one of those years you’d like to forget.”

He got his first USAR win at Coastal Plains Speedway Jacksonville, N.C., in 2001. That same season, he made his NASCAR Busch Series debut at Richmond, driving the No. 77 Jennie-O Ford Taurus for Moy Racing. He started 40th and finished 24th, three laps down. After a winless 2002, Huffman won five races and USAR's Southern Division and national points title. He repeated his Southern Division title in 2005.

Huffman posted Pro Cup wins at HMS in 2003 and 2005.

He had 28 wins in 133 USAR starts in USAR — the second most wins in series history — and he holds the record with 26 poles.

He’d run 30 more Busch (now Nationwide) Series races from 2006 to 2008, with two top-five finishes. His highlight was driving 18 races in ’07 for JR Motorsports, owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. He had one top-five and four top-10 finishes that year but lost his ride during the season.

Interestingly, his crew chief for JR Motorsports was Wes Ward, another racer who got his start in Hickory.

Huffman also ran seven NASCAR Truck Series races, four in 2006 and three in 2007, plus an ARCA race in 2000.

Since his racing career ended, he’s worked as a crew chief or car chief for various teams.

"It wasn't the direction I had intended on going. It was just kind of something that I did," Huffman has said.

Currently, he’s truck chief for James Buescher, the 2012 Truck Series champion for Turner Motorsports.

“I have four or five guys who work with me,” said Huffman, who lives in Connelly Springs with wife Wendy and their two children. “If something goes wrong with the vehicle, it’s inevitably my fault. It always comes back to the car chief.

“If you let it be, it can be a high-pressure job because of the scenarios you try to control.”

Does Huffman, who is still only 39, miss being a full-time driver?

“Absolutely,” he said. “The thing that bothers me the most about not driving is the way it ended. I was on the cusp of being in Cup, honestly. A team or two were talking to me. The rug was pulled out from under me on a high-profile team, and, all of a sudden, I can’t drive anymore.”

He’s been offered a few start-and-park deals, but he says he’s too competitive for that. He wants to race, and, with Buescher’s team, he’s racing.

He says he gets back to HMS now and then.

“Yeah, we go watch races from time to time with the family,” he said. “My (six-year-old) son (Landon) enjoys it.”

Here are three bits of Shane Huffman trivia:

One, Huffman wrestled three seasons at St. Stephens High, posting a combined record of 59-27 in the 119- and 112-pound weight classes. He says he weighs about 180 now.

Two, Huffman says he and the other local Huffman racers are not related, but he and five-time Daytona Dash champion Robert Huffman both have sons named Landon. Robert’s son races Limited Late Models at HMS; Shane’s son, Landon, is six and has a two-year-old sister named Lanie.

Finally, Huffman got his middle name (the one he uses) from the famous western movie featuring Alan Ladd. Shane, come back, Shane.