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Connections Remembering the Past Will Launch New Beginnings for 2025 SCSCS Season at Kingsport

Statesville, North Carolina (April 16, 2025) – Buzz has been escalating in the days and weeks that lead up to Friday’s kickoff to the Super Cup Stock Car Series.  It will be a special day for many, with some making their series debut and some reminiscing about a great friend and past competitor.

Quantum Leap Trampoline Sports Arena in nearby downtown Johnson City will be sponsoring the night’s festivities at Kingsport Speedway, featuring twin 50-lap main events being held in remembrance to Mike Potter, a frequent racer and frontrunner in the SCSCS during the mid-to-late 2010s.  Not only was the current series track record holder at the facility ever-present on the track, but he did a tremendous amount in getting others there to compete.  This will be evidenced by the numerous connections that will be seen during the return to the “Concrete Jungle” for the first time since 2019.

Also from Johnson City, Lexi Arnold has adapted quickly to the 3/8-mile semi-banked oval and the nuances of its slight elevation changes, achieving two top five results in her rookie season in their Late Model division last year.  This year she currently sits seventh in their weekly standings and will be making her SCSCS debut on Friday.  The car she will be driving was formerly owned by Potter and earned victories in both Kingsport races in 2018 with 25-time race winner Ben Ebeling behind the wheel.  Helping coach and call the shots is former NASCAR Weekly Racing Series regional champion and a winner at Kingsport in Pro Cup competition, Wade Day.  Additional support for the effort comes from Burns Management Group LLC and Surplus Brokers LLC, the latter previously having been Potter’s business.

Ebeling’s eventual record marks in certain categories within the series presumably would not have been entirely possible without the confidence that Potter as well as another successful racer Jon Kerley instilled in him.  In his first career SCSCS start in 2016 at Lonesome Pine Motorsports Park, the Hickory, North Carolina driver impressed those that were not aware of his abilities, wheeling a car in which Potter fielded to victory.  Since then, wins in nearly half his attempts during seven consecutive seasons, 14 pole awards, and 900 laps led are only a few of the statistics that have been logged.  Ebeling has confirmed the familiar No. 44 entry for Friday night, his first planned appearance since 2023.

Mitch Gibson is another newcomer to the series but brings a host of experience in and outside the region.  From Coeburn, Virginia and now residing further north in Weyers Cave, Gibson has been on the bigger stage at tracks such as Bristol and Charlotte in the ARCA Racing Series but additionally has laps in local competition at Kingsport.  Piloting the second place points finishing car from 2024 that was driven mainly by Bill Ashton, who easily became a respected peer of Potter from their time spent often battling side by side and pitted next to each other, Gibson has received assistance away from the track in readying the car from Caleb Holman and his father Darrell.  Caleb was occasionally seen assisting Potter at SCSCS races in the area and the car in which Potter won in at Ohio’s Midvale Speedway in 2019 was one of them that Caleb utilized to capture the Pro Cup title approximately a decade back.  Darrell and Mike also competed on some of the same short tracks on any given night in the early 1990s.

When it comes to the bigger picture regarding the full 2025 campaign, more familiar faces are ready to get things started.  2024 rookie of the year Larry Frame will make his first start at the eastern Tennessee track and teammate, and yet another that got to know Potter quite well, Brent Nelson will be back from the state of West Virginia.  Nelson looks to defend his championship, which he won on five occasions last year and would like nothing more than to stretch his record of consecutive race wins to six or perhaps seven.  However, he is bringing a different car than he had all the success with last year where the all-time leader in laps led and top five finishes will look to improve upon a Kingsport best of only eighth.

The Ashton Racing No. 57 will campaign the full season once again.  For Kingsport it will be Jeff Roark, yet another driver with past local experience on the concrete surface, slated to drive.  Roark is coming off a SCSCS best second place result last October at Lonesome Pine.  2014 series champion JJ Pack, past winner in the series “ShoTime” Mike making his first start since 2021, and Eric Barber who debuted in October of last year, and more are possible.

Pit gates open on Friday at 2:00 p.m. with alternating practice to follow shortly after.  Spectator gates open at 5:00 p.m. with racing, including the season-opening Quantum Leap Trampoline Sports Arena Kingsport Twin 50s in remembrance of Mike Potter, slated to begin at 8:00 p.m.  General admission is $15 with prices for kids seven through 12 $5 and kids under 6 free.

There will be an optional test and tune held on Thursday from 3:00 p.m. until dark with cost for competitors being $20 per person, payable to the track.

Potter, a lifelong resident and well-known community member in Johnson City, Tennessee, passed away at the end of October 2022 and left quite the legacy.  Not only were his efforts, which included preparing up to five cars at times for competition, greatly appreciated in the short track world, he took his talents to the NASCAR Cup Series level through the early 1990s that included a start in the 1992 Daytona 500.

Part of the planned additional festivities will be Potter’s Late Model Stock Car team owner for many years, Paul Thorne, pacing the field in a restored replica of the No. 77 Chevrolet Lumina from that aforementioned race, prepared and supplied by series official Mike Blevins.

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