CONCORD, N.C. — A name that has become synonymous with the American Sprint Car Series, Oklahoma’s Matt Covington will return for his 12th season chasing the National Tour.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Covington said. “Excited to see how it goes with World Racing Group taking over. I think it will be good for the series going forward. It’s going to be different, but we’ll adjust and get it figured out, and really just looking forward to seeing what Cody [Cordell] and Lonnie [Wheatley] can do with the series.”
The driver of the Missile Motorsports/T&L Foundry No. 95 fought to the last lap with Jason Martin for the 2023 title.
Missing it by 46 markers, Covington reflected on the season and shared his thoughts about the coming season.
“We didn’t have a bad year last year, but it wasn’t spectacular, where the No. 36 had a great year,” he said. “Certainly, it wasn’t a failure. We won three National Tour events and had a lot of top-five finishes, but we know we need to step it up if we want to win the championship, and that’s what our goal is this year. Luckily, we didn’t need to make a lot of changes during the off-season. Steven Lane is back with me working on the car. This will be his second season, and we’ve really gotten into a good rhythm.”
Getting behind the wheel in quarter midgets at age 5, Covington collected more than 100 feature wins and three national titles before being inducted into the Quarter Midget Hall of Fame in 2004.
Moving into sprint cars in 2008, he took on the National Tour for the first time in 2009. Returning to ASCS Lone Star and Sooner Region competition in 2010, Covington collected five titles between the two tours before returning to the National Tour in 2014.
In his time on the road, Covington has made 377 features, putting him sixth all-time, and made it to victory lane 18 times across 14 states. His record also includes 129 top-five and 229 top-10 finishes. He has also earned 34 ASCS regional triumphs.