While Gennetten will still run some bigger 360 sprint car shows through the year — like the annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway, near his Missouri home — his main focus will be on building his 410 notebook and learning to contend in some of the toughest fields in the country.
That will include the 60th Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway, as well as the AGCO Jackson Nationals at Jackson (Minn.) Motorplex and the Ironman 55 at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Mo.
It’s all about bettering himself as a driver, Gennetten noted, even if there are a few growing pains at first.
“Moving up now is best for me to do, because you can’t run 360s the whole time and expect to be here long term,” Gennetten said. “At some point you have to make that jump into the 410s and understand that you might not go out there and light the world on fire every night but staying in 360 racing too long without stepping up won’t do you as much good, either. You have to learn by racing the top guys.
“There’s money to be won with the big motors, too. The more you run the 410s, the better you’re going to be in the wallet, or you at least have a better chance to be,” Gennetten added. “But we’ll start off the season down south and we want to go down there and make shows and turn laps and just try and improve on a lot of different things for us, starting off. That will make us better later on, if we decide to go out to Pennsylvania or places like that, where we’ll have an easier time adapting to new surfaces.”
From the Fischer family’s standpoint, not only are they eager to have a young driver to work with in Gennetten, but they are looking forward to returning to the race track on a more-regular basis.
“In the past, the All Star tour was mostly out East, and with as busy as our business has been, we haven’t been able to get free to go out that direction and go see much of anything,” Devin Fischer noted. “It’s kind of been frustrating, but this year looks to be fun for us because there are a few All Star races in the Midwest and Ayrton also wanted to run some Outlaw stuff in the Midwest as well.
“It’s more races that we’re able to get to, and that excites us because it’s something we haven’t personally gotten to do in the last couple of years,” Fischer added. “I know we’re as much excited just to get to some of the Midwest tracks and some of the places we haven’t been able to go to for a while, but we’re excited about working with Ayrton and really believe he’ll be able to do some great things for us.”
Gennetten’s first race of the season in the Fischer Body Shop No. 3 is scheduled to be with the World of Outlaws at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss., on Feb. 19.
Additional backers for Gennetten’s season also include Ozark Barge & Dock, Baughman Motorsports, West Side Automation, Wet Steps, Hibdon Gravel, Tony Stuart Racing, Stuart House, Champion Signs, Timbrook Motorsports, Bob Blanton Inc., Midland Performance and Smart Growth Inc.