NASCAR Race This Weekend – The Michigan Dirt Track Connection

Sunday night, NASCAR driver Matt Tifft will drive a Cup car at Darlington in the Bojanges’ Southern 500 for the first time. And, according to MLive.com, when he does, a little bit of Michigan dirt track history will be on display.

Darlington's NASCAR race is a great way to honor the racing past and Tifft's car is going to be a deep dive, so you should know the story.

Matt drives the #36 car for Front Row Motorsports. But he grew up in Ohio where his dad, Quinten, owned a Late Model dirt track car driven by Michigan's David Hilliker. The Tifft's use to drive up to Michigan to see David drive their car and Matt helped his dad when it came to re-building the car every winter. Matt says,  "David Hilliker was my childhood dirt track hero". So, Matt's car on Sunday night will be painted to look just like David's (and his dad's) car. How cool is that?

David is in the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame, but he still races all over Michigan and Ohio. In fact, he finished second to his son this last weekend at Tri-City Motor Speedway near Saginaw.

Here's the story.