User blog:Ajaxcupseries/Chatting With The ASCA's Brightest Young Star (Greg Healey)

By: Charles Fallon, The Fallon Corner (2021)

Heading into the 2020 season, when Snoots Enterprises announced that they had agreed to a 6 year, 45 million dollar extension with 23 year old Greg Healey people thought team owner Baby Snoots had gone certifiably insane.

After all, this was a guy that only had 2 Craftsman wins to his name, had no Cup wins in his first two years and was just coming off of a 2019 season that saw him have a sophomore slump with only 7 top 10’s and a 14th place points finish.

Yet here is former NFL quarterback Baby Snoots throwing $9 million dollars a year at him, making him the second highest paid driver in the sport at the time behind Randle Woods. Mind you, this means he was (and still is) making more money than multi time champions Diego Orkedi AND Jimmy Hood, who make 8 and 7 million dollars a year respectively.

People thought for sure this would blow up in Snoots’ face. With no Cup wins in the organization’s first five years and the original prospect that the team hoped would carry them into prominence in Adam Petty Jr. looking like the biggest bust of the ASCA’s Modern Era, they thought this contract would be the final nail in the coffin for Snoots Enterprises that would run them bankrupt in a few short years after Healey couldn’t live up to saving this team from disaster.

Instead, the exact opposite happened.

2020 was by far the most successful season to date for Snoots Enterprises, not just in Cup but the ASCA as a whole. With the team scoring their first two Cup wins at Advocare and Blu-Ray with Greg Healey, they also scored four Craftsman Series victories with two coming from Healey and two from young prospect Shane Park, who also took home the organization’s first Craftsman title as well.

Now in 2021 with the team looking about the healthiest its ever been being one of only three teams to score an Ajax Cup win so far and scoring 3 victories in the first half of the Craftsman season, I got an opportunity to sit down this week with the major catalyst behind Snoots Enterprises’ recent rise to prominence: 24 year old Greg Healey.

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Charles Fallon (CF): “Greg, I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule preparing for the Windows 300 this week to sit down and chat. How are you doing?”

Greg Healey (GH): “To be determined, I’ll let you know the answer to that one around 11 PM Sunday night.”

CF: “Ahhh yeah good answer, good answer. Not gonna waste too much of your time here, so lets get right into things.”

GH: “Sounds good to me.”

CF: “So lets go back to that 2019 offseason. You just turned 23, were coming off a sophomore slump of sorts finishing 14th in points after finishing top 10 your rookie year. What was going through your mind when Baby (Snoots) first approached you about a contract extension?”

GH: “Well it was actually something I approached him about believe it or not. My prospect deal I had signed back in 2015 was finally coming to an end after 2020, and I was pretty much dead set on staying with the team because I felt like we were really close to winning and started to show that before the end of the year. So I had quite a bit of anxiety, ya know, just worried if we’d be able to reach an agreement more than anything. I left most of that to my agent Jeff to figure out, and when he came to me with that final offer my jaw hit the floor. I honestly couldn’t believe it.”

CF: “Couldn’t believe all that money you were about to make?”

GH: “Yeah, that was definitely a factor haha. But more so that Baby had enough faith in my talents to bring me back for 6 years…..that honestly shocked me. It was a huge relief to get that done, and just gave me so much confidence heading into 2020 especially after our struggles the previous year. It just allowed me to clear my head of the off track stuff and focus on driving really to know that, hey you made it and your job is safe now for a few years. Instead of having to constantly prove myself and looking over my shoulder, worrying if I’ll be replaced or not.”

CF: “So lets talk about last year for you. 2 wins, 7 top 5’s, 12 top 10’s, 3 poles, 377 laps led. Obviously your breakout year in the Cup Series, and your rise to the spotlight in the ASCA. You have been known as a shy, nice guy throughout your life that likes to keep to himself. What was it like for you to have to break out of your shell a little bit with how often you were thrust into the media throughout the season?”

GH: “Yeah I think it was something I kind of resisted at first. Like if you asked me to do this interview before the Windows 300 last year, I probably would’ve declined it. But when I took some time to think about it, back when I was a fan whenever I got to see my favorite driver Tico Bowden in the media growing up, whether it was in an interview or in a commercial I’d get giddy like a schoolgirl. And when I see the fans at the track acknowledge they love my commercials or love my interviews, I think I owe it to them more than anyone to keep doing these sort of things. Twitter is fun as hell too, I’ll say that much.”

CF: “And it seems like now ever since you were put on the cover of ASCA Racing 2020 Season towards the end of last year, it seems like you have become a face of the sport now. Like when you think of the ASCA currently, I’d say Diego Orkedi, Randle Woods, Todd Kidd, and now your name often enters that discussion. What does that mean to you to now become such a household name in the ASCA?”

GH: “Well I try not to think about that too much, because its important to not get too cocky in this business. But for the three guys you mentioned, they’re all perennial championship contenders year in and year out, and that’s our goal pretty much every year of course. So as long as we continue to compete for titles and win races, the other stuff will take care of itself I feel like.”

CF: “Last year of course you led the points for 9 of the 16 weeks during the year, but towards the end of the year it seems like you guys started to sputter a bit and ultimately finished runner up to Diego Orkedi. When you got out of the car at Belltown and knew you had officially locked up 2nd in points, were you proud of that or did you feel disappointed maybe that you guys couldn’t take home the title with the points cushion you had at times during the season?”

GH: “I think I was disappointed in myself at the time, but obviously proud of the team for how far we had come. I mean think about it. We went from 14th to 2nd in points in ONE YEAR. I don’t think I can name another team in this ultra competitive modern era that’s improved 12 spots in points in only a single year span. That’s just a testament to how hard my guys worked in the offseason to give me the best cars possible to succeed, and I’ll never take that for granted.”

CF: “Why were you disappointed in yourself though?”

GH: “Well, I feel like as a driver I made some mistakes that put us in bad spots and ultimately cost us a ton of points. I definitely look at Michigan, being anywhere near that weekly hazard of a 78 car was 100% my fault. At The Stoneyard I got loose under Randle (Woods) and wrecked us both, that cost us a couple points. And at Ajax, I just didn’t get in the right lanes at the end there to even give us a shot at the title at Belltown. That’s all on me.”

CF: Let’s transition to this year. 15 laps to go at Belltown, you’re right behind Jimmy Hood fighting hard for the win. You give him the bumper in turns 1 and 2, drive off, and cruise to your 3rd career win, and take Hood’s “King of Short Tracks” nickname away from him head to head like that. I have a couple questions for you here. Firstly, when did you develop such an aggressive driving style on these short tracks that we even saw out of you at Advocare earlier in the year?”

GH: “I think it all kind of stems back to the incident I had with Doug (Bowden) at Belltown last year. We were 2nd on that final restart, and he gets a great run going into one, runs me up the track into the wall and cuts our tire down. Let me tell you, I was PISSED. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever run into someone’s car post race I was that heated. And as I was listening to his post race interview, I remember him saying something like “Greg clearly needs to run more short track races, that’s just hard racing” or whatever. And when he said that, I told myself I’ve had it letting people push me around on short tracks like they had my entire career. I was going to start being the aggressor and stop costing my team wins and points because I wasn’t aggressive enough. That’s the exact moment the switch flipped and here we are today.”

CF: “Secondly, after that win at Belltown the media and even Jimmy Hood himself proclaimed you as the new “King of Short Tracks”. What does having that moniker attached to you now mean to you personally?”

GH: “You know, I appreciate it and everything, especially what Jimmy said after the race and even him congratulating me in victory lane shows how much of a class act he is. But like I said earlier, I try not to focus too much on that. Its a cool nickname to have, but I could never win on a short track again with how often the racing landscape changes these days. So I’ll just let the pundits determine how long I’ll keep this nickname for I guess haha.”

CF: “Now transitioning to your thoughts on the 2021 season as a whole so far. 1 win, 2 top 5’s, 5 top 10’s, 144 laps led in the opening 7 races so far this year. What would you grade you and your team’s performance so far?”

GH: “I hate thinking about grades, reminds me too much of school. Nah, but in all seriousness I’m happy with where we’re at right now. Obviously not satisfied because we’re behind the 22 and a gazillion points behind the 18, plus there’s still another 9 races left so a lot could change. But to have a win and to sit 3rd in points, it could be a lot worse honestly. Still a lot of work to be done in the upcoming weeks though if we want to make a serious title push, so that’s what we’re focused on next.”

CF: “Let me ask you this then: would you be satisfied with 2nd in points if it happened again this year?”

GH: “Nope, not at all. Baby didn’t pay me 9 million dollars a year to finish 2nd. This is a championship caliber organization, and I’d be doing them a disservice if I didn’t make that our goal each year to win titles.”

CF: “Alright, how about some off the track business. I know you try to keep your family life private, but obviously you have a 2 year old son Brandon and girlfriend Maddie back at home. How do they cope with you being on the road every week during the season?”

GH: “Well, moving to Michigan has definitely helped that become a lot less of an issue than it would be if I still lived in Florida. Especially during this “Michigan Swing”, I’ve been able to stay at home most of the month which has been awesome instead of obviously constantly being on the road, so kudos to the ASCA for coming up with this. It sucks being separated from those two for so long during the season, but I try to take them to at least one race a month so that helps some.”

CF: “When do you think you’ll pop the question?”

GH: “Haha next question.”

CF: “Alright final question for you here. With it being Windows 300 week, after how close you came in this race last year what would a 300 win mean to you if you get the job done on Sunday?”

GH: “Man, that’s a good question. I think it would just be validation more than anything that hey, I belong here. That my team, my organization, we all belong here. For years we were considered the joke of the sport, written off by so many. And to do what we did last year…..all things considered we should’ve won this race last year had I not been an impatient moron. We definitely had the best car, that thing was a ROCKET in clean air. But Diego just outdrove me, plain and simple. Not gonna let that happen again though, the problem is I just have to pray I get another opportunity that good to win this race again.”

CF: “Well Greg, thank you for stopping by and answering all my questions. Good luck on Sunday night!”

GH: “Appreciate it, thanks again for having me.”

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Be sure to tune in to watch Greg Healey race in the 11th Annual Windows 300 on Sunday, October 27th at 8 PM EST!