Dippel Ready To Tackle K&N Pro Series East Opener

Story By: MARK RETTE / RETTE JONES RACING – NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL – After a busy offseason, Rette Jones Racing (RJR) is ready to embrace their sophomore season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (NKNPSE) tour with their newest driver of the No. 30 Ford Fusion.

Welcome To The Team: In December, Rette Jones Racing proudly announced the addition of Tyler Dippel to the team’s lineup. Dippel, a native of Wallkill, New York transitions to Rette Jones Racing from HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks, where the rising phenom scored his first career victory at Mobile (Ala.) International Speedway last March after starting fifth.

Dippel finished his rookie season third in points with one top-five and eight top-10 finishes.

Getting Deep on Dippel: Dippel, 16, will enter his sophomore season following a year of big block modified competition in 2015, where he became the youngest winner in the northeast area, while also earning Rookie of the Year honors in the DIRTcar Northeast Series. Dippel began his racing career at the age of seven, racing slingshot race cars, considered scaled down versions of dirt modifieds.

Dippel made his first full-size stock car start on asphalt in 2014. In 2015, he held the PASS Super Late Model national points lead throughout the season until the season finale, when a mechanical failure ended his race early. Additionally, he made three starts in the ARCA Racing Series, with a career-best of fourth at the tough Salem (Ind.) Speedway in Sept. driving for Lira Motorsports.

Double Duty: In addition to making his Rette Jones Racing debut on Sunday in the Jet Tools 150, Dippel will partake in Speedweeks 2016 by competing in his No. 32 D and A Concrete Contractor / TYCAR Trenchless Technologies Late Model on Friday night.

Currently, Friday night’s short feature is the only Late Model event planned for Dippel in the Sunshine State. Dippel’s efforts will be led by RJR co-owner Mark Rette who hopes to use the extra seat time to give his promising driver an edge in Sunday night’s season-opener.

Busy All Around: Rette Jones Racing will not only be busy at New Smyrna Speedway this weekend. In addition to their responsibilities with Dippel, the team will also be competing at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, where team co-owner Terry Jones will compete in the ARCA Racing Series season-opener in the Lucas Oil Complete Engine Treatment 200 driven by General Tire with support from marketing partners Buck Twenty and Nortrax.

Rules, Rules, Rules: With the start of the 2017 season has promoted to NASCAR to make a few rule adjustments for the year. Starting with the K&N Pro Series East opener at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway on Sunday, Feb. 19, NASCAR announced the move to group qualifying on ovals. There will be single-car qualifying at select events. Qualifying groups will be set by practice times.

Additionally, the K&N Pro Series East will switch from a green-white-checkered finish to an overtime line for its races. The location of the line will be determined on a track-by-track basis, and will typically be entering Turn 3 on ovals. If the event goes past the advertised distance due to a caution, on the restart, if the leaders reach the overtime line before another caution comes out, it will be considered official. If the caution comes out prior, the race will have another restart.

Meet Tyler: Dippel will meet and greet race fans during the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East autograph session on Sunday, February 19 at 6:30 p.m. on the frontstretch at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway.

New Partners: While welcoming back several Rette Jones Racing marketing partners this season, the Mooresville, North Carolina-based team is proud to announce the addition of Ford Performance and JRI Shocks to their platform in 2017.

Known as Ford Motor Company’s new halo brand, Ford Performance is a recently created new division that unifies SVT, RS and Ford Racing as a single, cohesive and comprehensive global brand. Ford Performance will serve as a technical partner for Dippel and RJR this season.

Joining Ford Performance as a new technical partner is JRI Shocks. JRI will provide the race weekend shocks for Dippel and RJR supplying the latest shock technology available to their Motorsports platforms.

Sponsorship Lineup: In addition to D and A Concrete Contractor and TYCAR Trenchless Technologies serving as the title marketing partners for the opening round of the season, Rette Jones Racing also welcomes Jones Group International, J-AAR Excavating, Goodridge Fluid Transfer Systems and Russo’s Tinting as associate partners for the first short track race of 2017.

They join Ford Performance and JRI who join RJR as technical partners this season.

RJR is co-owned by successful entrepreneur and race car driver Terry Jones.

New Smyrna Speedway Fast Fact: Opened in 1964, New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway has 600-foot straightaways, 720-foot turns with 23 degrees of banking. The 0.48-mile banked oval was repaved in January 2007 and has a grandstand capacity of approximately 8,000. Additionally, the track is part of the weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.

Stay Social With Tyler: For more information on Tyler Dippel, please check out TylerDippel.com, his Facebook page (Tyler Dippel Racing) or on Instagram @tylerdippel.

Dippel tweets too. Follow him @Tyler_Dippel.

Chassis Intel: Mark Rette, crew chief and co-owner of Rette Jones Racing has elected to bring chassis number 003 to the 0.48-mile paved oval this weekend. This Ford Fusion is a brand-new racecar. The team tested this automobile at Motor Mile (Va.) Speedway last month where the team was pleased with the overall test session.

Rette Jones Racing, New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway, Pre-Race Quotes:

Tyler Dippel, driver of the No. 30 D and A Concrete Contractor / TYCAR Trenchless Technologies Ford:

On Joining Rette Jones Racing: “I’m super excited about this opportunity with Rette Jones Racing this season. This is a great chance for me to get better as a driver while working with a team that is focused and driven on winning. Everyone’s been great to work with and I’m ready to get on the track and get going.”

On Preseason Testing: “The car was really quick. The biggest thing that I think I learned during the test was just how responsive the car was to changes. That’s a good feeling for me as a driver and that has me excited to get to New Smyrna.”

On Group Qualifying At New Smyrna: “I heard that NASCAR is changing some procedures this season and group qualifying is one of those. As a driver, I think this new format will help me. I’m not always going to have a perfect lap each race in qualifying, but this group-style format allows me a couple chances to get it right and earn a strong starting spot and hopefully win the race.”

On New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway: “It’s a pretty unique track. Handling and tire management are two major components I feel are needed in order to have a good run. My team had a very quick car at New Smyrna last year and I’m hoping we’ll be able to pick up where they left off and we can come out of the box contending for the win.”

Rette Jones Racing, New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway, Pre-Race Quotes:

Mark Rette, crew chief, co-owner and mentor of the No. 30 D and A Concrete Contractor / TYCAR Trenchless Technologies Ford:

On Tyler Dippel Joining Rette Jones Racing: “There aren’t words to describe how excited we are to have Tyler (Dippel) in our race car this season. He was so consistent, smooth and fast last season. I feel he’ll be a great addition to the team and he has the potential to not only contend for the championship, but win a lot of races too. It’s going to be a good year at Rette Jones Racing.”

On New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway: “Based on the speed our car had in this event last year, we’re feeling pretty good about returning. I think with Tyler’s capabilities and his motivation to win right away, we have high hopes to execute a strong performance on Sunday night and get the year off on the right foot.”