RPW Exclusive: Brett Haas Shines In Devil’s Bowl King Of Dirt 358-Mod Series Event

Column By: DYLAN FRIEBEL / RPW – WEST HAVEN, VT – When the 358-Modifieds rolled into Devil’s Bowl Speedway on Sunday for the King Of Dirt Series event, many regulars were in attendance, along with a few ‘invaders.’ One of those outsiders was Pittsfield, MA-native Brett Haas.

Brett races the DIRTcar 358-Modified on a weekly basis at the high banks of Lebanon Valley Speedway. A week ago, Brett and his crew circled this race on the schedule and said “Lets just go racing.” Despite having what he calls a “skeleton crew,” all hands were on deck on Sunday.

“We don’t have everyone we normally do.” Haas said. “However, it’s awesome to have my mom and dad be hands on week in and week out. Between them, my fiance, Abby, and our crew we have on a weekly basis, we always have help at the track. It’s a family effort for us.”

Despite the smaller team on Sunday, it was a successful night for the Mildred Elley No. 55 which opened the eyes of many…including those of King Of Dirt promoter, Rob Hayes.

“Brett did great tonight,” Hayes said. “For have never even seeing the track before tonight, I have to give him props.”

The night started out good for Haas. While having not changed his setup much from Lebanon Valley other than a different gear and some tire prep, he was fast right out of the trailer. After time trials, Brett’s dad, Adam, talked with Brett about how to improve for the heat race.

“He told me we need to make some major setup changes to find some speed,” Haas said of his father. “He was like ‘we’re only fifth quickest.”

Everyone’s faces lit up and it was high fives all around.

With Brett timing so well, he locked himself into the night’s 67-lap main event and the redraw. However he decided to go out behind the D-main qualifier and run a handful of laps. After running only six laps, he pulled in discussed setups with his father and went to work preparing a brand new left rear tire for the feature.

As the redraw drew closer, Brett went into the stands to watch hot laps and learn what he could rather than go out. He would find it a war of attrition with tricky track conditions and the decision to skip the practice session might have paid off.

Brett’s fiance, Abby, drew seventh for the feature and he knew it was a long race. He had a fast enough car and could work his way up to the front.

As the feature rolled off and the green flag flew, Brett got hung out to dry on the outside and fell back to 12th position early in the going. As the red flag flew for a nasty wreck on the frontstretch, Brett had worked his way back up to the top 10.

The next 17 circuits went green and the #55 kept marching forward at a methodical pace. About 20 laps later he was in the top 5.

After a myriad of cautions plagued the middle portion of the feature, the race went clean and green for the last seven and Brett came home with a solid sixth place finish.

Pulling into his pit after the main, it was nothing but smiles and happiness from the crew and Brett himself.

“We had a good car tonight,” he said. “We were fast right out of the gate. It was a tough race tonight and we just kept our nose clean and tried to be there at the end.”

Brett was even more excited on how things went in his maiden voyage at the Vermont oval.

“For having limited laps here, this team did a pretty good job,” he said. “We had no notes to go off of so I’m more than happy. The track conditions were a bit tough but everyone else in the field had to deal with them as well. To have gone from never seeing the track before to almost pulling off a top 5 is amazing.”

Haas knows the King of Dirt fields are tough every time they hit the track, and Sunday night was no exception.

“I got passed on the last restart, but this isn’t a slouch of a field,” he said. “I’m more than happy with the results we came away with tonight.”

Brett and his crew proved Sunday night at Devil’s Bowl why he’s one of the areas top 358-Modified drivers. They have seemed to hit a sweet spot at Lebanon Valley, a track they are currently third in points at behind two guys named Tremont and Bachetti. Be on the lookout for this young racer during the rest of the 2018 season and many years to come.