Austin Vaughn from Burnsville, Miss., will make his first appearance in the ARCA Menards Series East, driving the #34 Ford Fusion for VWV Racing. After starting in the main ARCA Menards Series at DuQuoin last year, Vaughn will be setting his sights on the home of the Snowball Derby, Five Flags Speedway, located in Pensacola, FL. Vaughn is looking to continue his transition to the pavement and move up through the rankings as time goes on while also hoping to use his performance as a proving ground.
Vaughn comes from a dirt racing background, having competed in multiple series such as the Crate Racin’ USA Weekly Racing Series and the Tri-State Open Wheel Modified Series. He’s raced at dirt tracks such as North Alabama Speedway and Tennessee National Raceway. As part of his transition to pavement racing, he ran a successful test for Lee Faulk Racing and then competed in the Grand National Super Series for Larry Wilcox Racing, where he finished 5th at Lonesome Pine International Raceway. Vaughn also got the opportunity to be one of the youngest to test at the annual ARCA Daytona test session in January, where he tested the #00 Toyota with the fastest lap of 55.396 seconds around the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
For the race, Vaughn was originally supposed to drive the #24, but had to switch to #34 as the 24 was taken by another team. Vaughn will also not be alone out of the VWV Racing brigade as the team will also be fielding a 2nd car, the #00, for fellow rookie Corey Aiken. Aiken comes from a road racing and endurance background and also has served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Aiken also tested back at Daytona in the #00 with the team. Having a teammate for this race should give Vaughn plenty of help in the field.
The team and Vaughn are hoping to run all the laps and keep the car clean, and bring it back home the way it arrived. Vaughn is also filing for the Bounty Rookie Challenge as he is hoping to compete full-time in the East Series and potentially some Main Series events as well. The team is seeking sponsorship in order to be able to run the rest of the East Series with Vaughn driving. The team will also be fielding the #00 in multiple Main and East events with multiple drivers, such as Aiken driving. Austin Vaughn is hoping to continue moving up the NASCAR ladder and eventually reach the NASCAR Cup Series, but it all has to start on the local short and dirt tracks for him. Vaughn will be going up against various other competitors at Five Flags, such as Max Reaves, Tyler Reif, Timmy Hill, Zachary Tinkle, and Isaac Kitzmiller, amongst many others. The Pensacola 150 at Five Flags Speedway, which opens the 2025 ARCA Menards Series East calendar, will begin on Saturday, March 22 at 8:30 PM ET/7:30 PM CT, airing on FloRacing.
Image Credit: VWV Racing