J.R. Patton, the 2003 NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series rookie of the year, will make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut in Sin City Saturday night for the Las Vegas 350. Patton, who celebrated his 21st birthday last week, will drive the #66 Fiddle Back Racing Ford for the event. “This has been a long time coming,” Patton said. “I’ve been racing since I was 9 years old in sprint cars, late models and go-karts against some of the biggest names in the sport, like Kevin Harvick, Ken Schrader, and Kasey Kahne. To finally get an opportunity to race in the best racing series in the country, thoughMan, I haven’t been able to wipe the grin off my face since I first set foot in the Fiddle Back Racing office. This is huge for me and I want to thank the guys at Fiddle Back for giving me this chance.”
Like many young racers, Patton was desperate to find an opportunity to race competitively in NASCAR. One night, he and his dad stayed up all night going through all the racing websites he could find, sending e-mails to those teams, hoping for a response. About a week later, he got one. Of all the e-mails I sent out, I only received one response and from Diamond III LLC (www.diamond3.net) in St. Louis,” said Patton. “After that,” he continued, “Lloyd Wideman, the president of Diamond III LLC, gave me a call and we immediately began working on finding a team. My dad and I really felt they could help me and we haven’t been disappointed.”
“Fiddle Back Racing is very excited about JR driving the #66 truck this weekend in Las Vegas,” stated Brian Jones, PR and marketing manager at Fiddle Back. “JR has been working in the shop for the past couple of weeks and has shown he is very knowledgeable of the racing business. I believe JR is a great choice to try to put a full time ride together for in 2005, I believe JR and David (Ragan, driver of the #67) would make good teammates,” stated team owner Tom Eldredge.(Fiddleback Racing PR)(9-23-2004)
