| Fleming Hoping 2008 Will Be His Breakthrough Season | 
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Veteran NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour driver Frank Fleming (No. 07 Patterson Automotive/ProHealth Care Pontiac) has won a lot of races and championships throughout his career, but the popular 48 year-old Mount Airy, N.C., driver is still in search of his first career Whelen Southern Modified Tour victory.
There’s not another team or driver in the garage area that doesn’t think Fleming will snap his winless streak in the very near future, possibly as soon as Saturday night’s 150-lapper at the famed Greenville-Pickens Speedway.
“We’re getting pretty close to finally winning one of these races,” Fleming said. “It really goes back to the way we finished off last season with three second-place finishes in the last four races and the other race, we finished third. We’re starting to lead a lot of laps and that’s very important in this business. If we can lead laps and finish in the top five, like we’ve been doing, we should win a race sooner or later.
“We got the season off to a great start by leading some laps at Caraway a couple weeks ago. I made some changes to the car in the off-season trying to make it better and anytime you make changes like that, you can either get better or worse. I think I made it a little worse so we, as a team, know we need to go back in another direction.”
Fleming admits that coming so close to winning a race only to finish a close second has been somewhat frustrating.
“I’m 48 years old and I’m now in my 28th year of racing so I got kind of a late start,” Fleming said. “I’ve had a great career as being pretty much a Saturday night racer. I’ve won a lot of races in about every kind of racing I’ve ever done except the Whelen Southern Modified Tour. I made the comment several years ago that I was going to race until I turned 50, but I’ll be 49 this summer so I may have to extend that a little bit.
“To finally win a Whelen Southern Modified Tour race really would be the icing on the cake for me.”
In fact, Fleming’s goals are a little bit more than just winning a race.
“Winning the Whelen Southern Modified Tour championship is a possibility if I can get my car running as competitively as we were in the last half of the season last year,” Fleming said. “To have a chance at winning the championship, I’ve got to keep finishing these races and being consistent. I know I’m still competitive and can win one of these races. I’ve just got to keep putting together consistent finishes so I can put myself in the best position. I know I’m going to win one of these races sooner or later. It’s been tough to be so close to winning but not being able to finish off the deal so far. If I don’t win a race this year, I will be disappointed. My time is going to come.”
Would finally winning a Whelen Southern Modified Tour race be the highlight of Fleming’s racing career?
“I don’t know because I’ve won a lot of races and all of them were special to me,” Fleming answered. “It’s been like six or seven years since I’ve won one of these races. If I can win a race here pretty soon, I’d probably act like it was the biggest win of my career. I’d be tickled to death. All the wins I’ve had in my career were special for different reasons. To win a race with it now being NASCAR-sanctioned and with the support that the Tour gets from Whelen, yes, it would be very special to me.”
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