Crew chief Brian Zyck fist pumps Joey Amantea after winning the USAC East Coast Sprint Cars feature last Saturday at Delaware International Speedway in Delmar. It was a learning year for Amantea, as he raced 24 times with the USAC Amsoil Sprint Car National Championship.
“We ran with the USAC national guys this year — ran well, made half of the Indiana Sprint Week,” said Amantea, of Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. “We went to Smackdown at Kokomo Speedway and made the show — that was awesome.”
Amantea paired up with his veteran crew chief last season. Zyck had won the 2021 USAC East Coast Sprint Cars championship with Alex Bright.
“Brian observes things that I don’t see, and teaches me what I did or didn’t do right,” Amantea said. “He can observe how the car reacts and what I do on the track, and we can make adjustments from there. He is an incredible set of eyes outside of the racetrack — something we needed.”
Racing with the USAC national touring series drivers taught Amantea lessons, too.
“The national drivers taught me … how much better I needed to be at race craft — by which I mean what I need to do in the car to put myself in the correct spot on the track for success,” said Amantea. “I learned by racing with drivers like Brady Bacon, Justin Grant and Logan Seavey. Locally, racing with Alex Bright and Briggs Danner helped me become better.”
After a season of learning, Joey Amantea put that education to use at Delaware International Speedway.
“I learned how much harder I can drive the car without overstepping my limits and the car’s limits,” Amantea said. “This showed in the Delaware win. We were much faster than the other cars and had a substantial lead. That’s because racing nationally made me a much better race car driver.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
