For the third time, A.J. Hicks has won the Rick Hendrick City Chevrolet/Chevrolet Performance: Vehicles, Parts Racing AAS Weekly Series Presented by PPM Racing Products championship. Much of those points came at his home track, Kentucky’s Willard Speedway. There he won 10 features this past season.
“From my mom’s and dad’s house, where I grew up, it’s less than a mile [to the track],” said Hicks, of Grayson, Kentucky. “Where I am now, I can be there in 10 minutes. We stayed at home more than usual because of fuel prices. And my mom and dad [who promote Willard Speedway] pour their heart and soul into that place, and I wanted to support them.”
You might think that the many wins and championships at Willard Speedway comes as the result of many laps there. If so, you’re right. However, there are no weekly test sessions as one might think.
“People might think [we test often at Willard], but we can’t burn fuel and it’s hard on equipment,” Hicks said. “We just can’t do that.”
Instead, the years of attending races at Willard Speedway — and then racing there — have paid off dividends for Hicks.
“It gets really slick,” said Hicks of Willard Speedway. “411 [Motor Speedway in Tennessee] is a clean slick, Willard is a dirty slick. It’s a track that’s really hard to get a hold of because it doesn’t clean up like at 411. There are certain places where the track will change throughout the night and being there every week that really helps me out when the tour comes in because they don’t know what the track’s going to do like I do.”
Nevertheless, as dominant as Hicks has been at Willard Speedway, the American All-Stars Weekly Series didn’t come easy. Willard Speedway closed for resurfacing for the month of September. Hicks won by 16 points over Eddie Hambrick.
If you think A.J. Hicks is a one-track wonder, think again. He also won at two other Kentucky tracks — Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside and Rockcastle Speedway in Mount Vernon. He also won an American All-Star Series touring race at Willard Speedway.
Hicks would like to travel the entire circuit for the Dirt2Media American All-Star Series Presented by PPM Racing Products. That’s his goal for 2024.
“I tell Joe [Rush, series director for the American All-Star Series] every year that I’ll run [the tour],” Hicks said. “I told him again it’s a 50/50 shot. We’ll see.”
Outside Groove Note of Transparency: Outside Groove is a sponsor of the American All-Star Series. The American All-Star Series paid for the production of this article. The content was not subject to the approval of the American All-Star Series.
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
