Philip Morris - Young (And Fast) Enough

That support includes a stint in the Busch Series that Morris credits with helping mold him into the champion he is today.

"That was probably my biggest learning curve experience in racing," says Morris. "Not so much because of the tracks and the radial tires and the aerodynamics, but just from being introduced to the commercial side of NASCAR. That was overwhelming to me, because up until the point I started winning track championships at the local level, it had been all about performance and all about winning races. Then, when I get to Rockingham for my first Busch race, I start to see and I start to learn that there's a lot more to racing than just the performance side and horsepower and torque and handling. There's another whole subject I have to learn, and it's Marketing 101.

"That's not something I focused on while I was in college, so I was a fish out of water, especially for the first five Busch races I ran."

The Busch record shows 12 starts from the Rockingham debut in 1998 through 2001. Morris never caught a full-time ride in the series, but he says that experience made him a better racer. His record supports the notion, as six of his seven championships have come since the Busch debut.

"Coming from the Busch Series and going back to the Weekly Racing Series, my expectation was much, much higher for myself, because I had looked at it from a higher level, then I had to come back to this level," says Morris. "I came back to it in 2001 kind of with a vengeance. Anything less than Victory Lane was going to be a huge disappointment."

He subsequently claimed a championship in the Blue Ridge Region of the Dodge Weekly Series and a track title at Motor Mile Speedway in 2001; a track title at South Boston in 2003; another at Motor Mile in 2005; and the national title, the 13 victories, and a repeat championship at Motor Mile last season.

And after more than two decades of hard work and success in short track racing-sprinkled with a stint in the big leagues-Morris' philosophy remains as basic as, well, biscuits and gravy.

"You're driven inside [with the thought]," he says, "that, look, you deserve it and you need to make sure you're in Victory Lane every week."

Philip Morris began racing Late Models in 1993 and he's competed on some of the most competitive and historic tracks in the Southeast-South Boston, Old Dominion, and Motor Mile speedways in Virginia, and several tracks in North Carolina. With a 20-year career that's produced 172 feature wins on both dirt and asphalt, his perspective on short track racing is rich and broad.

So when he comments on the level of competition in local racing today, particularly Late Models, he speaks with conviction backed by experience.

"With our cars, you can't let your guard down even for a second," says Morris.

There are two primary factors at play, according to Morris. During his 13 years in Late Models, he says he has seen the division get both younger in terms of driving talent and more prosperous in terms of the number of competitive teams.

"It's quite a bit tougher now," Morris says. "That's because there are more teams that are financially able to compete, and even some of them could compete at the Busch level, but they're running Late Model Stocks. These younger guys are getting started with a better understanding of marketing and how to market themselves and how to be able to pull in corporate dollars to a smaller weekly racing series program."

Young drivers are simply getting into top equipment earlier, he says, echoing a trend that has trickled down from the top levels of the sport.

Last year's Dodge Weekly Racing champion was Peyton Sellers, who at age 21 was the youngest driver ever to claim the title. In 2004, 34-year-old Greg Persley won the championship, and Mark McFarland was 25 when he won in 2003.

"[The sport getting younger is] something that has made it so competitive anywhere you go in the Weekly Racing Series," says Morris. "That's why it's so tough to win and why veteran drivers at any one racetrack that might be their final place of competition get beat by some young guy who's just throwing caution to the wind on every lap."

NASCAR counts the top 16 finishes for each driver in the Dodge Weekly Series championship race. Bonus points are earned based on the number of cars in a particular race. In fields of between 15 and 20 cars, each driver earns 10 bonus points. When 21 or more cars are entered, 20 bonus points are awarded each driver. Morris earned the '06 title by claiming 13 wins and three runner-up finishes, bringing a two-point victory over Second-Place Joe Kosiski of Omaha, Nebraska.