Casey Carden figures to have a busy weekend by running both the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Watkins Glen International. He has joined Rise Motorsports for the former while hoping to make his début in the latter with CHK Racing‘s #74 Chevrolet Camaro.
“I am very thankful that Mike Harmon has given me the opportunity to try to qualify for the Xfinity race at Watkins Glen and that Reel Racing has come aboard to support me for this race,” said Carden. “I’m hoping my road course background and ARCA experience will help me make the show as I live the dream this Saturday.”
Carden began competing in stock cars in 2022 as an ARCA road course ringer with Clubb Racing, and ran his first oval race at Elko in June with the team followed by IRP last Friday. He retired from all but one of his five starts for Clubb, with the lone finish being a fifteenth at the 2022 Watkins Glen event. The starts are intended to set him up for a full campaign in 2024.
Prior to ARCA, he was a sports car racer in Lamborghini Super Trofeo and the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. He also runs a team in the American Endurance Racing Series.
“We are pleased to have Carden in our CHK Racing’s #74 Chevrolet Camaro during the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen,” commented CHK owner Mike Harmon. “Carden has experience in road courses in the ARCA series and will be a great strength for us.”
CHK Racing hopes Carden can turn their luck around, especially on road courses. The team has struggled to qualify in 2023, having made only four of the sixteen races they entered and missed the show at both road races they entered in Austin and Chicago. Harmon, Dawson Cram, Kaden Honeycutt, Baltazar Leguizamón, and Ryan Vargas have all attempted races in the #74 with Cram making three and holding its best finish to date of twenty-eighth at Michigan.
“It will be a tall order to make the show with no prior experience in an Xfinity car, but there is no quit in me and we will show up determined to give it our all and live the dream,” wrote Carden on social media.
