NH Racing: Hampstead's Andy Seuss to try another hat: owner

AS THE CALENDAR turns to February, it’s a new beginning in the racing career of Hampstead native Andy Seuss.

After spending most of last season as the car chief for Kaulig Racing on the NASCAR Cup Series, Seuss left that post to become co-owner of an ARCA Menards Series team, which will first compete on Feb. 18 at Daytona International Speedway.

Seuss has teamed with Connecticut native, businessman and racing enthusiast Kevin Lapierre of Texas to form KLAS Motor-sports. Officially, Seuss is listed as the “team manager,” but he admits that he will wear many hats in the partnership and will do whatever it takes to be successful.

Andy Jankowiak, a western New York Modified driver who created the foundation for this team, working many nights out of Seuss’s North Carolina garage, will pilot the No. 73 car, with primary sponsorship from Whelen Engineering, which has a manufacturing facility in Charlestown.

Jankowiak just won his third “Gambler’s Classic” indoor TQ Midget race in Atlantic City on Friday, again proving his talent. They will run selected events throughout the ARCA season, with hopes of moving to bigger plans in 2024 if things progress well. Seuss is an accomplished ARCA racer himself, with 13 starts as a driver.

“We’re calling this year a dress rehearsal,” Seuss said. “I kind of agreed with Kevin that with some organization, we could become a successful entity, but it’s going to take a little bit. Over the winter, we stripped down the speedway car bare and sandblasted the chassis. Got it painted and started over.

“It was a way for me to touch every part of the car,” Seuss said. “Just a clean slate. Everything that I touched I felt like I could make it better, so it took a lot longer reassembling than I was planning. We got the chassis back from paint later than I was expecting. It was a (rush) to get it done for the January Daytona test, but I think the results spoke for themselves.”

Those January results were impressive. They turned the fastest lap of the 60 drivers entered on day one, and were sixth-best in the final practice on the second test day. With a sixth-place finish under his belt in this event last season, the 34-year-old Jankowiak appears poised to make headlines.

Despite the fact that he and Seuss will be competing against million-dollar driver development race teams at Daytona, the organizational skills, experience and leadership of Seuss is an added ingredient that Jankowiak didn’t have last year.

“The car was the fastest it has ever been down there, both in single car speed and drafting,” Seuss said. “We were towards the top of the board all day, and really happy with it. I can’t point my finger at one change we made, other than we just made each little part better as we went along.

“We were able to keep crew chief Mike Dayton, who has been helping Andy J., for the last couple of years and that was huge. He’s got great chemistry with Andy. He knows the situation he is dealing with, because Andy is quite the character as well. We’ve got some great help with Andy’s crew, Connecticut racer Nick Anglace, and my dad has always been awesome and supportive.”

Besides the fact that Seuss always loves to take on new challenges, there is more to the story of the new race team ownership, aided by the financial backing of both sponsors and co-owner Lapierre.

The hours Seuss had to work at the NASCAR Cup Series level left him unable, with one exception, to race his Modified last season. The work hours also took away from family time, which is precious because he has young children at his North Carolina home.

“That is a big part of this move,” Seuss said. “It has been a lot of work to get geared up for Daytona. I’ve had a million things going on in my life. Building a new house and shop to house this team. I’m hoping that we can come out of Daytona in one piece and by the time March rolls around I can stick my head above water and hopefully enjoy some weekends, and race the Modified.

“From a Modified standpoint, racing at Loudon is obviously very important to us. Maybe another race or two in New Hampshire and some other things, but I haven’t had time to work on that yet. It’s definitely part of the plan to go in that direction, though. I’d love to go back to Richmond (Virginia, March 31). We ran second there in an open show and I think that track suits my driving style.

“I was out of the car for a year and went to Loudon in July. Started last with no practice or qualifying (because of Cup duties) and I was in the top 10 before halfway. I’d like to think it was like riding a bike. I got after it pretty good. I definitely need to get back in better shape so that I can run every lap like it’s qualifying.”

Seuss will spend the next couple of weeks doing everything he can to help get Jankowiak, a pizza delivery driver near Buffalo, New York, in a position to realize a dream of winning at Daytona. The green flag drops on that event on Saturday, Feb. 18 (1:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1), with Seuss in the pit box, much like he was with Kaulig Racing, but this time as a part-owner of a race team.

“It’s similar to what I’ve done in the past at this level,” he said. “It takes some great volunteers, but this is my full-time job now. Kevin’s support has helped that. I enjoy being the guy that has been able to bridge the gap between Northeast Modified people and ARCA in the past few years. To compete at this level takes some extraordinary commitment. Then we will see what the future brings.”

From growing up racing go-karts at the now closed Sugar Hill Speedway in Weare to earning multiple NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour Championships, to the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Series, and now as part owner of an ARCA Series race team, Seuss has always lived life as a racer. It’s a pretty sure bet that he will continue to do that for many years to come.