Matt Janczuk crossed off one of the biggest items on his bucket list last year by winning his first Chevrolet Performance 75 title during Super DIRT Week 51 at Oswego Speedway.
Already pre-entered for the prestigious DIRTcar Sportsman event during Super DIRT Week 52 (Oct. 7-12), the Oneida, NY native will try to become the second driver to win the event in back-to-back years – the first to do so was Dave Marcuccilli, picking up wins in 2016 and 2017.
Janczuk talked about what it meant to win the Chevrolet Performance 75 in his fifth try and what it will take to win it again.
What did it mean to get your first Chevrolet Performance 75 title?
JANCZUK: It was definitely a big bucket list… I raced Syracuse once in 2006 and I wasn’t as competitive back then when we raced there, and I never got the opportunity to get back. They’ve done a job, DIRTcar has, with Oswego and making sure it has that big event feel. I think it is just a prestigious race to win and that you can have on your resume of racing, that you’ve checked it off the list, that you’ve done something not a lot of people have. It is a tough place. We’re only there once a year. Everybody is still trying to figure the place out and figure out what it needs. Oswego will also be another place in the history books.
You were the sixth consecutive different winner of the Chevrolet Performance 75. Do you think the unknowns about the track created that diversity of winners?
JANCZUK: I think so. The weather has played a little bit of a role in it too, throwing curveballs. Your time trialing and Heat racing on a slippery track and then it rains, and the track is heavy, or you’re pushed back a different day or they start off the day with leftover stuff from the day before, so it is slicker than it normally would’ve. It’s just always different. There are so many variables for what makes it different each year. I don’t know that I can pinpoint one, but that’s probably why there have been different winners. It’s just a unique place, you know?
What worked for you last year to finally win the Chevrolet Performance 75?
JANCZUK: I don’t know. We’ve just had some misfortunes. A couple years past I drove Tom Juno’s car in 2019 and clipped the inside wall and popped the tire. I think I was leading, actually. I finished second to Zach Sobotka (in 2021). I don’t know if it was our time, but it was our time. I don’t know, it’s just all the preparation in the shop. Just making sure everything is right to go there so you’re not battling break issues. There are just so many different things and hard work… We’re already working on things for Oswego with tires. I actually have the same car that we ran last year. It has been on the track since Oswego.
That car, just double-checking things with that car. We’re already preparing for Oswego.
Is that car exclusively for Oswego?
JANCZUK: No, it just worked out that way. I didn’t get to race as much this year. I decided to spend a lot of time with my family, going camping. We bought a camper and have done a lot of camping. Last night (at Devil’s Bowl Speedway) was my first night all year on Hoosiers. The car just sat there because I haven’t raced enough to really need a second car for anything. I certainly wasn’t going to use it last week to go to Utica (Rome Speedway) because it’s all ready for Oswego.
What goes into your prep for Oswego?
JANCZUK: Obviously, making sure the car is set to go, everything is tight and ready to go there. U-joints and all that stuff. Making sure everything under the hood is taken care of, the belts are all good on it. Freshen everything up, which that car only has three races on it. It’s basically brand new. Aside from that, it’s getting tires ready, all figured out, mounted up on wheels. Figure out what we’re going to need for tires, different stagger options. Then, really it is just getting stuff in the trailer.
It’s a long week of not being in the shop to have your stuff with you. You need to make sure the stuff is there with you if you need it. And making the list of stuff so when you do leave to go up – I think I usually go up on Tuesday morning – that you have everything that you need. Then, you can just focus on racing and not, ‘Did I forget something? Or I need this.’ Just everything to make your life easier when you’re at the track for the week.
Does having success at longer Sportsman races, like the 200-lap Vermont 200, help you for the Chevrolet Performance 75?
JANCZUK: I think so. I think any time you can race it helps. The Sportsman Classic at Weedsport (Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 7) is the next longest race after Oswego (at 75 laps). So, that will help having more laps.
What do you take away from the longer races that you can use for Super DIRT Week?
JANCZUK: Just getting in the rhythm of pacing yourself for the distance races, making sure your car is still there at the end. I think Devil’s Bowl (Speedway in Vermont, which hosted the Vermont 200), it’s so slippery there it certainly helps for Oswego like track conditions too.
With the way the scheduled is stagger for each division, does that help knowing you have a day to work on your car before the final night?
JANCZUK: It is nice to have that day in between of stuff, I think. It essentially creates some downtime when you’re not doing a whole lot. Like, I can go wash my tires if I want to wash them. I can prepare for the next day. Or if I want to try something, I can just go over everything again. There is so much going on there. Like I said, it is one of those tracks you only race once a year. There are lots of things going through your mind when you’re looking at the track. What is it going to do? Trying to read it. There’s asphalt underneath it, so the track changes different than most other racetracks over time because there is not the ground moisture coming up through the blacktop, essentially, like your normal Saturday night racetrack, per say. So, there are a lot of different things playing out when you’re preparing for Oswego.
With this being the only track all year where the dirt is on top of asphalt, and the conditions always changing, how do you prepare for that? Do your notes work year to year?
JANCZUK: I spend a lot of time at the Turn 3 fence, the gate. You have to watch. That’s what I’ve done. I think that’s what most people have to do is just watch and see what the track does the day before. They tend to, obviously, prep it every day, so you get a pretty good idea of how wet it was. Just kind of watch it and read it the best you can throughout that day. See what it might lead for you and what cars are on the track that day versus when you’re going to be on it. I think that’s probably the best way I would do it.
One of your sponsors is Billy Whittaker, who is, obviously, a big part of the event, being the title sponsor of the Billy Whittaker Cars 200. How cool was it to bring him to Victory Lane?
JANCZUK: I know it was exciting for him. I actually called him this morning. After the congratulations (for winning the Vermont 200 this year), it was instantly talking about Oswego. It’s just cool because he is the headline sponsor for that event for the Modifieds. He, obviously, has a whole bunch of family and friends and employees, people that are around him in his life that are there at that event. So, to be on that stage last year was really, really cool. Kind of puts a little more pressure on me to do better, to represent him. I like that too. It works out good for me.
How do you feel going into Super DIRT Week 52?
JANCZUK: I feel good. There is some more racing before getting to there. Weedsport’s Sportsman Classic is coming up. I’m really looking forward to that. Another one of my bucket list races that I haven’t won. I want to win that. We’ve been close, so looking forward to getting back to Weedsport. And possibly some other races, like the Gerald Haers Memorial at [Land of Legends Raceway on Saturday, Sept. 14]. Trying to finish out the year before getting overly focused on Oswego, other than the prep in the shop.
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