Silver Hare Focused on Road Atlanta Repeat; Connor Mosack, Boris Said Jr., Joined by TA2 Newcomer Jake Drew; Iconic HendrickCars.com Kicks Off Partnership with Said’s No. 75 Chevrolet

HIGH POINT, N.C. (March 19, 2024) – Storylines abound in the Silver Hare Racing camp as it heads to scenic Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for Saturday’s Bennett/Bridgehaul Classic, round two of the 2024 Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series, as both the defending event winner and the winner of last month’s season opener at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway.

Connor Mosack, the 25-year-old who was a TA2 championship contender in 2021 and 2022 before embarking on a mixed bag of NASCAR Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series events last year, leads this weekend’s three-car Silver Hare contingent alongside fellow 2024 fulltime teammate Boris Said Jr., who welcomes iconic HendrickCars.com as a new partner on his No. 75 Chevrolet Camaro for the remainder of the season. The weekend’s third Silver Hare entry is in the capable hands of 24-year-old Jake Drew, who will be making his TA2 Series debut after competing in a half-dozen NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events in 2023, and a 23-race slate of ARCA Menards Series outings from 2021 to 2023 that featured three road-course victories.

The team arrives at the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Road Atlanta circuit on the heels of its season-opening victory at Sebring by 2022 and 2023 fulltime driver Connor Zilisch. The 17-year-old phenom’s late-race pass in this event a year ago at Road Atlanta led to his first TA2 victory and kicked off a head-turning run of six victories over a 12-race span. While Zilisch is making his Truck Series debut this weekend at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, the momentum he and the Silver Hare team have ridden the past 10 months have Mosack, Said and Drew highly confident they can deliver a top result this weekend at Road Atlanta.

Mosack, driver of the No. 77 Silver Hare Racing/PRG Chevrolet Camaro who finished third and fourth in the 2021 and 2022 TA2 championships, respectively, will be making his fifth start at the track after recording a best finish there of fourth in 2021. He qualified on the pole the following year but saw his race day end prematurely after an accident on a midrace restart. In the two weekends following his 11th-place finish at Sebring last month, Mosack finished 19th in the Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a Niece Motorsports Chevrolet, and a solid fourth in the rain-shortened ARCA race at Phoenix Raceway in his Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet, which featured Silver Hare Racing on the hood of his racecar.

Said, the son of veteran NASCAR and sportscar racer Boris Said, will be sporting the blue-and-white colors of HendrickCars.com for the first of 11 races this season. It’s an identical scheme to the one his father will sport in his 150th and final NASCAR race – dating back to 1995 – in the June 8 Xfinity Series race at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.

“Obviously it goes without saying that I’m incredibly excited and thankful for the opportunity,” said the 20-year-old native of Escondido, California, whose 14th career TA2 race and first with Silver Hare at Sebring last month netted a ninth-place result. “It’s really good for the team, it’s good for the series, it’s really going to elevate everything for everybody involved.”

“What an honor it is for Silver Hare Racing to be affiliated with such a prestigious, well-known name in the racing community,” added Silver Hare co-owner Laura Hull. “We look forward to building our relationship and adding to the countless successes the Hendrick name has come to be known for.”

Drew, a native of Fullerton, California, steps into the No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro for his first taste of TA2 racing and of the Road Atlanta circuit this weekend. He tested with the High Point, North Carolina-based team at its home track, Virginia International Raceway in Alton, earlier this month and proved to be a quick study. Exceling on a road course turned out to be no surprise, however, evidenced by his two ARCA West victories at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway and one at Sonoma in 2022. He’s looking to further enhance his road-course race craft with the Silver Hare team running a handful of TA2 events this season.

Saturday’s round two of the 2024 TA2 season is set for 12:45 p.m. EDT with live television coverage by MAVTV, augmented by live streaming video on the Trans Am and SpeedTour channels on YouTube. MAVTV will also broadcast a 60-minute race highlight show at 8 p.m. EDT on March 28.

Silver Hare Racing leverages its Trans Am effort to promote its arrive-and-drive program, where aspiring racers and even tenured professionals hone their road-racing skills on some of the most revered tracks in North America. NASCAR Cup Series drivers Daniel Suárez, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Harrison Burton have all wheeled Silver Hare Racing-prepared cars to burnish their road-racing abilities in top-flight equipment.

The team offers six, professionally built and maintained TA2 chassis from Howe Racing for both competition and private testing. Silver Hare Racing has a dedicated, fulltime crew and operates out of a state-of-the-art facility in High Point, North Carolina. At the track, two 53-foot Featherlite transporters serve as the team’s base, each outfitted with a lounge and smart TVs for data and video review, as well as for hospitality.

To further Silver Hare Racing’s driver development capabilities, the team’s race shop in High Point is now equipped with a SHOCKWAVE Simulator, a tool specifically developed for drivers to accelerate racetrack familiarity, improve car control and confidence, and build stamina. SHOCKWAVE has been involved in racing since 1965 and is currently actively participating in NASCAR, ARCA, Trans Am, Late Models, and Sprint cars. Its Trans Am package replicates a Howe Racing TA2 chassis, complete with cockpit controls and sounds.

“With NASCAR having so many more road-course races, it’s our goal for Silver Hare Racing to be the preferred team for drivers to get that road-course experience,” said Laura Hull, Silver Hare Racing co-owner and team manager. “We want to be that important step in the ladder for the young, up-and-coming drivers like Connor. We want people to know we have an arrive-and-drive program, where for people who want to run this track or another, we provide the opportunity to do that and be successful.”

Connor Mosack, driver, No. 77 Silver Hare Racing/PRG Chevrolet Camaro:

Your first race with Silver Hare is in the rearview mirror. What are your thoughts as you head to Road Atlanta for round two of the 2024 season?

“Road Atlanta is one of my favorites, for sure, of any kind of track I’ve been to. It hasn’t been great to me, finish-wise, even though my first year there we had a shot at a top-two or three before I had something break, then we had a top-five the next year while we were still trying to figure the place out. The last time I was there, we were on the pole and set the track record that still stands, but a mistake on my part kind of gave away the lead and then I was in a hurry to get it back and got myself in trouble. I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a driver since then and hopefully haven’t lost any of the speed there, so I feel good going into the weekend and excited to get back at it. Silver Hare is still kind of a new team for me, but I feel like the cars have a lot of speed, and obviously with (Connor) Zilisch winning at Sebring, and having won this race last year, I’m looking forward to seeing what we’ll do this weekend.”

What is it that makes you so fond of Road Atlanta?

“To me, what I love about Road Atlanta so much is it has a lot of high-speed, high-commitment corners that are also blind or can be blind, which I think is just a different style of driving than traditional places. Turn one is not super blind, but it’s high-speed, high-commitment, it’s easy to make a mistake there. Then you get up to turn three where it’s completely blind, but you can make a lot of lap time there getting in and where you’re able to pass, and that leads into the esses, with two more blind corners, and it’s just an area you really have to focus on having your car set up for but also be able to do it well and consistently throughout the race – especially if you’re behind cars or in traffic, it can make things really difficult. But it’s got slow corners after the long straightaways, which for a normal corner is one of my favorites, and then you have the blind section over the hill into the last corner, which is really high-speed. You can’t quite go wide open in a Trans Am car but it’s really close, and I feel like when you go through there well, it’s one of the best-feeling corners that we go to.”

After the TA2 season opener at Sebring, you headed west to Las Vegas and Phoenix for back-to-back race weekends in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series, respectively. How did those experiences go for you, particularly the ARCA race, which featured Silver Hare Racing on the hood of your Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet?

“The Truck race at Vegas was my first on a mile-and-a-half type of track, and first in that series in a couple of years, so I spent my time getting used to the truck and figuring out what I needed balance-wise. And by the time we figured that out, it was toward the end of Stage 2 and we were just too tight and behind where we needed to be. But I do feel like overall it was a pretty good race and we’ll be way better going back to the next one. Then the following weekend at Phoenix, where we had Silver Hare on the hood of the ARCA car, we had a good top-five run and were able to compete for the win, which was good considering we had an engine issue in qualifying and had to start pretty deep in the field and it just took us a while to get where we needed to be. Plus, the race got shortened by 35 laps because of rain. If we could’ve gone back to racing, anything can happen on those late-race restarts, so we maybe could’ve competed for the win there.”

Boris Said Jr., driver, No. 75 HendrickCars.com/Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro:

Talk about what the new HendrickCars.com partnership means to you, and the fact your racecar will mimic the scheme your dad will be sporting in his final NASCAR race in June.

“For me, I’m just super excited for the opportunity and everything that goes with it. It’ll be really cool to have the same scheme as my dad will for his last NASCAR race in the HendrickCars.com Xfinity Series car at Sonoma in June. It’s the same kind of excitement and emotion we had during my first TA2 race – we were both racing in the same race and that was pretty special.”

This will be your second TA2 race at Road Atlanta. What are your thoughts about that racetrack?

“I’ve been there in Spec Miatas a few times, too. It’s a fun track, especially in the TA2 cars. I like it because there are not a lot of slow corners, the elevation is fun. I’d definitely call it one of the top-five U.S. tracks. It’s a lot of fun to me. It’s a very fast track, like Sebring in that respect, and that’s what suits me the best.”

What was your first weekend like with the Silver Hare team at Sebring last month?

“I felt like our first race together went pretty well. It’s a different car, so it took me a little bit of time to get used to it, to get accustomed to it. The operations with the team, the flow of everything, was awesome. I couldn’t have asked for anything more there. I feel like we’re just going to continue to build on that at Road Atlanta and the races that follow.”

Jake Drew, driver, No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro:

What brings you to Silver Hare Racing?

“Really, it was just a matter of looking for opportunities. I’m longtime friends with Connor (Zilisch) and we knew there would be some races available, and knowing what great people the whole Silver Hare organization is, we got with Laura and Maurice (Hull) and decided to tackle the races that we can and try to get some really good finishes.”

You tested with the team at VIR earlier this month. How did that go for you?

“I immediately felt at home. I was able to do two sessions at VIR. The first session there was a lot of traffic and I didn’t feel totally comfortable in the car. The second session, there were more clean laps and I was really starting to have fun and I came out with a big smile on my face. We went back home and I spent a day up at the shop getting fitted in the car, hanging out with the guys, going out to lunch, and like I said, I really felt at home. I’m just really excited about what we can do this year. I’d love to bring home a win, but I just want to keep bringing in solid finishes and clean cars.”

What was your first impression of the TA2 car after racing in ARCA and the NASCAR Truck Series?

“I expected it to be much more similar to an ARCA car on a road course. I was very shocked and surprised at how rigid they are, how much more performance they have under braking, gripping the corners and everything, so I’m excited to push the boundaries of what I thought was possible in a stock car on a road course. This weekend, my approach will be kind of the same as always, that I’m not going to overstep my boundaries. That’s rule number one for me, don’t beat yourself. I’m going to do the best I can and I’m pretty confident in my abilities that it’ll be good enough for a very strong finish. I know the car will be good and I know everybody will be behind me 100 percent of the way. All the prep work, I feel, is helping a ton, so we should be able to hit the ground running on Thursday.”

-Silver Hare Racing-