Strong desire to race brings Buck to the Sooner Late Model Series

By John Rittenoure - TULSA, Okla. (May 28, 2026) - Ashlee Buck has a strong desire to drive a race car. A desire so strong that Ashlee and her father make the drive from their home in Roswell, New Mexico to race with the Sooner Late Model Series.

A routine racing trip for the Bucks is at least eight hours. Many times eight hours is not even close. That was evident after a recent visit to Humboldt, Kansas.

“We are from Southeast New Mexico,” said Ashlee. “It was 13 hours to Humboldt. Enid is about 8 hours.”

The 19-year old is in her first full season of late model racing and is contending for Rookie of the Year honors with the Sooner Series.

“This is our first full season in the late models,” Ashlee said. “It is a big learning curve. I raced a stock car the year before and have raced factory stock, and limited mods.”

Ashlee is quickly becoming comfortable with the handling of her late model. Early in the season Ashley picked up a 5th place finish followed by a 4th place in the seasons first two events at Enid Speedway.

“We are feeling good,” Ashlee said. “We have learned a lot. We just have to keep our momentum, mostly making sure the car is set to go in the corner and trusting it. It is a lot faster and everything is a lot different. This is the hardest I have had to drive anything.”

There are race tracks closer to their New Mexico home than Enid Speedway, However, the lack of competition has sent the Bucks on the road.

“Our home track is Vado and they have a weekly class and only average about 8 cars,” Ashlee explained. “We wanted to get out and the racing is much better here and we like the people and everything over here.

“We want to keep improving and moving forward.”

When not racing Ashlee attends college and has participated in various school sports. But the lure of dirt track racing won out.

“I am a sophomore at West Texas A&M,” Ashlee said. “We just finished our year so we are out on summer break.

“I grew up playing basketball and softball in high school and a little bit of volleyball.  My dad always raced and owned and managed the drag strip in Roswell. Ever since I could remember I have been out there. Once I got big enough to drive he had a Camaro and he let me hot lap it.”

From that moment on Ashlee knew what she wanted to do.

“One day I said, dad, this is kind of boring,” Ashlee recalled. “He was always torn between dirt racing and drag racing. I said, lets try the dirt racing so he sold the Camaro and got us a sport mod. He raced it and I raced a mini stock for a couple years then moved up to factory stock.”

And now the need for speed has Ashlee behind the wheel of the 8B late model and racing for Rookie of the Year honors.