Everidge Set for Historic NASCAR Debut, Redbud 400 Doubleheader
Anderson, Indiana. – For Cassten Everidge, the weekend ahead represents more than just another race weekend.
It is the culmination of years of racing, countless late nights, tough finishes and moments when he questioned whether continuing in the sport was worth it.
Now, Everidge is preparing for the biggest weekend of his racing career.
On Friday, the Stroh, Indiana, native will make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The following night, he will return to Anderson Speedway to compete in the 60th Annual CB Fabricating Redbud 400, sharing the spotlight with some of the best short-track racers in the region.
“Definitely the biggest weekend of my racing career, no doubt,” Everidge said. “Obviously, the Truck Series race is a huge step and a huge unknown for me, something I’ve never done. So there’s obviously some challenges with that. The Saturday night race is a little bit more known for me, but still a big race nonetheless.”
While his Truck Series debut will be a new experience, Everidge enters the Redbud 400 with plenty of experience at the high-banked quarter-mile Anderson Speedway.
The Late Model veteran has built an extensive notebook at the track and has shown strong speed in previous appearances. However, he has yet to put together the clean race he believes his team is capable of producing in a major event.
Everidge is hoping the Redbud 400 will finally give him that opportunity.
“We’ve had a good car the past couple of years at the Madison County 200, which I’m kind of using as a gauge for what we can bring for the Redbud,” Everidge explained. “We’ve just never had a clean race.”
Mechanical failures hampered his first two attempts, while last year’s event ended after contact with a lapped car sent Everidge into the wall.
“We just could never get a clean race to see what we had at the very end,” he said.
This year, Everidge has a simple goal: Be in position to win when the checkered flag is approaching.
“We’re going to be fast. We’re going to be competitive. We always are,” Everidge said. “Certainly, we want to have a chance to win. When it comes down to it, when there’s 20 laps to go, we want to be in a position to win.”
Everidge expects a large contingent of supporters to be on hand at Anderson Speedway, with many friends and family members traveling to the area for the NASCAR weekend.
That support adds another layer of significance to an already monumental weekend.
“I don’t want to disappoint the people who traveled all that way,” Everidge said. “But I fully expect us to be in a position to have a chance to win at the end. That’s what I expect, and hopefully things go our way and we can get it done.”
Before he can turn his attention to the Redbud 400, Everidge will face an entirely new challenge at IRP.
He has just four previous starts at the track, but his most recent appearance with the CRA Sportsman Series ended with him qualifying on the pole. While he knows a NASCAR Craftsman Truck is a vastly different machine, Everidge hopes some of that experience will translate.
“I know it’s a lot different car, but I know what it feels like to be good at IRP and I’m just hoping that some piece of that translates,” he said.
The biggest adjustment will come quickly. Everidge will have limited time to learn the truck before Friday’s qualifying session, where he will need to qualify his way into the field.
“It’s all I really have to lean on,” Everidge said. “I think just the tens of thousands of laps that I have around short tracks in these Late Models, which are a little bit lighter and have a little more power, there has to be some crossover there.”
“Hopefully that racecraft can translate, and hopefully it can translate quickly because we’re going to have to qualify in on that Truck race on Friday. So I have about 40 minutes to figure out how to drive one of those.”
Regardless of what happens on the track, Everidge already understands the significance of the weekend.
The support he has received from his hometown of Stroh and the surrounding racing community has made him realize that his Truck Series debut represents something much bigger than just another step in his career.
“I think I’m realizing this week for the first time how much it means to my community back home, my little town of Stroh that I grew up in and where the race shop sits,” Everidge said.
The messages have poured in from friends, family and supporters, reminding Everidge just how many people are invested in his journey.
“No one from Stroh has ever raced in a NASCAR race before, and that means something to a lot of people,” he said. “Hopefully, it’s something that can inspire somebody.”
For Everidge, the opportunity is also a reminder of why persistence matters.
At 30 years old, he admits there were plenty of times throughout his career when he considered walking away. Bad races, DNFs and incidents outside of his control tested his resolve.
“There have been so many thoughts of, after those tough races, a DNF or getting involved in someone else’s wreck, ‘Man, what am I doing?’” Everidge said. “This sport can be really brutal sometimes. You do everything right and something out of your control happens.”
But he kept going.
Now, Everidge is preparing to compete in a NASCAR Truck Series race and then return home to race in one of Anderson Speedway’s biggest events of the year.
“I wouldn’t believe it,” Everidge said if he could tell his younger self what was ahead. “Especially considering I’ve quit about five times in my head after a bad race or whatever.”
“This weekend is just one of those weekends that makes me realize that all those really bad nights of thinking about if I wanted to give up or not, all led to this. Persistence pays off, and sometimes it takes 13 years when I really thought it was going to take much less.”
Now, Everidge finally gets his chance.
The 60th Annual CB Fabricating Redbud 400 takes place Saturday, July 25, at Anderson Speedway, featuring 400 laps of racing between Vern’s Concrete Late Models and Vore’s Welding & Steel Street Stocks. On Saturday Pit Gates Open at 10:00am, Practice from 2:30pm – 4:00pm, Front Gates Opening at 4:00pm, Qualifying at 4:15pm, Racing beginning at 7:30pm. Adult Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 day of the race. Kids Ages (6-12) $10, Ages 10 and under are free. An open practice will take place for both divisions on Friday, July 24 from 4:00pm – 7:00pm. The event will also be streamed live on Racing America. For more information on the CB Fabricating Redbud 400, visit us at andersonspeedway.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
