Dylan Kwasniewski's Preview of the 2012 OUSCI

Dylan Kwasniewski is one of the rising stars of NASCAR, currently competing in NASCAR KN Pro Series West division, where he just became the youngest champion in series history at 17 years of age. Just prior to taking the title home, Dylan stopped off at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch for the 2012 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational, sponsored by Royal Purple and K&N (two companies he knows very well).

Dylan's task that day was to set the benchmark lap time. While that might seem like an easy task for a purpose-built race car, when we're talking about the OUSCI field, we're not just talking about run-of-the-mill street cars. The spec engine on Dylan's race car only produces about 650 horsepower, which is not particularly noteworthy in a field that includes a 1,550-horsepower, twin turbo Lamborghini. In fact, it put Dylan at a serious horsepower disadvantage against most of the top contenders of the day, including eventual OUSCI Champion, Mark Stielow and his 870-horsepower, Mayhem Camaro.

Dylan did have the huge advantage of running sticky race slicks, while all OUSCI competitors were required to run street-legal tires with a treadwear rating of at least 200. Once he heated his tires up, Dylan was able to lay down a blistering lap time of 1:38.969. Knowing he had one final race to run in that car, we're guessing he may not have been running at 10/10ths either.

At the end of the day, no one in the OUSCI field came closer than Brian Hobaugh's time of 1:46.155. An impressive feat by one of NASCAR's rising stars.