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Dean
Howard has been involved in Motorsports since he was a young boy growing up in
Owensboro, Kentucky. He first watched his father race cars for years until
finally retiring in 1976. Then in 1982 his father built him his first car
to race at the local asphalt track at the age of 16. He did that for two
years then moved on to another division and raced in Nashville, Tennessee in
1984. From then on, Dean raced all across the eastern U.S. until 1990.
In
1991, Dean moved to Nashville from Owensboro and started working for Sadler
Racing in which Jeremy Mayfield (also from Owensboro) had started working not
long before. "Jeremy,
myself, and a friend all shacked up together in a 3 bedroom apartment for a year
there," explains Dean, "In 1992 Jeremy raced in the late model
division in Nashville with me serving as his crew chief there."
In
1993 Dean moved back to Owensboro and got a ride from a guy in Evansville,
Indiana to race a car in the late model series in Nashville. He raced
there from 1993 to 1998. In late 1997 he talked with Brewco Motorsports in
Central City, KY (35 miles from Owensboro) about getting a job there. "Brewco
was starting a Truck Series team and needed help with it," says Dean.
"So I hung up my helmet and traveled with the truck team all year. In
1999 Brewco started a second Busch Series team with Casey Atwood as the
pilot. I was picked to work as a fabricator on that team. I was also
the rear tire changer there that year when Casey brought us home two
victories."
Dean's
start in sim racing came in late 1999 when another fabricator he worked with had
2 computers hooked up with Nascar 2 on them. "We
raced each other on that for hours at a time and that's when I got hooked.
I finally got my first computer in September 1999. Nascar 3 was just
coming out, and I got that and started experimenting racing on the online
thing."
The
Hardcore Racing League was Dean's first league effort. Since then he has
quickly moved up the ranks to some of the most elite leagues on the Internet
such as SASCAR, where he won the Rookie of the Year title in BGN. "I
raced with Hardcore for a while and then raced in a couple other leagues such as
The Oscar Sportsman series with Flashpoint and the Net Racing
league trying to get as much experience as I could. In July 2001 I
joined Microspeed Motorsports in which Del Oliver, Alan Johnson, Bill Fuller,
Dean Schmall, and Burl Begley are members. That's about the same time
I got invited into SASCAR. Joining with these guys is the best thing I
could have ever done. They are great drivers and have taught me so
much."
In
August of 2001 Dean traveled to the Atlanta LAN event with his teammates Alan
Johnson and Del Oliver. He finished a very impressive 3rd overall while
his teammate Johnson finished in 4th. Both tied in points but Dean
finished ahead of Alan in the last race. Since then Dean has had
tremendous success in the ROL Cup Series. He finished 6th in 2002 with two
wins, then back that up with 2 more wins in 2003 while finishing 3rd in the
standings. He will be searching for that first Championship in 2004.
Dean Howard's
Cockpit:
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