Blaise Alexander, 1976 to 2001

In 68 career ARCA RE/MAX Series starts, Alexander had 3 wins (Toledo Speedway 1998, Pocono Raceway 1998 & most recently at Michigan Int'l Speedway in July of 2001). Blaise had 22 top-5s and 38 top-10s, and 4 poles at Toledo '98, Winchester '98, Watkins Glen Int'l '01 & MIS '01. He was the ARCA Rookie of the Year in 1996 and finished 5th in points that year.

Blaise Alexander, of Mooresville, North Carolina, died Thursday, October 4, 2001, from head injuries sustained at Lowe’s Motor Speedway as a result of a crash in the closing laps of the ARCA RE/MAX Series 100-mile race. He was 25.

Alexander, while racing for the lead, made contact with the outer retaining wall just before the start-finish line on the 63rd lap of the 67-lap race. Alexander was unconscious and unresponsive with no pulse when emergency medical technicians arrived at the scene. Alexander was transported to the infield care center where he was pronounced dead at 10:20 PM ET.

Alexander, also a veteran of the NASCAR Busch and Craftsman Truck Series, first raced in ARCA competition in 1995 and was making his 68th career start at the time of the accident. After winning the ARCA Rookie of the Year honors in 1996 and finishing fifth in points that same year, Alexander went on to post three ARCA RE/MAX Series victories: Toledo Speedway and Pocono Raceway in 1998 and Michigan Int’l Speedway in July of 2001. Alexander also posted four career pole awards at Toledo, Winchester Speedway, Watkins Glen Int’l and Michigan. In all, Alexander had 22 top-five finishes and 38 top-tens.

Additional highlights throughout his ARCA career include a runner-up finish at Charlotte in his 1996 rookie season as well as on the short-tracks of Toledo and Kil-Kare Speedways in ‘97. Second place finishes on the half-mile West Virginia Motor Speedway dirt-track, also in ’97, and at the Watkins Glen Int’l road course in ’01 coupled with a pole there further cemented his reputation as a skilled driver on a variety of track conditions. Alexander also had runner-up finishes at MIS and Winchester in ’99 and Pocono and Charlotte in ‘01 as well as third place finishes at Pocono in ’97, the Anderson Speedway quarter-mile in ’99 and at Atlanta Motor Speedway also in ’99. Other top-five finishes include a pair of fourth place finishes at Pocono in ’96, a fourth place finish at Charlotte in ’99 and a fifth at Pocono in ’95. In addition, he raced his way into the lead in 18 ARCA races earning a career total of 490 laps led.

Born in 1976 in State College, Pennsylvania, he began his racing career at the age of 12 in WKA go-kart competition where he was the 1992 East Regional Series WKA champion. From there, he moved into the Micro-Sprint divisions racing at tracks throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York posting a career total of 48 feature wins. After relocating from his hometown of Montoursville, Pennsylvania to Mooresville, North Carolina to pursue a stock car career in 1995, his reputation as a talented racer began to flourish. In 1997, while competing in 15 ARCA events, he expanded into both the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Busch Series. In August of ’97, he posted a top-10 finish in the NASCAR Truck Series at Watkins Glen, one of only two truck races he entered that season. In addition, he made his first Busch Series start that same year at California Speedway and posted a top-ten qualifying effort at Rockingham in only his second Busch start. His career-best Busch Series finish was seventh at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2000 driving for Team Sabco.