Jake Garcia has been victorious in the Georgia Summer Nationals at Cordele Motor Speedway in the past.  Now, with a break in his NASCAR Truck Series schedule, the native of nearby Monroe aims to return to Victory Lane at his de facto home track.

Garcia won the Georgia Summer Nationals in 2021 and again in 2023.  Now racing in the Truck Series, his opportunities to compete in the ASA Southern Super Series are limited but he intends to make the most of them.

“This is an event we’ve won twice in the past, so this is a place I like a lot,” Garcia told Short Track Scene.  “It’s a good racetrack for these types of cars. Definitely somewhere fun to come race, so that’s why I came and did this on my off weekend. I thought it’d be a fun race to come run.  I’m excited for it.  I thought we had an okay day in practice yesterday. Maybe made some things better, maybe not, we’ll find out tomorrow night.  Either way, it’s always good to get out here and make some laps in Super Late Models and compete with these guys some.”

With limited seat time in the Super Late Model this season, Garcia has noticed there is more of an adjustment getting re-acclimated to the cars.

“It certainly takes me a few laps to get back used to it,” Garcia said. “The last time I drove one of these was at Dominion, I think that was in April.  So it’s been four or five months since I’ve been in one of these things and it’s just like the learning curve is, you know, because you missed out on all the technology, whatever the tires changed, and all that stuff.  Now it’s like you’re having to relearn some things, but I feel like I remember how to drive from last time and I think, now, I’m back comfortable after being able to practice yesterday.”

This weekend’s Georgia Summer Nationals is a doubleheader event under the Cordele Superfest banner. It is now sanctioned albeit in non-points fashion by the Southern Super Series. More importantly, it’s a tune-up opportunity in advance of the World Crown 300 on October 25.

That is a race Garcia hopes to participate in as well.

“We’ve been talking about it a little bit,” Garcia noted.  “I believe I’m in Martinsville that week so it’d be a little tough to get down here to make that, but depending on what the bonus situation’s like and what I got going on in the truck, I might be able to make it down here and go try to win some money because I hear it’s super super big, so, we’ll see.”

READ MORE: Super Late Model heavy hitters return to Cordele in World Crown preview

Garcia intends to use Friday night’s 75-lap race, if he’s not in contention for the win, as an opportunity to get dialed in for Saturday night’s 125-lapper.

“I’m always trying to preserve the car, given that it’s a doubleheader,” Garcia stated.  “Even if you’re not in winning contention tonight, it’ll be important to figure out what you need to work on because practicing out here in the daytime isn’t a good replica of what the cars feel like at night.  It’d be really important to focus on what you need tonight to be better so, that way, when you come tomorrow night, you can make improvements and run better.”

Garcia also praised the Noland family and Cordele Motor Speedway for the facility improvements made in recent months.

“It’s been a couple years since I’ve been down here and it looks like they’ve done a lot of work to it and made it nicer,” Garcia commented.  “It’s freshly painted, the tech sheds are nicer now, and it’s good to see a short track getting nicer instead of just kind of wearing itself out and depreciating.  It’s really, really cool to see some money getting put into about the only short track we have left on the asphalt side in Georgia so that’s definitely really good.  I was happy to see that when I rolled in yesterday.”

Friday night’s Super Fest 75-lap race and Saturday night’s 125-lap Summer Nationals feature can both be seen live on RacingAmerica.TV.

Short Track Scene’s Daniel Vining contributed to this report.