After an impressive showing at the 2009 World Series of Asphalt, Austin had quite a bit of confidence headed into the ASA Late Models South season opener at Charlotte County Speedway. On Friday, Austin ran some pretty competitive times in practice. The crew worked on the cars handling and adjusted the brakes to get the car to handle like Austin wanted. On Saturday, Austin's practice times were off, but it was mostly due to having worn out tires. For qualifying, Austin overcooked the brakes on the warm up lap, which killed his momentum for his first timed lap. On his second lap, the car pushed up the track. He ended up qualifying 10th, with a time of 15.347.

       At the start of the race, the car starting 9th plowed into the 8th place car, causing a wreck. Fortunately, Austin snaked his way through the chaos unscathed. On the restart, Austin got caught up on the outside line, and got freight trained all the way back to 14th place. Over the course of the race, Austin methodically moved his way through the pack up to 6th. The car was really loose up off the corners, so Austin wasn't able to pull underneath the cars ahead of him. After the race, Austin said, "This was a really hard track to pass on. Since it is so small and flat, the only way you can pass is to move the guy ahead of you out of the way. It was still fun none the less. I believe I am leading the Rookie of the Year points, so I am happy about that. I would like to thank my mom and dad, Dave Pletcher, Wayne Anderson, Ronnie Enfinger, Ryan Blair, and all my sponsors for all that they do for me." Austin's next race will be at South Georgia Motorsports Park on March 2 8th where he will look to continue to be a contender.

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