Another Season in the Books

After winning the Power Series’ season eight championship on a last-lap pass and a tiebreaker in points, I knew entering season nine that it would take a mighty effort to top that memorable performance.

From the first qualifying session of the season, I realized just how tough that task would be.  At the Auto Club Speedway, where I won in season eight, I qualified in 22nd place.  A number of new and returning drivers filled the front rows of the grid, and it was clear that in this race and this season, I had my work cut out for me.

That night in Fontana, I drove through the field for a hard-fought fifth-place finish.  I managed to improve in qualifying for the next few events, but my race results were similar: sixth at Las Vegas, eighth at Texas, and fifth at Indianapolis.  Those aren’t bad, but at tracks where I had finished well before, I’d hoped to do better.  But that was the state of the competition early in the season, when some really fast drivers came out to play.

The fifth race of the season was the first turning point, and not in a good way.  The Power Series rolled into its only road course stop at Watkins Glen, where I’d won the previous two races.  I qualified second and felt optimistic about my pace, but I never made it past turn one thanks to one of the fast drivers who drove into me, knocking me out of the race.  Instead of a win or even a top five, I finished 23rd.

The next two races weren’t much better.  At Talladega and Iowa, I took damage early and limped home to finishes of 15th and 13th, respectively.

At this point, I knew my hopes of repeating as champion were finished.  Even with four drop weeks available, I’d already notched three bad results before the season’s halfway point.

Discouraged as I was, my goals for the rest of the season were to have fun — which I hadn’t done in several weeks — and go for race wins, which wouldn’t be an easy task even with the number of fast guys dwindling each week.

The next time out at Rockingham was another turning point. Early on, it was clear that I had a fifth-place car at best.  But when the race’s only caution came out inside 60 laps to go, I sensed an opportunity. I ran 52 laps on a tank of fuel earlier in the race, and with the caution laps plus some fuel saving, I realized I could potentially turn a fifth-place run into a win.  So I set about saving fuel, and sure enough, the leaders peeled off one by one in the closing laps, leaving me out front at the end with just enough fuel to finish.

For me, that was an upset win in more ways than one.  Not only had I beaten the frontrunners; I also won my first fuel mileage race after being bitten by several of them in the past.

A few races later at Chicagoland — my favorite oval — I again used smart fuel strategy to score a win.  The race went green the entire way and I stretched my stints as long as possible, which meant I didn’t need to save fuel at the end while others did.

The next week, I won at Richmond, but only on a technicality.  Apparent race winner Tim Johnston was ruled to have jumped an early restart and was penalized one lap after the race.  That handed me a gift of a win on a night where I certainly hadn’t earned it. I didn’t even lead a lap all night!

Tim had a hefty lead in the standings by that point in the season, and he built it even more with three wins in the final five races.  For my part, I held my own and finished no worse than fourth in that same stretch, with those races run using the new lower-horsepower rules package.

I capped off the season at Charlotte with perhaps my most fun race.  I battled nearly all night inside the top five with Marcus Napier, and at the end, I reeled in and passed Chad Dalton in an exciting side-by-side battle for third place.  Up front, Tim Johnston won the race and the title, and deservedly so.  His performance all season and especially in the final few races was absolutely championship-worthy.

Although I couldn’t repeat my performance from season eight, I’m happy with a runner-up result in the standings.  Frankly, it’s better than I deserved after a slow start to the season.  It also means that I’ve now finished in the top two in points in all three of my full-time Power Series seasons.

But season nine isn’t quite over yet!  Next month’s all-star race at Gateway awaits, and for that event, I have a special paint scheme planned to remember one of my early sim racing memories and wrap up a season-long effort to race for a good cause.  Stay tuned for another upcoming blog post with that story!

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Season 9 Results:

Race	Date	Track	Start	Finish	Laps Led	Points
1	Dec. 7	Auto Club	22	5	0	40
2	Dec. 14	Las Vegas	16	6	10	37
3	Dec. 21	Texas	7	8	0	36
4	Jan. 4	Indianapolis	6	5	0	39
5	Jan. 11	Watkins Glen	2	23	0	21
6	Jan. 18	Talladega	18	15	0	29
7	Jan. 25	Iowa	5	13	0	29
8	Feb. 8	Rockingham	5	1	6	45
9	Feb. 15	Daytona	(skipped this race)			0
10	Mar. 1	Michigan	2	3	8	43
11	Mar. 8	Chicagoland	3	1	35	45
12	Mar. 15	Richmond	3	1	0	45
13	Mar. 22	Kansas	17	4	4	39
14	Mar. 29	Martinsville	2	2	0	43
15	Apr. 12	Phoenix	3	2	8	44
16	Apr. 19	Kentucky	2	2	39	44
17	Apr. 26	Charlotte	4	3	2	43