We're down to the final race of the season, one last chance to grab a victory and one last chance to close out this points run. But let's rewind a little bit, because I forgot to update where we stood after the previous race.
We came out of that race 196 points behind the Championship Leader, Dominic Hunter. We were sitting 7th in points, 29 points behind Eric Lee in 6th, just 5 points ahead of Bob Monroe in 8th and only 10 points up on fellow Rookie contender Logan Cole who was holding down 9th. That brings us to the last race on August 27th, where we battled for our first win but came up just 4 laps short. In the end it was a good points day and we made more progress. We now sit 199 points behind Dominic Hunter, losing only 3 points to him over the course of the night. That's probably our most impressive points night yet. 😎
Logan Cole had a horrible mishap in that blown engine and slid through the oil, making heavy contact with the turn 1 wall, ending his day early. I've said it a million times, I don't like torn up race cars, no matter whose race car it is. I also said on the radio at that moment "That sucks, I wanted to race him for it." But, racing is racing and the end result is, he lost another 27 points to me, moving to 37 points behind. He still sits in 9th and I still sit in 7th, with Bob Monroe between us in 8th, now 36 points back (just 1 point ahead of Logan). Eric Lee still holds down 6th place, but is now 21 points ahead. So at the end of the day, we only gained 8 points on him.
So, another thing we need to heavily consider heading into Championship Night is the fact that it will be "Double Points". We're not going to cruise to the end on this one, because a LOT can happen on a double points night! These points positions are just too close to be thinking "We got this in the bag". It also means there's potential to gain a spot or two in the standings as well. But there's potential to lose a couple too!
A few things I'm monitoring are the fact that Brian Wilson now sits in 5th place, just 36 points in front of us. Is that reachable? I'm not sure. The bigger question is, does Brian have another engine to replace the one he scattered all over the front stretch? Because if not, both Eric and myself will leapfrog him in the standings, Bob and Logan could conceivably jump over him as well, so Brian could drop clear to 9th by missing a single race, because double points. That's all saying he doesn't get another engine in there and come back out. Only time will tell.
Another thing I'm sort of wondering is that Devin Eierman said he is planning on running Wenatchee with the VMRA series that same day. So he may not be there either. Devin is only 45 points in front of me, currently holding down 4th. Again, we'll see what he decides and we won't know until we get to the track on race day. My gut tells me both these guys will be there, because for as much as us drivers will tell you we don't care about the points standings, we do. We're always looking at them and we always care about them. 😉
I'm trying to go into this last race calm, but I'm freaking out about it. I'm nervous, I'm worried, I'm concerned. I know it sounds stupid, but I stress about every race. Any driver who tells you they don't, is lying. You start thinking about all sorts of things. Is the car going to break? Will I have some weird mechanical issue that sidelines me early? Will I make a bad decision that costs me spots, or even worse, costs me the race? Will I get caught up in a wreck that I can't control? Will some other driver take me out? There's so many things that can happen, and anyone who has followed me for any length of time knows, all those crazy things DO happen to me. It's that old cliché, "If it wasn't for bad luck, you'd have no luck at all!" We've left a solid 80 points on the table this year due to bad luck. Those 80 points would have us sitting firmly in 3rd place. You can't help but think about all the things that can go wrong. For now, I'm gonna take a deep breath, try to find my game face and we're gonna go to work. Luckily, I have Tommy on the radio to keep me focused and calm. Let's close this one out on a high note! 😎