Champions: Some Crowned, Some Lost

A lot has happened since my last blog post. The world of racing has been through a lot the past few weeks. Some of these events were good. Other's, not so much. So here it goes.

Credit to hometracks.nascar.com

First the good look at things. These past few weeks, we have crowned a lot of new champions in racing. We'll start with our K&N Series champs. On Friday September 30, 2011, the K&N Pro Series East division crowned their new champion. 18 year old Max Gresham, driver of the #18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing wrapped up his first K&N Series championship. "It means everything in the world right now," said Gresham in a press conference. But as Max wrapped up his points championship, the Rookie of the Year was also being crowned. Another 18 year old by the name of Alex Bowman was the ROTY. Alex drives the #16 St. Judes Children's Research car for X Team Racing. While most people know Alex as "That kid who won the only two ARCA races he ever started" there's a lot more to this boy than just that. “The whole year was a big learning experience,” Bowman told the press. Bowman, who transferred straight from open-wheels to stock cars, beat out second generation drivers Corey LaJoie and Chase Elliott who were his closets competitors.

Credit to hometracks.nascar.com

Another set of K&N Series champions was crowned recently too. This series is divided into K&N East division and the K&N West division. So, we still had yet to crown our K&N West division champion. Greg Pursley, the elder driver of the Gene Price Motorsports team, was crowned the K&N West series Champion. Greg, who only had to take the green flag in the final race to get his championship, was by far the dominant driver of the season. “The Gene Price Motorsports team did a great job and gave me a great car,” Pursley said. “That’s pretty much how it’s been all year. It’s been a dream season to me, winning six races and five poles and finally winning a championship here. I can’t thank them enough.” Now Greg had his championship. So, who was it that got Rookie of the Year. Well, it was none other than Pursley's teammate, Dylan Kwasniewski. Kwasniewski, a 16 year old Las Vegas Nevada native, had a strong rookie season. And after his back to back wins, I think it was obvious that he would be crowned ROTY by seasons end. Dylan, who has set the new record for the series' youngest race winner, set the bar high for the rest of the rookie field.

Credit to NationalSpeedSportsNews.com

We did have some more champions crowned recently too. The ARCA championship wrapped up recently. And this years champion was no surprise. 19 year old Ty Dillon took home this years points title. Ty drives the #41 car for his grandfather Richard Childress and is the younger brother of Camping World Truck Series driver Austin Dillon, who is chasing for a championship as well this year. Ty came out with a strong start to the season. He was a force to be reckoned with and was practically unstoppable. Ty was victorious over another strong hopeful this season, Chris Buescher. Which leads to this years ARCA Series ROTY in Chris Buescher. Chris had a very strong season as well. Starting his season with many 2nd place finish, including a couple to Ty, Chris ended his season with three wins, including the season finale at Toledo. Chris drives the #17 car for Roulo Brothers Racing and is a developmental driver for Roush Fenway Racing and David Ragan.

Credit to IndyMotorSpeedway.com

Now, even though we were crowning all these champions and having all this celebrating, the past few weeks have not all been happy endings. On October 16, 2011 we lost a very loved man. During the IZOD Indy car series finale, there was a horrific 15 car crash on just the 12th lap of racing. Involved in this wreck was 2005 Indy Car champion and 2 time Indy 500 winner, Dan Wheldon. Dan was instantly the worry of all the fans. He was taken to the infield care center for a short amount of time before being transported to a local hospital. After two hours of suspense, a press conference was held to announce the passing of Dan. Family, friends, and fans of Dan were crushed. However, even though the race was cancelled, all the drivers did a 5 lap salute to Dan while his number was displayed on top of the scoreboard. Dan was loved by many and hated by few. But he will always be in our hearts.

Now, as I close today, I'd like to congratulate every driver who has celebrated a great championship. But I would also like to ask that we all continue to remember Dan forever. And soon we'll be crowning three new champions in each of NASCAR's main divisions. :)