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A year ago at this time, we were keeping a close eye on West Salem’s Steve Carlson as he chased a once-impossible dream of winning a national short-track championship.
A dream that came true.
You probably haven’t heard much about the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series championship this season. It’s not because Carlson has had a bad season. It’s just that his 2007 run was something special — really special.
Carlson leads the Kwik Trip Late Model track points at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway with three weeks — and four races — to go. But he’s not going to win another national title, and here’s why.
National points leader Philip Morris, who races at the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va., has 19 races under his belt (he can count his top 18 finishes) and has racked up 887 points. His point total has the possibility of going even higher since he can toss out some of his poorer finishes as he continues to race.
Carlson, meanwhile, has just four races left, and his 530 points leave him in 46th place in the national standings. Say what?
Forty-sixth place?
Yes, but consider this: Carlson has raced 14 times at the Fairgrounds Speedway this season, and has four wins, 12 top-five finishes, and 13 top-10s. Morris has nine wins in 19 races, and 17 top-five efforts. In a head-to-head comparison, Morris has earned 49.277 points per race event this season, while Carlson is at 37.857.
A couple of things have hurt Carlson’s push for another national crown this season, one of which is car count. Drivers earn more points if there are 25 or more cars in a feature race. The car counts in the Late Model feature at the Fairgrounds Speedway have typically been in the low 20s this season.
That’s about five to eight Late Model cars less than last year.
Blame it on the economy, the cost of racing, or whatever you like. The bottom line is the car count is not what it was when Carlson won the 2007 title. On the other hand, Carlson would have to win all four remaining races to match his feature win total of a season ago.
Sorry folks, it’s not going to happen.
Carlson’s still an excellent driver who hasn’t lost a thing when it comes to wheeling a car around a track. But there are some other drivers, like his teammate Kevin Nuttleman, for example, who are having outstanding seasons, too. Nuttleman, a 10-time track champ who would love to make it 11, also has four feature wins this season.
He could very well win another feature or two this season, and so could Brent Kirchner, who has two feature wins.
Carlson knew winning another national short-track title was a pie-in-the-sky dream, but that hasn’t stopped him from trying. Now that it probably isn’t going to happen, he’s got his hands full fending off the likes of Nuttleman, who is 43 points back, and his own son, Mike, who is in third place 61 points back.
So while the national points race is over for our local drivers, the sprint for the track title is not. In fact, it’s probably going to go down to the last night (Aug. 30), which would make for a mighty interesting finish.
Jeff Brown can be reached at (608) 791-8403, or
jbrown@lacrossetribune.com
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