West Salem’s Steve Carlson, who captured the Kwik Trip Late Model track championship at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway this past weekend, has moved up to 18th place in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national point standings.
Carlson, the defending national short-track champion, spent much of the season playing catchup — at least nationally — after a spring season full of rainouts and an 18th-place finish on May 31.
After Carlson got things going, he was virtually unstoppable. He wound up winning five feature races, and had 16 top-five finishes in 18 starts. His 705 points leave him tied with 17th place Jonathan Bouvrette, but Bouvrette gets the nod for 17th place because he has seven feature wins to Carlson’s five.
While he won’t be going to the Nov. 7 NASCAR awards banquet in Las Vegas as the national champ, Carlson does receive an invitation as a track champion.

