DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Veteran late-model driver Steve Carlson, a kingpin in the former ARTGO Challenge Series and the NASCAR Midwest Series, earned his first NASCAR Whelen All-American Series weekly racing title.
“It’s a relief,” said Carlson, who was officially named champion Oct. 3. “This is so big, this is unreal. I’m sure it will be a while until it all sinks in on just how big this really is.”
The 50-year-old from Black River Falls, Wis., finished with eight victories and 21 top-five finishes in 23 starts. He raced primarily at LaCrosse (Wis.) Fairgrounds Speedway. After that season ended in the beginning of September, he ran a handful of events at Elko (Minn.) Speedway in an attempt to pick up a few more valuable points.
Carlson’s 862 points from his top 18 finishes were enough to hold off the challenges of Woody Pitkat and defending champion Philip Morris. Pitkat, racing at Connecticut’s Thompson Int’l Speedway and Stafford Motor Speedway, accumulated 856 points on the strength of nine feature victories.
Running primarily at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va., Morris finished third in the nation with 844 points.
Keith Rocco, the track champion at Thompson, and former national champion Ted Christopher, the track champion at Stafford, finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Carlson’s teammate, Kevin Nuttleman, was sixth. And former national champion Joe Kosiski finished seventh running at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska.
Carlson has won NASCAR championships before. Nine times he was crowned champion of the old Midwest Touring Series, the last five coming as a now-defunct Elite Division under the NASCAR banner.
“I won a bunch of Midwest championships and this is bigger than all of them,” Carlson said. “I did a lot of traveling; I won a lot of races (on the Midwest Tour). We got to go to the New York banquet (as champion). We all thought when that series was gone, all that would be gone too. But it’s not.”
Carlson didn’t originally commit to running a full season at LaCrosse. But after a strong start, team owner Tim Jacobs convinced him to go after the national championship.
“The car was just so good, we decided to run full time,” Carlson said. “And we pulled it off. My crew worked so hard on this car, and I’ve got a great car owner.”
The top 25:
Showing driver and points: 1. Steve Carlson, 862; 2. Woody Pitkat, 856; 3. Philip Morris, 844; 4. Keith Rocco, 828; 5. Ted Christopher, 816; 6. Kevin Nuttleman, 808; 7. Joe Kosiski, 792; 8. Andy Burgess, 792; 9. Al Humphrey, 790; 10. Kerry Malone, 784; 11. David Roberts, 780; 12. Duane Howard, 778; 13. Jeff Strunk, 770; 14. Guy Jubinville, 766; 15. Kenneth Headen, 752; 16. Randy Porter, 752; 17. Jean Francis Bouvrette, 748; 18. Jason Hobscheidt, 720; 19. Leon Zeitner, 716; 20. Will Thomas III, 712; 21. Tommy Lemons, Jr., 702; 22. Steve Holzhausen, 696; 23. Jason Mitcham, 694; 24. Mark Holeman, 690; 25. Donny Reuvers, 686.