Three of the top six drivers in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division IV points standings all raced at Salina Highbanks Speedway.
A tough field, but one driver drove his way to the front of the pack.
Brady Walsh won in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division IV national championship, besting his trackmate, Jordon Shive, by 44 points. Walsh won eight races and finished in the top five in all 15 of his starts this season.
Even though Walsh made winning a regular thing this summer, getting to Victory Lane at Salina was anything but easy.
“The top 10 cars or so, any of us can win on any given night,” Walsh told NASCAR.com earlier this season. “It‘s really a tight race every week and it‘s a lot of fun getting to race with those guys.”
Walsh won the S&J Plumbing Pure Stocks track championship at Salina, the second of his career. His previous best finish in the national points was fourth in 2014.
Walsh is a second generation driver at Salina. His dad raced at the track that is about 30 minutes from his home, and he grew up watching races there.
“He always raced stock cars and stuff so that kind of interested me to get into it,” Walsh said of his dad. “I wanted to follow his footsteps and the way he did it a little bit.
“We‘ve spent a lot of days and nights at Salina just watching races and hanging out in the pits and everything.”
Walsh got into the sport watching his dad, and now the duo work together on his car along with many other members of the family. His dad is the crew chief, and Walsh‘s wife, Kimber, mom, brother-in-law, and sister also make the family team a true family operation.
“Everyone comes out and helps. It‘s definitely a team effort. There‘s no ‘just me’ about it. It‘s definitely a full team,” Walsh said. “It makes it awesome that it‘s something that the whole family can enjoy. It just makes it that much more special when you win.”
Walsh said earlier this season something just clicked with the car this year and it took off, but the amount of success he‘s found has definitely added to the fun of racing.
“It makes it awesome,” he said. “I‘m racing what I‘d like to think is some of the top stock car drivers in Oklahoma. And just being able to compete like we have been has been just a really, really awesome thing.”
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Salina had two drivers atop the national standings. Shive finished second, 44 points behind Walsh. Shive had three wins and 13 top fives in 15 starts this season. Shive was also second to Walsh in Salina‘s pure stock standings.
Kingsport Speedway‘s Pure 4 champion, Billy Byington, finished third in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series points standings. Byington had four wins and 12 top-five finishes in 12 starts at the Tennessee track.
New Hampshire drivers Gordon Farnum and Nathan Wenzel rounded out the top five. Farnum finished second in Monadnock Speedway‘s Mini Stock points, and also raced at Hudson and Claremont Speedways. He had six wins and 13 top fives between the three tracks.
Wenzel won the track championship at Monadnock. He finished the year with two wins and 11 top fives.