It took Chris Vannausdle 29 years of racing to get a single championship.
In 2020 he won not only his first title, but a total of three, including the biggest of all — a NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division V national championship.
Vannausdle had nine wins and 19 top-five finishes in 20 starts while racing a sports compact at Adams County Speedway, in Iowa, and 1-80 Speedway, in Nebraska. He also won the title at both tracks.
“A lot of weight off my shoulders after a lot of years,” Vannausdle said.
Vannausdle said he felt like he got lucky a lot this season. A lot of bad things happened to the car, but they happened after the race was over. In one race he lost a motor as he was crossing the finish line — he still won that night‘s race.
Even though the Nebraska driver won the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship by 50 points, the season was over for Vannausdle with about a month left before the official end of the NASCAR points season. He wasn‘t able to find any tracks where he could race, so he instead had to keep watching other drivers creep towards him at the top of the points standings.
“We had a good feeling that it was going to be hard to do, but then when (third place finisher) Megan Fuller and a few of those people from Stafford and Massachusetts starting working their way up it was like, ‘Okay, they‘re gaining a lot of points. My wife kind of figured if she (Fuller) won out she would still be 32 points out.
“Until you see the end hit, yes it is nerve-wracking after all those years of being that close.”
Vannausdle finally received the call from NASCAR one day while he was at work.
“I was like, ‘Who the heck is this number?‘” he said. “He left a voicemail, I called him back. As soon as he started congratulating me I was like, ‘Wow, this is awesome.‘”
Challenging for titles but coming up short for nearly three decades changed Vannausdle‘s perspective on points racing.
“As you get older it‘s like, ‘Well it should happen but if it doesn‘t there‘s always another time,‘” he said.
Now that is has happened, he had planned on slowing down in 2021. He said he won‘t run two tracks again, as one is two hours away from his home.
His plans could change once the season gets closer, though. After working towards a championship for so long, he now has some he needs to defend.
“My wife is already talking about doing this and doing that and getting things ready to go. So I guess we‘re going to,” he said.
“Thanks to all my friends and family that have helped me through the years. We‘ve got some pictures we took on championship night of me and my boys and daughters and my grandkids and all my friends that have helped me through the years in one big picture. It‘s just pretty cool that everybody was celebrating. Knowing how we fought through the years to get this done.”
MORE DIVISION V
The Vannausdle family was well-represented in the final Division V points standings. Chris Vannausdle‘s son, Bryan, finished fourth in the points.
Bryan Vannausdle was fifth in the Brandon Towing and Recover Compacts Division at Adams County Speedway, and sixth in the Sport Compact division at I-80. He had 13 top-5s in 20 starts this season.
Zachary Robinson finished second, Meg Fuller third, and Chris Meyer fifth in the final Division V standings. All three race in the Street Stock Division at Connecticut‘s Stafford Motor Speedway. Robinson, who had four wins, 11 top fives, and 12 top 10s, won his second straight track title by 14 points over Meyer and 14 over Fuller.
Meyer posted a pair of victories on the season, while Fuller had four.