Jon Quinton went into 2020 with modest, attainable goals of simply winning some races.
Once he realized those initial goals were realized early, he moved the goalposts, and kept moving them.
By the end of the year, Quinton was a national champion.
Quinton won Denny‘s Mini Stocks championship at Magic Valley Speedway in Twin Falls, Idaho, and his six wins and 20 top-5s in 20 starts were enough to win the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division III title.
Quinton didn‘t even know NASCAR was going to be having a national points race this season, but when he learned the national championship was happening, and was within his reach, he went points racing.
“It is different. Absolutely different,” Quinton said. “It was interesting. It was stressful for sure. Very stressful.”
Quinton only raced his home track, but he still felt confident as the season wound down, even as more NASCAR-points chasers made their way to Idaho and the car count grew.
As the fall and end of the year got closer, Quinton had to watch the points closely and just hope for the best.
“I felt like I had it,” he said. “I didn‘t know that the points ended on October 18. I thought they were going to end the next week.
“On Thursday morning I got the phone call from NASCAR. He called me and I was pretty excited. It was awesome.”
The call was still unexpected.
“I had to stop,” Quinton said. “I was at home and my girlfriend was with me and I stopped and I asked him, ‘Is it okay if I put you on speakerphone? Can you say that one more time?‘
“It was really awesome. I‘m waiting for it all to sink in. I think when I get the plaque and things like that it‘ll sink in a little more that I‘m one of five drivers that gets all this. That I did it this year. It‘s really awesome.”
Quinton credited his newfound success with getting some of his aggression back on the track.
“Being passive will put you in a bad spot. I found that out previous years,” Quinton said. “So I got some of my aggression back and really attacked the track and the race car and it‘s just amazing. We far surpassed our goals and I‘m just happy to have a racecar that is still in one piece this year, that I can adjust on and bring back next year.”
Quinton said he was thankful to Magic Valley and the track‘s owner, Eddy McKean, for giving him and the rest of the track‘s drivers a place to race during a difficult year.
“I know that was difficult for him and we did not have the turnout that we‘ve had previous years with spectators, so I‘m glad we were able to get this national recognition for him,” Quinton said.
The national recognition has come with a lot of congratulations from friends and fans on social media. Quinton‘s sister put out a championship video, which has been well-received.
Even though Quinton is proud to be a national champion, he said he doesn‘t think he‘ll try for a national or even a local championship next year. He plans to back off and travel around the west to bigger races.
For now, though, he‘ll continue to revel in a championship that he didn‘t even know was possible.
After starting the year with simple goals of just reaching victory lane, seeing those goals surpassed is still beyond Quinton‘s wildest imagination.
“To me, not knowing that this was a possibility, not really even thinking of it, I knew it was out there but it was so far out there at the beginning of the year, it doesn‘t feel real,” he said.
MORE DIVISION III
Stafford Motor Speedway‘s Derek Debbis finished the season with two second place finishes in both the Stafford track standings and the NAAPWS Division III points. Debbis, a rookie, finished the year with five wins and 10 top-5s in 15 starts. He was 18 points behind Quinton.
Irwindale Speedway in California posted two top-4 national finishers in Division III. Rodney Argo had six wins and nine top-5s for a third place finish, and Bobby Ozman had one win and 12 top-5 finishes to come in fourth.
Ozman won Irwindale‘s Tucker Tire Enduro Sport track championship, and Argo finished third.
Quinton was joined by fellow Magic Valley drivers Chad Everett and Cecil Miles in the final national points standings. Everett finished 5th and Miles 6th. The two had six and five wins on the season, respectively.