After 32 years, Evergreen Speedway’s John Carslon has no plans to slow down

John Carlson has put together one of the most storied careers of any driver at Evergreen Speedway. Even though he came up just short of a ninth track championship this season, he insists he isn't going anywhere. In fact, he has something even bigger he's racing for next season. Carlson began racing 32 years ago, and in that time he's won eight track championships at Evergreen, a NASCAR Local Racing Series track in Monroe, Washington. Those championship have come in three different divisions. He won four in seven years racing in the FEAR Super Series from 2003-2009, secured three in Evergreen's NASCAR Outlaw Figure 8 division, and most recently won a NASCAR Stock Figure 8 title in 2023. This summer, Carlson was battling defending champion Mackenzie Repin for the Super Stock Figure 8 championship, and the two were tied going into the final race. On finale night, Carlson outqualified Repin, giving him a two-point advantage. But she got the better of him by one spot in both the heat race and feature, and her win in the feature gave Repin the championship by one point. "It really could not have been closer," Carlson said. "I feel good this year. We had a couple of bad races that set us back and that kind of hurt the whole points situation, but that's kind of part of the racing game. Sometimes you have good nights and sometimes you have really bad nights." [caption id="attachment_527460" align="aligncenter" width="1300"] John Carlson (36) fell one point short of winning a track championship in the Super Stock Figure 8 division this year at Evergreen Speedway. (Photo: Jeff Harris)[/caption] Carlson's rookie year was in 1994. He got into cars thanks to his dad, who Carlson called "a backyard mechanic." "He liked to build motors and he was into drag racing when I was little," Carlson said. "Not on a professional level or anything like that, just racing up and down the streets and causing trouble, that sort of thing." Circle track racing was something Carlson fell into. He and a friend were looking at cars and eventually his friend brought one. After they tried racing a few times, Carlson purchased the car from his friend, and more than three decades later he's still going. Eventually, he realized Figure 8 racing was his favorite. "I guess it's just a passion," he said. "Once you get into something, when it comes to racing, doesn't matter what it is, it just becomes a passion and something you love doing. Figure 8 is just a whole lot different than any other kind of racing because you're on the outside of a car on one corner then you're on the inside of him on the next corner, plus you've got an intersection that you're going through twice a lap and you have to have to deal with that. And sometimes you get open track and sometimes you've got three or four cars you've got to go through. "All these years later, after learning things in different cars, it's been quite the road, that's for sure. It's been a lot of fun traveling all over the country, different places, racing different tracks, that sort of thing. Meeting a lot of new people, making friends everywhere." Carlson also takes pride in the career he's built, even if he doesn't like to show it. "I don't really talk or brag about it or do anything like that," he said. "It's just racing for me and having fun. After the first four or five it was kind of cool. And then I got seven and I was like, now I'm in the category with kind of like Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson. But in my own mind, as far as that goes anyway. "It's kind of a cool deal to have eight championships out at Monroe (Evergreen)." While Carlson said losing this year's track championship hurt, he had bigger aspirations for the season. He raced at Oregon's Coos Bay Speedway to earn extra points towards the NASCAR Local Racing Series Division IV national and regional championships. [caption id="attachment_527468" align="aligncenter" width="1300"] John Carslon (36) leads the pack during a Super Stock Figure 8 event this season at Evergreen Speedway. (Photo:[/caption] Carlson ended the year sixth in West Division IV points, so he missed out on another championship this year, but going for the title gave him the opportunity to try something new. Coos Bay is a three-eighths-mile dirt track and Carlson had never raced on dirt before. "It's different because the cars are front-wheel drive cars, they're little four-cylinder cars and I'm used to big horsepower rear-wheel drive stuff, and it's completely different driving style," Carlson said. "That was a little different trying to learn and figure that out. I need a little bit more time in the dirt and racing it to get a little faster and a little better, so that's one thing I'm kind of looking forward to doing is playing in the dirt a little bit more. I had a lot of fun." Racing for a regional championship is the No. 1 priority for Carlson in 2027 because, "I've got to have that notch in my belt now." Whether he's going around a Figure 8 track in Washington or playing in dirt in Oregon, Carlson will be racing somewhere just about every weekend next year. After 32 years, he isn't ready to slow down. "You always want to try to stay better than everybody else," he said. "I've had a handful of people ask me when I think I'm going to quit racing, and I've told them, 'Well, I guess about the point where I'm not competitive anymore.' If I'm just out there fooling around in the fields and just a back marker and not being competitive anymore, then maybe it might be time to put somebody else in the car and let them have fun and me just sit back and be a car owner. "I haven't got there yet. I've still got a lot of bite in this old dog I guess you could say."