The start of the 2025 race season was rough for Adams County Speedway’s Cody Werner.

In the first couple of races, Werner broke multiple transmissions and couldn’t figure out why. He ended up having to tear apart his race car and seek professional advice on the problem. He ultimatelty installed a new drive shaft, and off he went.

“It was probably the fourth or fifth night out, I believe, when we finally got the problem figured out,” Werner said. “It turned out to be pretty good.”

From there, Werner went on to win seven races and pick up 17 top-five finishes in Adams County’s Hobby Stocks by Hulett & Sons Salvage division.

He narrowly missed out on his first championship at the Corning, Iowa track, coming in second by six points. But he came away with multiple wins in the bigger picture.

Werner captured both the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division IV national championship and the Midwest regional championship, the first of his career for either feat. Those titles count drivers’ 14 best results throughout a season.

“It’s pretty awesome to be able to pull something like that off, especially after the start of the season,” Werner said. “It was pretty rough for us, but we had it turned around, and I’m pretty happy with it.”

The early season was especially frustrating for Werner, because he and his team really wanted to go for the track championship.

He missed out on the track title by six points because of a disqualification midway through the season. After the DQ, he said he and the team were “pretty down in the dumps,” adding, “anytime you run for something like that it gets pretty stressful when you’re trying to concentrate just on running for points and stuff.”

With three races left, Werner said someone realized they were 80 points out of the regional and national title points leads, so they turned their attention to that.

“We put our heads down and we focused on doing one thing — that was going to win,” he said. “We didn’t know if we could get it, and we had to have some really good nights, and we just focused on going over there and winning some races. And, obviously, winning gets you places.”

Werner has been racing at Adams County for 21 years, following in the footsteps of his dad, Kenny, who also raced at the dirt track.

“I live in a little town of probably 200 people, and everybody goes to the races,” Werner said. “I grew up around it. That’s something I always wanted to do when I grew up.”

As a graduation present in 2003, Werner’s parents bought him his first race car, and they had it ready for the track the following year.

Werner only raced sparingly for about a decade because he was traveling across the country for work. When he had his first child, he quit that job and got another that allowed him to be closer to home. That’s when he and his team put the focus back on racing.

In 2024, he got a new car and picked up four wins, finishing second in the track standings by 21 points. The close finish was motivation for 2025.

“The car worked really well, and we really put our heads down over the winter time and focused in on trying to run for the championship,” Werner said. “I’ve never really focused in on running for the championship. I like to do it for fun. If it ain’t fun, it ain’t worth doing to me. And that was our main focus this winter was to win some races and see where we played out.”

Kenny still helps his son with the car every week. Werner estimates his dad has only missed maybe five races in 21 years.

“First and foremost, I’ve got to thank my dad,” he said. “He’s been there with me every year.

“We’ve grown pretty close over the years. We don’t always agree on things, but at the end of the day, he’s always been there for me.”

Werner also thanked his friend, Matt, who has been with the team for several years, and his brother, who helps with the car and often buys parts when needed.

He also thanked his girlfriend and children, who are just as big a part of the team.

“My girlfriend, my kids take a lot of time, because building these things and working on through the week and everything like that, a lot of people don’t understand what it takes to keep this thing going,” Werner said.

The team will have an end-of-season party later this month to celebrate their first championship. Werner said he’s most excited to head to Charlotte, North Carolina later this year to be part of the NASCAR Regional and International Awards.

As he reflects on his first title, Werner said everything he accomplished this year hasn’t really hit him, but he thinks he’ll see it and feel it once he gets to Charlotte.

“It’s a pretty cool thing,” he said. “I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet. Everybody keeps saying, ‘Hey man, congratulations on winning the national and regional championship.’ I’m just kind of like, ‘thanks.’ I don’t know if it’s really set it.

“I feel like when I get to go to the trip to Charlotte, I’m sure getting to be around all the NASCAR people and everything, that’s when it will hit.”

When Adams County Speedway finished its 2025 season in early September, Shawn Kralik was sitting atop the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division III national standings. But he figured he didn’t have much of a chance to stay there.

His competitors at other tracks across the country still had one, two or even three races remaining in their seasons. Kralik and his team basically stopped following the results in those final weeks. He was content knowing he was just in the conversation.

Then he got the call.

“We didn’t really know about it here until recently,” Kralik said. “We didn’t know if we’d be able to hang onto it or not because we had left there for quite a while.”

Those final races at other tracks didn’t matter. Kralik won the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division III national championship by 32 points ahead of Berlin Raceway’s Tim DeVos.

It’s the first national championship for the driver from Creston, Iowa.

“That part really hasn’t sunk in,” Kralik said. “Just to find out we actually pulled it off when the final results were in, that means quite a lot. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. It’s a pretty neat deal. We honestly didn’t figure that was something in our hands that we’d ever pull off, so it’s neat that it happened.”

Kralik had his best season in his 14th year, finishing with six wins in Adams County’s Sport Mods by RJ’s Plumbing & Heating division. He never finished worse than fourth in 19 races, and he won the track championship by 196 points.

“It went pretty good. I guess we had a pretty solid year,” he said. “We had pretty good car count in our class and our division. … It went pretty good, I thought.”

The meteoric success comes less than a year after Kralik was involved in a wreck at the Corning, Iowa track that forced him to build a new race car for the 2025 season. This was Kralik’s second track championship at Adams County. His first arrived in 2023.

With several near misses at the national title, Kralik’s team focused simply on winning races at his home track and then seeing how the points played out at the end of the year. That’s why his championship came as such a surprise. He didn’t even know he was close to the top of the standings until someone mentioned it to him at the track when he had just a few races remaining.

“We’ve been close a few times. We’ve led it some, but toward the end, we just didn’t quite hang on,” he said. “At the end of the whole season, everything changes pretty quick. So I know we’ve led it several times, but we just haven’t finished it out. It’s kind of nice to finally get one of them done.”

Kralik doesn’t come from a racing family, and he didn’t get into the sport until his late teens. Growing up, Kralik had a friend who was a racer, and he found himself going to tracks to watch the races.

“Obviously, you want to be like your idol at some point in your life,” he said. “We’d go to the races all the time and watch. And — I don’t know — just one day we decided we could do it, but it’s a lot bigger challenge than a guy thinks. It’s a lot easier to watch than it is to do; that’s for sure.”

Kralik needed more than a decade to find success, and for that, he credits the aid he received.

“I was fortunate enough to have good help from the beginning with an experienced racer on my side and on my crew, so that helps a lot,” he added. “And, of course, a lot of good guys on my team in general, just helping me keep everything going every week because we’ve been doing it every summer, all summer for a lot of years, so that’s a lot of dedication.”

This year, Kralik was joined by good friends Jeremey, Big Mike, Nick, Little Mike, Quinton, Chuck, Spenser, Garrett, Thad, Bailey, Lawson, Knox, and his dad.

His wife was also a major help, as was his year-and-a-half old son, who Kralik said enjoys doing whatever he can in the shop.

“It’s kind of fun to have him out there rolling tires around, and he likes to let the air out of my tires,” he said. “It’s pretty funny.”

The difference the last few years, Kralik said, comes from the team simply being better organized and racing with better equipment.

“We were maybe struggling to keep up with some of them guys,” he added. “It’s a money game, so just maybe getting better equipment under us, honestly, is what kind made us start doing better.

“And more experience, in general. Just over the years figuring out what you need as a driver to make yourself better. We’ve been close to championships before in years prior, but just not quite there. The last, I’d say three or four years, maybe even five years, have been really actually pretty good years for us. It’s a lot more enjoyable when you can do better.”

Kralik’s team is mostly farmers with a busy season in the fall, so they haven’t had time to get together and celebrate their championship. Once work winds down, they’ll get together for a celebration. He’s also looking forward to the awards banquet at Adams County in January.

Maybe by the time his team is able to get together, the success they achieved this season will have set in.

“That’s actually what makes it all come together is having everyone there, solid, working together,” Kralik said. “That’s honestly what makes this all happen for us. It’s a team effort, for sure. So it means a lot to have that many people take time out of their weekends to be there to support it and keep it going, and we’ve got a really good crew together.

“It means quite a bit to me, actually.”