A NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship was not something Zach Bristol foresaw in his future before 2024.

An elevator mechanic from Snohomish, Washington, the 35-year-old is a third-generation racer who competes mainly at Washington’s Evergreen Speedway. He grew up watching his grandfather Paul Townsend, his father Tim Bristol and sisters Nikki and Breanna race at Evergreen hoping one day he, too, would be able to compete at the NASCAR Home Track.

“I grew up living in the grandstands at Evergreen watching all the racing,” Bristol said. “It was my whole childhood.”

For the last 16 years, he’s lived that dream, competing mainly in Evergreen’s Hornet division, where he just captured his second straight track championship.

That alone would have been plenty for Bristol, but his success during the 2024 season was enough to win the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Division V national championship, as well.

“It feels like a dream almost, because getting state championship and regional championships, I see it all the time at my track,” Bristol said. “A national one just seems way out of the realm.

“Just the thought of somehow pulling that off this year, I’m still kind of pinching myself. I’m still kind of shocked I managed to pull it off this year.”

The plan was never to try and win a national championship. In fact, the plan wasn’t even to race in the Hornet division this year at Evergreen.

After winning the Hornet championship one season ago, Bristol had planned to move up to the Mini Stock class at Evergreen for the 2024 season. A mix of issues ultimately prevented that, so Bristol changed his plans.

Instead of racing in the Mini Stock class, he returned to the Hornet division to try and become just the second driver in track history to win back-to-back titles.

“I’d been battling engine issues in (the Mini Stock) the last two or three years. It was a mix of that and being very busy with work took time away from me getting the car ready,” Bristol said. “I still had my Hornet car because I was the 2023 Hornet champion at Evergreen.

“There has been only one other driver in our division to go back-to-back. So, I said, ‘OK, that’s the only goal I have. To go back-to-back.’”

The pursuit of a second Hornet championship was not easy. Because his job required him to be on call many Saturdays during the season, he was never sure if he would be able to race until the green flag waved for his feature.

Work kept him busy during the week, too, so he requested the help of Tommy Hibbs, the man who sold him the car. Bristol needed Hibbs’ assistance preparing the ride each week.

“We came to the agreement to where if he could just keep the upkeep on the car, I would show up and race Saturday,” Bristol said. “No promises that I might get a phone call, and I’d have to leave right there, and you might have to jump in for me. We came to that agreement, went out for the first race and had a clean sweep.”

That night set the tone for what became incredible season, but it wasn’t until the halfway point of the year when Bristol realized he was in contention for the Division V national title. The news was delivered by the staff at Evergreen.

“I think it was mid-July, the track came to me,” Bristol said. “They keep tabs on the regional points since last year I won the Division V West region championship. They were like, ‘Hey, you’re leading the West region.’

“OK, cool. That’s the cherry on top. Then they also said, “Also, we want to let you know you’re leading the national points right now.’”

Bristol remained in the thick of the national championship fight for the rest of the year, but a bad night on Sept. 1 nearly derailed everything.

“We had a bunch of car trouble and had to borrow a car for a race and didn’t really get the finish I wanted,” Bristol said. “The other race, we thankfully got a podium to kind of make up for it. But that dropped us down to like third or fourth. I was like, ‘Well, it’s kind out of the realm.’”

He clinched the Hornet track championship on Sept. 14, so he accomplished his primary goal for the year by going back-to-back. However, he was two points shy of the Division V national title.

“I was like, ‘Oh, OK, we’re a little short,’” Bristol said. “Then come to find out that the next weekend we were running a money race (at Evergreen) and it was going to be for national points.

“I had no plans on running it. Usually, the postseason races that Evergreen runs, I’ll put my buddy or my car owner in the car to have some fun. I called my car owner and was like, ‘We need to run, and I need to be in the car, and we need to run somewhere good.'”

Bristol did exactly what he needed the next weekend at Evergreen. He started 16th, got spun, raced his way to the front and watched as the leaders crashed to hand him the lead and, ultimately, the championship-clinching win.

“I was making my way forward and got spun out,” Bristol said. “Then I slowly but surely made my way back up there and was running third and the leaders took each other out. I was like, ‘OK, thank God.’

“I wasn’t sure exactly where we needed to finish (to win the national championship), but I knew winning would be the easiest way to win it all.”

In all, Bristol won five times during the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series season. He also scored 12 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in 15 races, which gave him a 34-point edge on Adams County Speedway regular John Berg in the final Division V standings. He also claimed the West Region Division V championship.

It’s the first national championship for Bristol and by far the biggest racing accomplishment he’s secured. It’s also the first Weekly Series national championship for a driver from Evergreen.

“It means the world,” Bristol said. “(My family) has raced all these decades, and over these 35 or 40 years that my family has been racing, before I came along, we had maybe two or three main event wins. We were never really the fastest, just there enjoying the racing life.

“We can’t believe we pulled this off. Everybody was just so overjoyed.”

After winning the national title, Bristol wasn’t sure he and his family would be able to make the trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the annual championship celebration.

A fundraiser was organized to raise the money to make it happen, and within three days, their goal was met. According to Bristol, that just shows the strength of the racing family at Evergreen.

“My sister Morgan, she’s my biggest supporter. She started a GoFundMe,” Bristol said. “Within three or four days, a lot of people donated from the race track to where it covered airfare, staying at an Airbnb in Charlotte and getting enough money to go check out some sights.

“One of the things I love about the class I run, it’s low budget, and it’s a bunch of guys and gals who can’t really move up. They don’t have the funds for it. So, we’re all living the dream together. Just the fact that they’re all donating anything to all this, it makes me love the class but my whole track as a whole for the kind of family they are.”

The final weeks of the 2024 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series season were extremely stressful for veteran racer A.J. Sanders.

Winning the Division IV national championship required Sanders to maximize every point possible in a three-way battle with Nathan McNabb of Berlin Raceway and Adam Hensel of Adams County Speedway. When the dust settled, Sanders had earned the national title over McNabb and Hensel, who both missed out by two points.

Sanders’ stellar season also included championships in the DIV Southeast Regional division of the Weekly Series and the Stadium Stock division at Bowman Gray Stadium.

Nothing about the process was easy, but Sanders was not ready to let adversity stand in the way of more accomplishments on his resume.

“It took everything I had to get that title,” Sanders said. “We ran good all year, but once I got disqualified from Florence, that put me two points behind, but we were able to overcome all the obstacles that were put in front of me. At my age, and after everything we had to fight for to get it, this probably means the most of any championships I got.

“You might knock us down, but you can’t hold us down.”

Now 56, Sanders has developed a reputation as one of the most stalwart short-track competitors on the East Coast.

The copious number of track championships Sanders has accumulated in the region features three straight in Bowman Gray’s Stadium Stock class, bringing him to five overall at the track. With the consistency he displayed in 2024, Sanders now possesses a second regional and national title to his name.

Sanders’ high standard of success starts with his late father Archie, a dedicated competitor himself who got his son started racing on dirt tracks. After finishing third in his debut event at what is now Ace Speedway, Sanders gradually devoted more of his time to motorsports with Archie supporting him in every regard.

The guidance Archie initially imparted onto Sanders has stayed with him throughout a career that has encompassed four decades. Maintaining a blue-collar style of approach — just like that of Archie — enabled Sanders to find his comfort zone and ascertain all the information needed to enjoy sustainable success.

“[My dad] told me to do it the basic way, like the old ways,” Sanders said. “Don’t change what you’re doing, and that’s the way I’ve done this all my life. We do this all ourselves, and that’s another thing he burrowed into my head. There’s not a piece on that car I don’t touch.

“If you work on it, you’re going to know your car.”

Being hands-on is not the only component of Sanders’ winning formula; he has also leaned on many of his contemporaries for advice.

When Sanders competed in Super Late Models earlier in his career, the drivers he faced included Freddie Query, five-time Snowball Derby winner Rich Bickle and three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Jack Sprague. Their guidance was invaluable for Sanders when it came to understanding his limits and how to make improvements.

Sanders has attempted to apply his collective knowledge to other disciplines over the years, but he finds himself content with running Stadium Stocks, which are known as Mini Stocks at other tracks. The competition routinely tests Sanders, who excels despite operating on a limited budget.

“This is something I can do by myself,” Sanders said. “It’s affordable, and you can go to other places and race them, which is fine. This is a car you have to drive. I can get in a Late Model, and that’s like driving a Cadillac down the interstate compared to these things. You actually have to wheel these cars.”

Despite this viewpoint, Sanders said many aspects of conventional race craft do not apply when it comes to navigating Bowman Gray’s compact layout. The primary factor in races at Bowman Gray is patience, but Sanders admitted there is balance between being conservative and aggressive that needs to be perfected in the short Stadium Stock events.

Bowman Gray can be stressful when it comes to the chaotic nature of the races, but Sanders still enjoys every opportunity to add to his legacy inside The Madhouse. For as long as he can, Sanders plans to keep racing at Bowman Gray while simultaneously passing down his knowledge to the next generation.

All three of Sanders’ children have followed in their father’s footsteps by turning competitive laps. His oldest son Andrew no longer competes, but Sanders’ two youngest children, Stephen and Blaze, remain present in the industry, with the latter having made his debut in Bowman Gray’s Stadium Stock division this year.

Sanders is also keeping a close eye on his 10-year-old grandson Clayton, who he recently got to race against for the first time. The cohesion Clayton displayed impressed Sanders, who believes his family has a bright future in racing long after he decides to finally retire.

“[Clayton] had never set foot in a race car, but I was blown away by the raw talent,” Sanders said. “We all race, so the Sanders name is going to go on. With everybody racing, I don’t see the Sanders [family] leaving the sport no time soon. [But Clayton,] he’s going to be the one to watch.”

Aside from wanting to compete with and against his family members in more races, Sanders knows there is not much left for him to accomplish in Mini Stocks. He hopes to venture into other disciplines and tracks to see how he measures up to the competition.

Sanders has never been one to back down from a challenge, as he has climbed back into the seat after surviving heart attacks and getting run over by a truck. Staying competitive through the adversity is something Sanders cherishes, which is why he wants to continue racing as long as his car is out front.

“I’m going to hang it up if I can’t win at least one race a year,” Sanders said. “I race probably 50 times or more a year, so if I can’t win one, then I’ll know it’s time to hand the steering wheel over to one of my kids and step back to work on the cars.

“We’re not going to get rich in racing, so you just have to enjoy what you do and make it fun.”

The obstacles Sanders faced to win a track, regional and national title this year were just part of the process for the seasoned competitor. When 2025 begins, Sanders will be ready to face whatever is in front of him so he can put himself in contention for more wins and championships.