Home » Sunoco National Tour

Choquette claims Sunoco National Tour prize at North Wilksboro

North Wilksboro, NC - November 01, 2010
By: Deb Williams
North Wilksboro Speedway PR

 Historic North Wilkesboro Speedway's inaugural Short Track Shootout weekend wrapped up Sunday with victories by Jeff Choquette in the Sunoco National Tour Kings Ransom 150 and Wayne Harrington in the Walls Roofing UCAR 40-lap Clash.

Other race winners during the three-day event were Matt McCall, Late Model; Justin Sorrow, Limited Late Model; Bubba Gale, Rolling Thunder Modifieds; Alan Carter, United States Super Trucks; Kevin Eby, Street Stocks; and Tyler Hill, Allison Legacy Series.

In Sunday's Sunoco National Tour race, Choquette came from the back of the field twice to lead 127 laps in the 150-lap event on the 0.625-mile track.

“The car was really good. I was just the lucky guy behind the wheel that gets to hold the steering wheel,” Choquette said after his third career victory in the Sunoco National Tour Series. “This was my first year ever winning in the Sunoco National Tour. (It's) really big for the team, really big for me. You never know when it's going to be your last one, so you've got to go out and give it your all every time.”

Choquette, who defeated Sean Bass by 5.787 seconds, qualified on the pole with a 117.371-mph lap. However, the field was inverted for the start of the race that was divided into two 75-lap segments. After the first segment, there was a 5-minute break before the second began. The top six were inverted for the start of the second segment.

Bryan Ortiz, the series top rookie, was the race's leader at the start of both 75-lap segments, but he lost the power steering on his car. That eventually relegated him to a fifth-place finish.

“It was tough physically, it was destroying and mentally I have to be very careful on the braking,” said Ortiz, who was selected to compete in the NASCAR Driver for Diversity Combine in mid-October. “On a straight line, this track have a bumps, so it moved the car 'cause without power steering the tires move you. It was tough. I know now what to do if something like that happen.”

In the UCAR 40-lap Clash, Wayne Harrington of China Grove, N.C., dominated the race, earning the pole with a 92.547-mph lap and then leading all but the first three laps. Will Smith, who started on the outside of the front row, was the race's only other leader.

Harrington said he couldn't explain what the victory at the historic track meant to him.

“I grew up wanting to come here and I've been to a thousand races up here and I've always wanted to race here,” said Harrington, whose uncle was Herb Nab, a crew chief for Cale Yarborough in the 1970s when he drove for Junior Johnson. “I've got a lot of tradition in my family that's been in racing all their lives. My uncle Herb lived up here for years. I hope he seen that. I think he was with me.

“I won a championship at Concord [N.C.] last year. This tops anything that I've ever done. If I don't ever race again, this is at the top of the list and always will be.”

Harrington said he changed the engine in his car by himself on the eve of the race.

“I went down there to Dillon [S.C.] last week and these guys blistered me down there and I blew a head gasket,” Harrington explained. “I wasn't going to race this week, but I decided at the last minute yesterday evening that I wanted to do this. We got up at four o'clock this morning and left at five this morning and got here. It takes about an hour and 20 minutes to get here. I got done at 11:45 last night [Saturday].”

Unlike a week ago at Dillon, it was Harrington who was the class of the field, finishing 1.361 seconds ahead of Travis Miller of Jacksonville, N.C.

With the conclusion of the three-day Short Track Shootout, Historic North Wilkesboro Speedway ended its 2010 season. Racing resumes at the short track in North Carolina's northwest foothills in April with the North Wilkesboro 300 PASS event. For more information about Historic North Wilkesboro Speedway during the off-season, go to www.historicnws.com.