Cole Watson claimed his fourth Beech Ridge Motor Speedway track championship Saturday, his first in the Wildcats.
Watson, who won the now defunct truck series in 2001, 2002 and 2004, held a sizeable lead in the points entering the final night of racing, but still needed to finish 19th or better in the feature to guarantee his title.
Watson finished sixth and ended the season with 663 points to Ronnie Corbeil’s 630.
“When he won the trucks, it was all Cole,” track owner Andy Cusack said. “He was King Cole; king of the trucks. There was nothing quiet about his championships. This year he won quietly, showing consistency works in this game.”
“We were happy with the trucks but were going to do something else,” Watson said. “Our goal was we wanted rookie of the year last year, which we did, and wanted a championship this year. That’s how we did it.”
Watson moved to the top of the standings when he won the Wildcat 50 by default – multiple drivers ahead of him were disqualified for technical issues – on July 24.
“That’s part of the game in this business,” Cusack said. “It’s not all what happens on the track; it’s what happens in tech, too. You could make the argument he got a lot of points but the other drivers shouldn’t have been racing to begin with. They weren’t conforming to the rules everyone else was.”
Watson was a model of consistency for the remainder of the season, building a points lead the ultimately proved insurmountable.
“We were just trying to get it home,” Watson said. “It’s pretty wild. A lot of it is just dodging the wrecks. You just have to finish.”
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