Champ Trail - December 12, 2017

  NASCAR held its Touring Series and weekly racing series banquets in Charlotte, NC this past weekend. In a wise move, NASCAR decided to not have a most popular driver in the Whelen Modified Tour Series. For the most part Milissa Fifield can be blamed for that because in previous years she stacked the computer voting in her favor. It would be fitting to select Teddy Christopher as the Most Popular Driver this season.
  Todd Gilliland was in a familiar situation when he took the stage at the Charlotte Convention Center at the NASCAR Hall of Fame Friday night. Gilliland wasn’t the only familiar face honored at the NASCAR Home Tracks Awards, officially receiving their NASCAR championship rings and trophies. Doug Coby received the hardware for his fifth NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship, Lee Pulliam picked up his fourth NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship trophy, and Mexico’s Abraham Calderón took home his second NASCAR PEAK Mexico Series title trophy. They were joined by first-time champions Harrison Burton (NASCAR K&N Pro Series East), Alon Day (NASCAR Whelen Euro Series) and Alex Labbe (NASCAR Pinty’s Series).
  Coby joined NASCAR Hall of Famers Jerry Cook and Richie Evans, NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Mike Stefanik along with Tony Hirschman Jr., as the only drivers in NASCAR Modified history with five or more titles.
  Numerous state and local championships were recognized. The late Ted Christopher finished 11th in the National Standings and was honored as the Connecticut State Champion. Burt Myers was 13th in the National standings and was honored as the Bowman Gray champion.
  Keith Rocco finished second to Christopher in the Connecticut standings and was 15th nationally. Rocco was also the track champion at Stafford and at Thompson. Had it not been dropped by NASCAR the New London-Waterford Speedbowl would have been the third track which would have comprised a Triple Crown for Rocco. For the first time ever, no other driver has scored track championships at all three tracks. Ted Christopher and Bob Potter scored titles at all three tracks but never all on one year.
  Rocco has a career overall total of 251 wins which also include victories at Thompson and at Stafford Speedway.

  On the speedway stock market scene last week, Speedway Motorsports went up 0.06 to 19.43 while the International Speedway Corporation dropped 0.10 to 40.60. Dover Entertainment remained stale at 2.00. NASCAR cup sponsor Monster Beverage went up 0.30 to 63.22 while NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear dropped 0.37 to 31.75 and NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy Transfer) dropped 0.06 to 16.47. The auto manufacturers showed modest gains. Ford went up 0.03 to 12.61 and Toyota went up 0.09 to 124.45 while General Motors dropped 0.77 to 42.02. In the home improvement sector Home Depot went up 2.99 to 183.41 and Lowes went up 1.27 to 85.60. With the exceptions of Aarons Rentals the big team sponsors stocks were on a roll. McDonalds went up 0.28 to 173.15, Coca-Cola went up 8.04 to 224.97, Target went up 1.86 to 61.37 and Fedex went up 9.98 to 240.73.

  On the tube this week:

  Monday, December 11
6:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FOX Sports 1

  Thursday, December 14
7:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBC Sports Net

  Sunday, December 17
9:00 PM, NASCAR XFINITY Series Awards Show, NBCSN

  Monday, December 18
6:00 PM, Best of NASCAR Race Hub - Roundtable 2, FS1

   That’s about it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly, and R.I.02891. Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467.
E-mail: smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com.

Phil Smith has been a columnist for Speedway Scene and various
other publications for over 3 decades.
 

Source: Phil Smith / Champ Trail
Posted: December 12, 2017