SOPHIA – Track champions were determined Saturday night in the regular-season finale at Caraway Speedway.
Only one of the season-long champions actually won the last race in his respective division.
Here’s a look at how it unfolded:
In Late Models, Coy Beard secured his second track championship in three seasons after driving Donnie Apple’s No. 8 car to a second-place finish.
Jeff Sparks won Saturday’s race, with Cade Brown in third.
Tony Black was the runner-up points and Apple ended up third with Daniel Schadt fourth and Jeffrey Wood fifth.
In Modifieds, Carson Loftin placed seventh in the last race of the season, but that was barely good enough for the track championship.
Loftin ended up with a four-point edge on Cody Norman. Jaxson Casper was third in the standings, followed by Carlos Gray and Lee Jeffreys.
Josh Lowder was the race winner, so he won the division’s first and final races of the season. He edged Jeffreys, while Norman was third.
In Mini Stocks, Jimmy Crigger won the for the fifth time in 2022 and that was enough for the division points championship.
Rudy Hartley was second in points, followed by Alex Higginson, Tommy Raino and Levi Holt.
In Saturday’s finale, Joe McDonald was second and Billy Cameron Jr. was third.
In the Challenger class, Brian Rose placed second in the final race to clinch the division championship. Rose only needed to start the race to seal the points title.
Allen Vance was the race winner, with Toby Layne in third and Corey Rose and Tommy Raino rounding out the top five.
Matthew Smith was sixth in the race to secure second place in the points standings and earn the division’s Rookie of the Year status.
In the UCARs class, Daniel Hughes became the track champion while claiming fourth place in the race.
Corey Rose was second in points, followed by Caleb Allred, Josh Phillips and Steven Collins.
As for the race, Jeremy Kidd notched his first victory of the season at the speedway, crossing the line ahead of Rose. Allen Vance was third.
In a special 10-lap race for non-winners in the UCARs division, Ron Mock took the top spot with Kidd in second. The race took place prior to the feature.
Legacy cars made an annual appearance at the speedway on race night and Justin Oplinger was the winner in a race shortened based on laps because of a time limit. Several crashed created a start-and-stop tone. Alyssa Mendenhall was the runner-up, followed by Ethan Glenn, David Smith and Andon Mendenhall.
In a 10-lap Bootleggers race, Robbie Perkins was the winner. In Enduros, Criggers was the winner.
Next at Caraway is the North-South Shootout set for Nov. 4-5. The main event for this Modifieds action is the 125-lap feature Nov. 5, though there are also Late Models tour division teams and CARS Pro Late Models and 602 Modifieds. Racing begins at 1:30 p.m.
