The SCDRA features a tight championship battle among two series veterans — Andrew Smith and Walker Windham. With three races left on the schedule, the two are tied at 213 points apiece.
However, that doesn’t take into account alternate races that replace their worst points-paying nights. If everything ended today, Smith would have 248 points, Windham 222. But, three races still remain. A win nets 36 points down to 11 for just attempting to make the race. Add an extra two for fastest qualifier and another point for longest tow.
The chase for the title doesn’t faze Smith, who won the series championship in 2017 and 2020.
“I’m not a points racer,” Smith, of Pooler, Georgia, said. “It’s not as fun dwelling on the points. We go to win races. I like the cardboard checks — it’s fun for the kids and me.”
Smith admitted that in recent years that he has raced wiser.
“It’s better to get second than going home on a wrecker,” said Smith. “When you’re younger, you just want to win, and you make bonehead moves. I just try to do my best.”
Windham, who’s had more consistent finishes, although with only one win to Smith’s three, also strives to first finish before finishing first.
“I used to just send it,” Windham, of Lake City, Florida, said, “but I got tired of tearing stuff up.”
SCDRA heads to Lake View Motor Speedway in Nichols, South Carolina, this weekend, October 27-28. The final two races take place at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Georgia. The November 17-18 pays $5,000. The season finale, the Winter Freeze on February 1-3, pays $20,000. It typically attracts more than 100 cars. Windham won it in 2020. Smith won it four years straight, from 2014-2017.
“Ever since they changed the dates [of the Winter Freeze from November to February], I have the Screven woes,” said Smith. “[I] haven’t won there since.”
The battle for the championship is far from over, although neither driver has placed a focus on the end-of-the-season crown.
The Outside Groove contributor from North Carolina grew up in the shop of her racer dad. She started racing V8 stock cars at age 13, competing in the renegades and then moving into the pure stocks.
