What was the key to Taten Perkins winning his first national USRA factory stock championship? Simple. Don’t crash.
“Staying out of trouble is important if you want to win a championship,” Taten, of Oakdale, Louisiana, says. “I stayed away from the drivers I knew would crash me, and ran with the ones who wouldn’t crash me. I learned to wait and make a move — I don’t care who the driver is, we all make mistakes on the race track. Wait and recognize another driver’s mistake, then make your move.”
Despite only being 18 years old, Taten has raced for six years and he seemingly has the wisdom that comes with experience. At the end of the year, he finished with 14 top-fives, 26 top-10s, but just one win. That victory came at the intimidating, highly banked Revolution Park in Monroe, Louisiana.
“The Rev is actually one of my favorite tracks,” Taten says. “You have to get up on the wheel. The racer who can drive it the hardest will win.”
His team consists primarily of himself and his father, Derek. Taten, who works on maintaining trucks for the U.S. Army at Fort Polk, found time to race. They hauled their race car three days a week, driving anywhere from an hour and a half to up to 6 hours to compete on a given night.
“Winning a national championship is a good feeling,” Taten says. “It tells us the long hours in the shop and long hours on the road were well worth it.”
What’s on the radar for Taten Perkins in 2026? Championship number two.
“With how high the purses are related to the cost of a factory stock, it makes the most sense to stay in factory stocks,” Taten says. “I’ll be there to defend my title, yes sir.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
