Full Throttle

While Scott Steckly was honoured Saturday night for winning the 2008 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series championship, the big news was that seventh-place finisher J.R. Fitzpatrick is very close to landing a full-time ride in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for 2009.

Held at the Hilton Suites Toronto/Markham Conference Centre, the awards banquet not only saw Steckly officially crowned national champion but also recognized the second-through-20th place finishers and singled out certain individuals for outstanding achievements.

Steckly edged second-place finisher Don Thomson Jr. by just 24 points to win his first title. In the 13-race series that went from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, Steckly won four races and posted nine Top 5 finishes. D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas finished third in points.

Steckly asked wife Penny to accept his team’s Championship Owner Award and she was articulate as well as eloquent in describing the triumphs, the struggles and the sacrifices of the past season.

In fact, she told the 1,000 people in attendance that if the team hadn’t done well at the opening race at Cayuga in May (which her husband won), their season might have been over at that point.

But Steckly, driver of the No. 22 Tow Truck in a Box/Erb Group Dodge, kept things together and took home all the marbles — cash awards from Canadian Tire and Mobil 1, a crystal Pegasus trophy and, most important, a NASCAR champion’s ring.

Not too many of those around, folks.

Other awards:

— Steckly’s crew chief Greg Gibson was honoured as the Champion Crew Chief. Tow Truck in a Box CEO Michael Manno accepted the Champion Sponsor Award.

— Defending series champion Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., finished fourth and was on hand to accept his prize, which was nice to see.

— The first Rookie of the Year Award was presented to Jason White of Sun Peaks, B.C. White was also given the Sportsman Award, which was voted on by all the drivers in the series. He was thrilled.

— Kennington was given the POWERade Power Move of the Race Award, given to the driver who improved his position the most in races over the season.

As Kennington was also running full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in the U.S. this year, he frequently had to start at the back of Canadian Tire Series races because he’d miss qualifying. As a result, his charges toward the front were not only electrifying to watch but award-winning too!

Oh, Kennington also won the Most Popular Driver Award, which was amusing – not that he won it but because he wasn’t there to collect his trophies and his loot. He was racing in the Nationwide event at Memphis – he finished 20th; Carl Edwards won – so every time Kennington’s name was called out at Saturday night’s banquet, his pal Ron Beauchamp Jr. of Windsor would accept on his behalf.

Between his own awards and Kennington’s, Beauchamp got more face time on stage Saturday night than anyone else.

— Kerry Micks of Mt. Albert finished fifth. Fitzpatrick was seventh, now-retired Peter Gibbons of Stouffville was eighth, Jason Hathaway of Appin (and winner of the Driver Achievement Award for his improved performance this year) was ninth and Brad Graham of Glencoe was tenth.

J.R. Fitpatrick a 19-year-old from Cambridge, who was the youngest driver (at 16) to ever start a CASCAR race (the forerunner of NASCAR in Canada), the youngest (at 17) to ever win a CASCAR race, and the youngest (again at 17) to win a CASCAR championship, started a truck race at Martinsville two weeks ago and finished 21st after qualifying 19th.

He’s scheduled to race the trucks again at Phoenix International Raceway in two weeks and then again a week after that at Homestead-Miami Speedway when the NASCAR season comes to an end.

“I’m running with the TRG Motorsports team,” Fitzpatrick said, “and my goal is to get all my licenses so I can run full-time with them in ‘09 — if we can put something together.”

Fitzpatrick said he was pleased with his Martinsville performance – considering it was raining and all of Friday’s practice was washed out.

“I got 30 minutes of practice Saturday and then we qualified. I was 19th and I was happy with that. Then the Cup cars went out for Happy Hour (final practice) and that changed the track.

“My truck was really tight. We tried to get it to handle all day but couldn’t. It sucked for me because I had to tell myself not to really race. I like to be pushing guys and all that and I had to take it easy but I brought it home in 21st. Oh, and I had a head gasket leaking the whole race, so I didn’t have the power the other guys had.”