American Nascar Heat PS4 Championship Season 2 Final Race and Championship Recap:
The final race of the season (and for Nascar Heat Evolution, as the next season will be raced on Heat 2) took place Friday night at Homestead.
With many battles happening throughout the Top 7 in points ready to be played out this race, every bonus point would be critical. Qualifying was no exception. Kyle Spencer (KDawgHonda777) snagged his 1st Pole of the season (3rd of his career), edging out his teammate Christopher Herring (CJHerring) by only .058 secs. Adam Zemke (Zeke_H30), Charles Sumner (Hootius), and Aaron Webb (AaronWebb85) rounded out the Top 5. The Top 7 qualifiers in this race were only separated by a mere .150 secs. As the points went, qualifying set up two stories for the night: 1) Kyle started the race 1 point behind Aaron in the battle for 4th in Points, so the bonus point for the Pole meant that Kyle and Aaron would be racing heads up in the race. 2) Due to the number of entries tonight, the championship was crowned as soon as times were set in qualifying. More on the champion to come.
The race for the Segment was interesting one. No one in the field could have made it the full 35 laps on fuel, but do you take just a splash early to make it, or do you pit early for fresher tires and race your way back? Well that was pretty much decided halfway through the segment when Charles, while running in 3rd place at that time, spun exiting Turn 4 and luckily right down pit road. That pretty much forced the hand of the rest of the leaders to pit within the next lap or 2 so Charles could not work the tire advantage. We had our first caution a lap before Stage finish, and that gave Christopher H. his 8th Segment win of the season (league best). Charles crossed the line in 2nd, limiting the amount of points Christopher H. could gain on him for 2nd Place in the Points battle (Charles had a 10 point lead entering the race).
After the Segment, we had 2 quick cautions, and then a long 53 lap green flag run. Unfortunately during that long run, we lost 2 very fast cars in Michael Caterino (vWardude) and Nick Michaud (NickCM12), whom dropped out of the race due to server disconnection (which also unfortunately bit Brian Mosser (BrianMosser88) and Rob Besaw (Xsyse) as well). Christopher H. and Charles were building a gap on the field at this time, along with Kyle who would have needed an extra pit stop though for fuel had it stayed green. Christopher H. had a solo spin which handed Charles a 10 second lead going into the final round of green flag pit stops, which in turn got wiped away as an accident happened on the entrance of pit road that brought out the yellow. Charles would fall back to 6th place due to a bad pit stop, and find himself in trouble going back to green as he was hit and spun in a solo manner which did not bring out the caution. Adam and Christopher Johnson (MeattyLoaf) would also have similar setbacks, leading to those 3 drivers short pitting to try to gain track position back if the race went green the rest of the way. The caution came out again, allowing all 3 drivers to get back on the lead lap (Adam as the Lucky Dog, Charles and Christopher J. taking the wave around and staying on old tires). As the field was jockeying for position, we saw the yellow flag wave one last time with 8 laps to go. Christopher H., Brad Williams (BeeJ2015) and Adam stayed out for the track position as the other drivers pitted in hopes of one last mad dash to the front. The first car with fresh tires was Charles, who would restart in 4th. It took 2 laps for Charles to get around Adam, but as that was happening, Brad would get into the back of Christopher H., which would slow the cars down some and allow Charles to close the gap. Charles got around Brad immediately and for the 2nd week in a row, set up a 2 lap duel between Christopher H. and Charles coming to the finish. Christopher H. was on older tires and was left with having to drive with his mirror to break up the faster speed Charles could carry on corner exit on fresher tires. On the last lap, Charles would work that to his advantage using the high line in Turn 1, then shooting to the bottom of Turn 2 as Christopher H.'s car slid up into the top lane. The drivers then had a drag race down the backstretch, with Charles in the preferred inside line with the fresher tires. Charles was able to drive into Turn 3 harder and cleared Christopher H. by time they reach Turn 4, and then drove down the front-stretch to claim his 4th career win, and secure 2nd place in the Championship over Christopher H. As that battle happened, the battle for 4th place in the points was settled in the last turn also. Aaron needed to beat Kyle by 3 positions to have sole claim of 4th place due to Kyle receiving 2 bonus points during the 1st Segment. As Aaron was in 5th and Kyle in 7th, Aaron made a last corner pass on Adam, which was then countered by Kyle getting around Christopher J. coming to the checkered flag. That 2 position gap meant both drivers tied in points, with Kyle owning the tie-breaker to his win at Atlanta early in the season. It was an incredible ending to the race, and the season, as almost every position on the track would swap hands on the very last lap.
The top 10 finishing order was:
1st) Charles Sumner (Hootius) - 3rd Win of the Season, 4th overall
2nd) Christopher Herring (CJHerring) - 11th Top 5 of the Season
3rd) Brad Williams (BeeJ2015) – 6th Top 5 of the Season
4th) Aaron Webb (AaronWebb85) – 6th Top 5 of the Season
5th) Adam Zemke (Zeke_H30) – 7th Top 5 of the Season
6th) Kyle Spencer (KDawgHonda777) – 14th Top 10 of the Season
7th) Christopher Johnson (MeattyLoaf) – 8th Top 10 of the Season
8th) Nick Michaud (NickCM12) – 9th Top 10 of the Season
9th) Michael Caterino (vWardude) – 20th Top 10 of the Season
10th) Brian Mosser (BrianMosser88) – 8th Top 10 of the Season
Big congratulations go out to Michael Caterino (vWardude) on his 1st PRL Championship. Due to the lead coming into Homestead and the number of drivers who showed up for the race, Michael clinched the Championship as soon as he started up his car. Charles Sumner (Hootius) was the runner up and finished the season off strong with a win and closed the gap down to 6 points. If you look at the Ave. Finish, Bonus Points earned, # of Disconnect DNF's and many other categories, Michael and Charles were pretty much identical for the 2nd season in a row. Christopher Herring (CJHerring) finished 16 points back in 3rd place, in a season which saw him win the most races in the league! As stated in the race recap, Kyle Spencer (KDawgHonda777) and Aaron Webb (AaronWebb85) finish tied in points, but with Kyle officially 4th due to the win tie-breaker.
The Team Championship was really just a battle of attrition over this marathon season. The team of Damn Kids, Get off my Lawn! (original members Michael Caterino (vWardude), Charles Sumner (Hootius),Aaron Webb (AaronWebb85), and in-season acquisition Mitchell Riggs (MitchMan009)) won the title by a big margin due to being the only team not to suffer sufficient turnover or attendance issues this season, getting points for 87 of a possible 92 races. 2nd in the team standings was Forward Byte, who's only remaining members were Christopher Herring (CJHerring) and Kyle Spencer (KDawgHonda777). In comparison, due to significant turnover, Forward Byte only received points for 70 of a possible 92 races. In Season 3, the league will be going down to 2 man teams over the 10 race season, which will make the Team Championship a nice and close battle.
Nascar Heat 2 will be released on September 12th. Keep a look out in the beginning of September for sign-ups of Season 3, which we will start that campaign off with a 10 race season using the Monster Energy Cup cars!