Round 20 - Homestead - Miami Florida

Round 20, the final round of the series took place at Homestead Miami Speedway in Florida.

I had to get a good result to stand any chance of a championship top 10 finish.

The 10 lap practise session went well as I was fastest with a time of 38.042s.

Qualifying did not go too well as I had to be content with a 13th place grid slot with a time of 38.021 even though this was faster than my practise time!

In the race I managed to climb through the field to get the lead in the first 10 laps. However a lapse in concentration on lap 25 saw me spin coming out of turn 2 and which put me back deep in the field.

I fought hard to get back to the front but the stewards deemed it too hard and on the last lap I was given my final black flag of the season!

So a last place finish to complete the season. 14th in the championship, 1001 points behind the leader was disappointting but next season a top 10 should be possible.

Round 19 - Phoenix International Raceway

The penultimate round of the Championship took place in the Arizona desert at the Phoenix International Raceway.

With no chance of winning the championship the best I could aim for out of this season was a solid top 20 finish. I did have an outside chance of a top 10 spot but I would have to have two very good results.

Practise went very well as my time of 29.625 was the fastest posted during the session.

My good form carried over into qualifying as my time of 29.668 was enough to win pole position.

In the race I was always in the top 2. I led for 23 of the 38 laps, unlike some of the previous races if I made a mistake I was content to let the cars through and then work my way back to the front.

I crossed the line barely a tenth of a second in front of the second placed truck.

My best lap time in the race was 29.803, two tenths slower than my qualifing time.

I was now up to 12th in the standings, 945 points behind the leader.

Round 18 - Texas Motor Speedway

The Lone Star state was home to round 18 of the championship.

Texas is one of the fastest of the mile and a half speedways.

Practise went well as I posted the fastest time of 33.881 after the mandatory 10 laps.

I was on form in qualifying as well - pole position with a time of 34.033.

My race was a perfect example of poor decision making. Until 10 laps from the end I'd led enough laps to get the 10 bonus. However I drifted out wide on one of the turns and hit the wall dropping me to 10th place.

Sometimes racing for a championship you have to accept that you can't win every race. I should have used the remaining laps to carefully pass as many cars as possible before the end however I tried to get back to the front too aggressively which resulted in yet another black flag. I finished a disapppointing 35th.
I was now 16th in the standings, 962 points behind although a top 10 finish was still possible.

Round 17 - Atlanta Motor Speedway, Georgia

Round 17 of the series took place at the very fast Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia.

I started off the race weekend with a very satisfying practise session, where after my 10 laps I was 5th fastest with a time of 31.756.

Qualifying went even better for me as I qualified just off the front row in 3rd place with a time of 31.718.

In the race I found myself 4th early on and decided to stay there until the last 15 of the 33 laps. With 15 to go I begun to make my move, the cars in front of me were running alone which made passing easier however I did have to lap a few trucks as well. By the fiinal lap I was second but nearly 2 seconds behind the leader so there was no chance of winning the race.

I finshed second but didn't pick up any bonus points as I didn't lead any laps.

I ended up back to12th place in the overall standings still 888 points behind the current leader.