Wednesday, September 26, 2012

USMTS National Championship Series Recap

The United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) held two separate point championships this season.  The higher paying National Championship Series (NCS) was finalized back in early September in Ogilvie, Minnesota where Ryan Gustin collected his second consecutive National Title.

The NCS was comprised of 27 races on the schedule, with drivers' best twenty finishes counting towards the championship.  The season got kicked off down in Baytown, Texas in February and concluded in Ogilvie, Minnesota in early September. 

Ten different drivers visited victory lane in those twenty-seven races, but Ryan Gustin accumulated the most with ten.  Jason Hughes was next with six with other multiple feature winners being Johnny Scott, Chris Brown, and Stormy Scott.  Terry Phillips, Kelly Shryock, Mike Sorenson, Joey Jensen, and Jeremy Payne each collected one win apiece.

As I mentioned, the NCS only counted each driver's best twenty finishes.  Well, for Gustin that would be rather simple as he had twenty finishes in the top five!  Jason Hughes recorded fifteen top 5's to help earn a second place finish in the points.  Rodney Sanders finished third in points behind a string of twelve top 5's.  Gustin also led the way with 25 top ten finishes while Sanders was just one behind with 24.  Hughes had 20.

Gustin's average finishing position was 5.0.  His two finishes outside the top ten were a 27th place finish in Kennedale, Texas and a 20th place finish in Alta, Iowa.  His average starting spot was 11.1, giving him the most average positions gained of 6.1 cars per race.  Terry Phillips gained on average 3.6 cars a race to finish second in that category.

Similarly to the Hunt for the Casey's Cup, the NCS saw six races be won from the pole position.  The pole-sitter's average finishing position was 7.52 while the average starting position of the eventual winner was 4.63.  The NCS saw an average of 40.7 cars at each race. 

That will put a wrap on this recap.  Stay tuned for more..

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