DAYTONA BEACH, Fllorida – The Evergreen Speedway season hit its halfway point, and Naima and Jill Lang are halfway to history.
Naima Lang has won five of nine races in the track’s premier division, the Speedway Chevrolet Super Stock Series, and is the current point leader. He also leads the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Washington state standings. His wife, Jill, has a pair of wins in the Les Schwab Tires Bombers Division and is in the championship hunt for the track title as well.
Earlier this season, both won their feature races on the same night, a feat the track believes is a first in its long history. Husband and wife winning track titles in the same year would be equally as rare.
“Her whole family races — she’s been racing on and off since she was five years old,” said Naima Lang. “As long as the wife’s having fun, the family’s having fun.”
The track and state title would earn Naima Lang an invitation to the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series banquet in Las Vegas Friday, Nov. 7. Starting last year, NASCAR revived the tradition of honoring U.S. state and Canadian provencial champions — a practice that dates back to the earliest days of the NASCAR short tracks.
Connecticut’s Keith Rocco continues to lead the national standings. His second-place finish at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway last Friday pushed his total to 804 points. He has two of his four wins this season at the New Waterford (Conn.) Speedbowl.
Coleman Pressley of Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina remains in second with 751 points. He was third at Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson, N.C., last Friday.
Brian Harris won at Dubuque (Iowa) Fairgrounds Speedway Sunday to move up one spot to third, while the Greenville-Pickens duo of David Roberts and Marty Ward round out the top five.
While the field for the national championship narrows, the race for track titles, as well as U.S. state and Canadian provincial titles, remains wide open across the continent.
Last year, Naima Lang finished second to John Zaratzke in both the Evergreen and NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Washington state standings, while Jill Lang finished fifth in the Bomber division.
Breaking down the difference between last year and this for Naima Lang is simple: “It’s night and day.”
Lang traces his turnaround to the new late model built by his old crew chief, Jesse Jensen. It’s the same recipe that resulted in him winning the track’s Street Stock title in 2004. Now in his third season in the track’s premier division, Lang has transitioned from a winless 2007 to winning more than half the features run in 2008.
“I wouldn’t have any other guy build me a race car,” Lang said. “He’s probably hands down the best fabricator up here in the Northwest. I knew having Jesse with me would build me enough confidence to be where I’m at right now.”
Under the point structure for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, the race winner will receive two points for every car in the event up to 25 cars. Second place will receive two fewer points, and so-on through the field. For example, if there are 25 cars, the winner receives 50 points, second gets 48 and third 46. If there are 15 cars, the winner receives 30 points, second gets 28 and third 26. New this year, drivers receive five bonus points for a win. The final day for the 2008 points is Sunday, Sept. 14.
FEATURE DIVISION
National Top 25 NASCAR Leaders
PosDriver Name Home Track Starts Wins T-5 T-10 Pts
1 Keith Rocco Waterford Speedbowl 24 4 17 20 804
2 Coleman Pressley Greenville-Pickens Speedway 18 7 16 17 751
3 Brian Harris West Liberty Raceway 17 8 16 16 646
4 David Roberts Greenville-Pickens Speedway 18 2 14 17 632
5 Marty Ward Greenville-Pickens Speedway 13 6 13 13 620
6 Philip Morris Motor Mile Speedway 13 6 11 12 602
7 Andy Loden Hickory Motor Speedway 24 6 22 24 584
8 Andy Eckrich West Liberty Raceway 18 3 14 16 581
9 Jimmy Blewett Thompson Intl Speedway 17 2 8 12 570
10 Ralph Carnes Greenville-Pickens Speedway 17 0 7 17 524
11 Jeff Strunk Grandview Speedway 12 2 11 11 520
12 C E Falk, III South Boston Speedway 16 0 11 13 512
13 Gary Glenn All American Speedway 14 4 11 11 510
14 Kenneth Headen Greenville-Pickens Speedway 13 0 10 13 510
15 Jeremiah Hurst West Liberty Raceway 18 2 8 14 492
16 Guy Jubinville Autodrome St. Eustache 12 6 10 10 484
17 Joey Stearns Madera Speedway 18 2 11 16 472
18 John Moore All American Speedway 12 2 10 11 468
19 Tony Hanbury Chemung Speedrome 13 7 8 10 453
20 Doug Coby, III Waterford Speedbowl 16 1 5 9 447
21 Adam Royle Elko Speedway 16 2 15 15 444
22 Doug Manmiller Grandview Speedway 12 0 6 9 440
23 Woody Pitkat Stafford Motor Speedway 14 2 7 8 438
24 Kyle Gottula Madera Speedway 16 5 12 15 437
25 Nick Joanides Toyota Speedway At Irwindale 11 7 9 9 433
For additional information, contact:
Jason Christley, NASCAR Public Relations, (386) 947-6788 or jchristley@nascar.com
