Josh Stevenson and Ryan Phillips have been linked by racing for several years now.
Both are Emporia natives — Phillips now lives in Osage City — and Phillips helped Stevenson get into racing.
On Saturday, the connection continued. Both racers won their first-ever points championships at Heartland Park in Topeka — Phillips in Modified and Stevenson in Factory Stock.
“That feels really good, because early in his career when he first started coming around cars, he hung out with us and worked on my team helping me,” Phillips said. “He was there when I first started making bodies and learned quite a bit from us.”
Both Stevenson and Phillips also provided plenty of drama on Saturday.
Stevenson led by only four points going into the final race, and the second-place driver started two rows behind him.
Stevenson left no doubt whom the winner would be, winning for the third time this season.
“It was kind of cool to be able to go out with a win,” he said.
Phillips led throughout most of the season, but in the first feature on Saturday, he broke a drive shaft on the first lap, and Nick Bidinger won the race to take over the points lead.
Phillips got his car fixed and started 16th in the final feature; Bidinger started sixth. Phillips drove his way to the front and a championship, finishing second and three places ahead of Bidinger.
It was his first championship in 13 years of racing.
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noplacelikehome (anonymous) says...
Congratulations Josh and Ryan! It's great to see two hometown boys represent us well! Ya'll keep up the good work!
September 30, 2009 at 3:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wouldntuliketoknow (anonymous) says...
Way to go Josh and Ryan!! It must take alot of hard work to keep the car going all season long. You two seem to have kept up with it. Congratulations!!
September 30, 2009 at 3:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )