Lang wins NASCAR state championship

MONROE, Wash. — A new NASCAR champion for the state of Washington was crowned Saturday night.

Naima Lang dominated early, held off defending champion John Zaretzke through a succession of restarts, then edged Jason Fraser in a green-white-checkered finish to win his eighth race of the season and clinch his first NASCAR Whelen All-American Series state title at Evergreen Speedway.

“It was awesome — the best race of my life, by far,” Lang said after claiming both his trophies. “Beating the two fastest guys out here, can’t beat it.”

Begun last year, the Whelen All-American Series provides a means for both national and state champions to be crowned. Late-model drivers at every NASCAR Home Track in the country are awarded points for their finishing positions in a maximum of 18 races.

Fraser finished second, James Mugge was third, Zaretzke came in fourth and Jeff Knight rounded out the top five in Saturday’s race, which was the 18th Super Stock division feature at Evergreen Speedway this season.

Later in the American Speed Associated Northwest Sprint Racecar Association 30-lap feature, series points leader Matt Hein passed Matt Mansell on the final lap to win the third annual Rory Price Memorial. Jeff Montgomery finished third and Robert Beck was fourth.

Although the NASCAR championship race was scheduled for 125 laps, it went a shorter 117 laps because of time.

Josh Charles, making his first start of the season at Evergreen, spun exiting turn 4 on lap 111, bringing out the fifth caution and setting up the green-white-checkered finish.

Restarting from the outside of the first row on lap 115, Fraser edged ahead of Lang and was leading by a quarter-panel when the two took the white flag at the start-finish line. But Lang pulled even on the backstretch and then edged into the lead heading into turn 3, en route to taking the checkered.

“I was racing hard, I was leaning on him,” Lang said of Fraser. “I wanted to win as bad as he did.”

Fraser had followed Lang around Zaretzke and into second place on lap 106. Zaretzke had beaten Lang to turn 1 on a restart two laps before that, but was unable to hold the lead.

“The hard work was the restarts,” Lang said. “Holding off the master of restarts, John Zaretzke, and then Jason Fraser.”

Zaretzke, the defending NASCAR champion, had won the past four Super Stock feature races at Evergreen Speedway. He entered the night trailing Lang by just 16 points in the season standings, and was the only other driver with a chance at winning the title.

But with two points awarded for each finishing position, and Lang holding the tiebreaker — season wins — Zaretzke needed to finish nine spots ahead of Lang to repeat as NASCAR champion.

“We didn’t have a good enough car; every restart we had a good enough car for two or three laps, actually, to be in front of (Lang),” Zaretzke said after the race. “But he ran us up into the fence every restart, too.”

Zaretzke debuted a new, hot pink paint scheme on his No. 51 car Saturday night, and after the race the tire marks on his left side bore evidence to what he was saying.

Lang said he raced both Zaretzke and Fraser hard but clean. Lang added that Zaretzke, who restarted four times on the front row outside of Lang, wasn’t giving him much room entering turn 1.

Mugge got around Zaretzke for third place in final two-lap shootout.

The hard charger of the race had to be Knight, who started on the third row but ended up going to the back of the field after pitting during the second caution. Knight, who is the lead pastor at The Rock Church in Monroe, fought his way back to the front, passing Mike Holden for fifth place on lap 74.

“He might be a pastor on Sunday,” Evergreen Speedway manager Terry Buell said of Knight. “But he’s a racecar driver on Saturday nights.”

After starting on the outside of the first row, Mugge led the first nine laps of the race, diving into turn 1 ahead of polesitter Tom Berrow. Lang passed Mugge for the lead on lap 10, and Zaretzke got by the rookie two laps later.

Lang and Zaretzke pulled away from the rest of the field, lapping slower cars and building up a margin of half the distance around the track between themselves and Mugge in third.

After restarts on lap 40 and 44, Lang was able to pull away from Zaretzke, building up a 20 car lengths advantage by lap 66.

“I was trying to save my stuff and let (Lang) use his up,” Zaretzke said. “But I guess I didn’t have a good enough racecar.”

Lang set fast time in qualifying, turning a lap on the five-eighths mile oval in 22.897 seconds for a best speed of 101.568 mph.

Zaretzke won’t have long to wait for another shot at beating Lang on the five-eighths mile oval.

Next weekend Evergreen Speedway will hold the Dino Rossi for Governor Big Track Championship, with the Super Stock division and the America Speed Associated Aero Exhaust Northwest Tour both scheduled to run 125-lap races.

Although Evergreen Speedway is the only NASCAR Home Track in Washington, it could produce separate state and track champions. Unlike last year when Zaretzke claimed both titles, this season the speedway used a separate points structure for the track championship.

After Saturday’s NASCAR-clinching win, Lang holds a six-point lead over Zaretzke in the track championship standings. With just one point per finishing position in the track standings, Lang once again just has to finish close enough to Zaretzke to clinch the title.

Just as he did before the NASCAR championship race, Lang dismissed any notion that he would be keeping an eye on where Zaretzke was on the track during next weekend’s race.

“I’m going to win the race,” Lang said. “That makes the math easy.”

Of course Zaretzke will have something to say about that, and after the race he was optimistic of his chances.

“The margin is certainly doable there,” Zaretzke said of the track championship standings. “We’ll going to come back next week, try to make the racecar better. We’re not going to be as nice on the restarts, though.”

Saturday, at Evergreen Speedway

Monroe, Wash.

(five-eighths mile oval)

Speedway Chevrolet Super Stocks

Pos No. Name

1 00 Naima Lang

2 31 Jason Frasier

3 34 James Mugge

4 51 John Zaretzke

5 70 Jeff Knight

6 78 Joe Constance

7 99 Scott LaCross