2013 Nationwide Series Review. The SWM Nationwide Series started in almost the exact same fashion as the Camping World Truck Series did. Chris Cowgill would take the Nationwide Shootout at Daytona, completing a Sweep of the exhibition race weekend by Badass Racing. The first points race at Daytona would see Dave Daniels get pushed to the win by teammate Rod Weston in a caution free race. Daniels would return to victory lane at Phoenix the following week to claim wins in the first 2 points races of the season. Las Vegas would see Rod Weston outrun Roy Cutshaw for his first win as defending series champion. The next three weeks before the Easter break would see Dave Daniels clinch 2 more victories and Frank Womack take honors at California. After the off week, Jason Walls coming off of a Bristol Trucks victory a few weeks before would outlast the field and take home the 6 shooters at Texas. Frank Womack would follow up with back to back wins at Kansas & Richmond. Darlington would see the weather play havoc with the field and scoring equipment as Dave Daniels took his 5th win of the season, and would claim his 6th two weeks later at Charlotte. The debut of the new concrete at Dover Downs brought a track record from Tex Perry for his first pole in SWM history, but Frank Womack would claim his 4th checkered flag passing Dave Daniels with just under 20 to go. Rod Weston would get his third victory of the season at Iowa, with Womack returning to victory lane at Michigan a week later. Road America saw Phil de Franco get handed a win when his team mate Dave Daniels wound up taking leader Frank Womack out coming to the white flag. Chris Cowgill would pull out the win at Kentucky in one of the most spectacular finishes in SWM history, where the top 3 cars would all finish the races with various parts of their vehicles crossing the finish line instead of the normal way. The return to the high banks of Daytona saw Daniels sweep the season races at the center of the speedway world, but he would fall to 7th at New Hampshire as Rod Weston would dominate the flat New England track. Chicago would see Dave Daniels start an impressive string of 16 straight races of finishing as either the winner or runner up. This would include 8 wins and 8 poles and leading an impressive 934 out of a possible 2134 laps or 44%. Watkins Glenn saw Patrick Cowgill take the checkered flag after front runners Mark Zabok and Chris Cowgill missed the inner loop with 3 laps to go. The race never got restarted, and Patrick took his first Nationwide Series trophy home. The following week saw Frank Womack dominate the entire race until an exhaust issue coming to the checkered flag let Daniels make up the difference and cross the start finish line just over 1 second ahead of Womack. The leagues return from the annual Bristol bash would lead to a string of 7 straight wins by Rodent racing, only to be ended by Tex Perry’s first Nationwide Series win at SWM Speedway in the last restrictor plate race of the season. Rodent Racing returned to victory lane the following week at Bristol as Rod Weston took over the lead after a round of green flag pit stops and never looked back. Dave Daniels would unofficially clinch the title with a 2nd place finish, as Rod Weston moved into second place in the season standings. The feel good story of the season came at Texas, where attrition would put over half the field in the garage as the race was coming to its conclusion. Jim Gilbert would make the pass for the win coming out of turn 4 to take his first Nationwide series win since the same Texas race in 2011. Daniels would claim pole and win at Phoenix to complete the first 3 win weekend in SWM since July 2011, and became the first driver not named Frank Womack to pull it off. With minimal excitement, but a lot of joy in the air, the NWS crews and haulers made their way to Homestead Florida for the season finale. Ray Womack led for most of the race until a late caution between Patrick Cowgill and Frank Womack closed the field up for a restart with 4 laps to go. Looking for his first win since March 2011 at Las Vegas, Raybo was hard on the gas, but Tex Perry was able to get a run out of the corner coming towards the 2 to go lap, and held on for his second win of the season. Dave Daniels claimed his first SWM title finishing with a 100 point margin over second place in the standings. He led every major category at seasons end, with 16 wins, a 2.86 average finishing position, a 2.81 average starting position and 13 pole awards. (all series records) Rodent Racing would take the Team Series Championship by 49 points over Badass Racing, collecting 24 wins between 3 drivers. Toyota would take the Manufacturer Series Championship by 60 points over Chevy.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 20:30:29 +0000
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