Hagersville, Ontario- September 30, 2018 – The NASCAR Pinty’s Series finished up the 2018 season last night at Jukasa Motor Speedway. E.H.R. driver Cole Powell had a great night and showcased his talent in the season finale.
Powell topped the charts in the afternoon practice session, but was beat out in qualifying by Kennington by a mere 3/100ths of a second in qualifying for the pole for the 200-lap main event Saturday night.
The Team turned their attention to the race. Powell was still mathematically in the hunt for the Championship so every lap and position counted in the Team’s pursuit.
The first part of the race saw a long green-flag run. Caution finally came out on lap 75 and Crew Chief Craig Masters brought the #3 Kubota/Copp’s Build all Chevrolet down pit road for fuel.
Powell continued to log laps running in the top 5 most of the night.
The Team pitted for tires on lap 136 looking to charge back to the top spot. Powell battled his way back up to 3rd by lap 147 and took over 2nd place on lap 183. A late race restart on lap 195 saw the Team’s hopes of a podium finish slip away as Powell was hung out on the outside of the racing groove and slipped back to 6th where he finished the night. Finishing 6th, garnered the Team a 4th place finish in the 2018 Championship.
“Finishing 6th after running up front all night is a pretty tough way to end the season. I will say though that this is a great Team and we have accomplished some awesome things for our first year together.” said Powell after climbing out of his race machine.
Powell was honoured with the NASCAR Pinty’s Series Inaugural Oval Racer of the Year award at the conclusion of the race.
Team owner Ed Hakonson was happy with his Team and driver in 2018. “This has been a great season. Cole has done a great job, learning these cars and logging laps at each track. The award that was given to Cole tonight validates all that he has done in 2018. Our Team was also great this year bringing competitive cars each and every week to the track and working together to get the best results. This was a superb Team effort alongside all of our partners that we are proud and honoured to have with us.”
