If you happen to be a conspiracy theorist, seeing Scott Steckly drive a Canadian Tire-sponsored car to the season title in a Canadian Tire-sponsored series just might get you working overtime on a hypothesis or two.
Unfortunately for the tinfoil hat crowd, the corporate backing of both is just a simple coincidence, even though a few still might conclude the fix was in.
“It’s what some people think sometimes,” Steckly chuckled.
“We are watched pretty closely by the NASCAR officials to make sure everything is done by the book. On the other hand, without Canadian Tire supporting our team we wouldn’t be able to do it for sure.”
A second Canadian Tire Series title this year tied Steckly with Andrew Ranger for the most championships in the series since it was reborn as the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in 2007.
NASCAR announced a takeover of the financially challenged Canadian Association for Stock Car Racing, commonly known as the CASCAR Super Series, in late 2006 and transformed it into a Canadian Tire-backed regional operation. Don Thomson Jr. holds the CASCAR record for most titles, winning that championship five times.
No matter how you slice it, Steckly had a stellar season. In 12 starts, he took three poles, three wins and finished on the podium eight times. He clinched the title in the final race of the season with a second place finish to point runner-up D.J. Kennington, who was the defending season champion.
“It was fun with me and D.J. — every week we were trying to outdo each other and be the fastest in practice and out qualify each other,” Steckly said.
“We were going for bragging rights every weekend. He’s a tough competitor and one of the best out there.”
Steckly counted 1960 points in 2011, 79 better than Kennington. J.R. Fitzpatrick was third, 186 points adrift. Drivers get 185 points for a win.
One thing that always throws a monkey wrench into the Canadian stock car championship fight is a driver like Ranger, one of several road course ringers who get into the action and take away points from the title contenders. Ranger was a huge factor in the championship despite starting only four times, taking a pair of wins in Montreal and Toronto to go along with two poles in Montreal and Trois Rivieres. Ranger’s Toronto triumph relegated Steckly to second on a day where he would have won had he been fighting only series regulars.
Meanwhile, Robin Buck took a win away from the second-place finishing No. 22 Dodge at the ICAR Circuit in Mirabel, Que., and also crossed the line first in Trois Rivieres, stealing more valuable points from Steckly, who ended the day third behind Ranger.
But on the days when outsiders get in the mix, Steckly said the key is keeping your eye on the cars that matter in the bigger picture and staying ahead of your championship rivals.
“You gotta learn to just sort of forget about it. We would have won in Toronto if Andrew wasn’t there and ICAR without Robin being there, but they come to race and that’s fine. They make us pick up our game,” he said.
“If you are going to win a championship, you have to realize that on some days you aren’t going to win the race and you have to be satisfied with a second, third, fourth or fifth place finish. If we can come out of the road courses with top-three finishes, it really helps our championship.”
Apart from an accident in the Velocity Prairie Thunder at Saskatoon’s Auto Clearing Motor Speedway and a broken wheel hub during the Wild Wing 300 at Barrie Speedway, Steckly and his team hardly put a foot wrong in 2011.
