It’s clear who the top drivers are if you look at the NeSmith Late Model standings at Magnolia Motor Speedway in each of the last four years.
Evan Ellis, Jeremy Shaw, Shay Knight, and Kyle Shaw have traded the top four positions this season — much like the last few — and at the halfway point of the slate at Magnolia, the fight for the points championship this year has narrowed to Knight and Kyle Shaw.
While maybe not entirely indicative of the top performances, or the teams that appear at the track at different times in the season — particularly for the national touring races — the most consistent top-five finishers from North Mississippi and West Alabama are reflected in the points standing each week. Kyle Shaw and Knight have made each race at the track, which is pivotal in chasing a points title, and each have at least four races in which they’ve finished in the top five.
“We don’t set out to compete for points at the beginning of the year because we like to race other tracks,” said Knight, who trails Shaw by 14 points. “But after a few races, if we’re in the top three, we try to points race. They pay well, you get a nice trophy and jacket. It’s nice at the end of the season.”
Knight opened the season with finishes of second, third, and ninth at Magnolia and, much like the previous four seasons, opted to contend for points at the track. Knight won the 2011 track points championship, when the track points were combined with Columbus Speedway. Since then, the tracks have held separate points races.
Knight will begin his second-half duel with Kyle Shaw on Saturday, as Magnolia plays host to a weekly series races during its $5 fan appreciation night. Hot laps begin at 7:30 p.m.
Kyle Shaw finds himself in the lead for the first time at the midway point of the season. He said he hates how he got there, though, after close friend and former points leader Jeremy Shaw recently opted to skip a race to run a Super Late Model race at Magnolia. That cost Jeremy Shaw the lead and bumped him to third — 55 points behind Kyle Shaw — despite owning two wins this season. Kyle Shaw and Knight are still searching for their first wins of the season.
“You have to be extremely lucky,” said Kyle Shaw, who hasn’t finished lower than seventh this season. “I got the lead by default, but you have to have good finishes. There are people who win points championships without winning races, but when you look at that points thing every week, you think, ‘Just go get a good finish.’ You get caught up in that and can get complacent.
“Sometimes you just got to lay it all out there to win. It’ll help you keep some of that edge.”
Kyle Shaw found himself in a rut early in the season, as his qualifying runs resulted in starts deeper in the field. In 20- to 25-lap races, there’s little time to climb through nearly half the field to contend for a win. Since re-focusing on stronger qualifying runs, Shaw has finished third and second in his last two features at Magnolia.
“Depending on whether or not you go out early or late, the track can slow down,” Kyle Shaw said. “If you miss it by a little bit … there will be a place on both ends, like low in (turn) one or two or high in (turn) three or four. I got in a rhythm where I always pretty much run well when I go out there, and I think I let my guard down. I got repetitive in the things I was doing, not searching for something to be better. It hurt me.”
Qualifying runs haven’t been an issue for Knight. Avoiding bad luck, like spark-plug wire popping off in races or getting caught in lap traffic late in races, has been a season-log effort.
“We have to get the monkey off our back — hopefully it’ll be this Saturday night,” Knight said. “We probably should have won five or six races.”
Still, the friendly rivalry between Knight and Kyle and Jeremy Shaw makes the ebbs and flows of a race season fun. Knight said he and Jeremy Shaw started racing open-wheel modifieds within a year of one another and have raced against each other in Crate Late Models and Super Late Models.
“Every one of us wants to beat the other just as bad,” Knight said. “Our kids play together at the track. It’s never been a bad rivalry, by any means, but we’re both very competitive. Week in, week out, you usually find the same cars running up front together.”
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