Woody Pitkat needed a little help from Kerry Malone and didn't get it.
Pitkat captured the win in the Sunoco Modified race Thursday night in the season finale of the Thursday Night Thunder series at Thompson Speedway.
But finishing right behind Pitkat was Keith Rocco and that’s all the driver of the No. 88 car had to do to capture the season points title.
Rocco and Pitkat finished tied with 452 points apiece, but Rocco was awarded the title by the first tiebreaker — number of wins.
“What really won us this championship was a couple of weeks ago,” Rocco said in Victory Lane. “A lapped car blew up, me and Ryan (Preece) both went into the fence and my team hustled to get me back out there.
“We’re not a team that brings spare parts and tools into the infield, we bring two spare tires, a jack and an impact gun. Guys out there were sportsman enough to loan us the parts to fix it and my team got us back out there and that sixth-place finish really saved us.”
Pitkat needed to have Malone, who finished just six points behind in the points race, to slip in between him and Rocco, but the 79 car couldn’t get there.
“We tied so I didn’t I come up short,” Pitkat said with a laugh in Victory Lane. “My mindset, coming into the week, was that it would be nice to be tied, so all I had to do was beat Keith...but congratulations to him.”
Mini Stocks
Eric Bourgeois came into the season thinking it was going to be his last in the No. 33 car.
Owner Bruce Stevens had told the veteran driver that “he was all done at the end of the year and was going to get rid of everything,” according to Bourgeois.
Bourgeois was going to get the car that he drove earlier in the year from Stevens while the No. 33 was going to be sold.
“A couple of weeks ago, he said, ‘I’m going to put one together for next year,’ ” Bourgeois said with a smile. “We will be back in the 33 car. As far as I know.”
A points championship can do that for a race team.
Bourgeois picked up his first points championship as a driver since 2004 and doubled his pleasure with a win in the final points race of the season. Despite it being just the ninth race of the season, the first exclamation out of Bourgeois’ mouth in Victory Lane, “What a long year.”