Michael Courtney
If you watched a Mini Stock race this season at 411 Motor Speedway, or even some of the other tracks around the east Tennessee region, there is a good chance that you saw Michael Courtney win. The 30-year-old driver from Powell, Tenn. piled up feature wins on his way to the track championship in the No. 41 machine.
“I drove for a couple of guys for the first time this year, Joey Clark and Jay Clark, and we mostly raced at 411 Motor Speedway,” Courtney recalled. “It worked out great for me because I work out of town a lot and I was able to just come in and show up to drive. I’ve never been able to do that before. I was pretty thankful for that. We had a great season. I think we got 19 wins with that car alone.”
Later in the season, Courtney was able to add more victories to his total at other tracks.
“After the points were over at 411, I was able to start driving my own car and I think we’re over about 25 wins this year.”
He believes that a big reason for his success was the frequency with which he was able to race in 2014. Also, the team he drove for had his cars well prepared each and every week.
“I’ve never really raced that many races before in a season,” Courtney declared. “I really just pick and choose and race about every other week. When they’ve got a big race, I go race. Their maintenance program was excellent, and just being able to finish every race helps. A lot of times in the past I’d be up front and then fall out. You never can win it if you’re not in the race when the checkered flag falls so that was the main key, just having everything stay together and staying clean and not getting in any altercations on the racetrack.”
Courtney began racing Mini Stocks back in 2008 and he still enjoys that division. To some degree, his routine will look much the same in the near future as far as his racing plans go. However, he would be open to the possibility of changing things up next season if the right opportunity comes along.
“It will probably be a combination,” he explained of his plans for 2015. “I’m going to race with Joey some and he’s in the process of building a new racecar. I’ll drive his and I’ll drive mine some. And, I’m itching to try to get in the Sportsman class at 411 and Tazewell.”
