Jason Cardwell
Jason Cardwell may have only won one race so far in 2014. But on Saturday night in the Steelhead Nationals at the 411 Motor Speedway, he made sure that one win was a big one. The Knoxville driver took the lead for good on lap 43 of the 50 lap feature when front runners Jason Welshan and Cory Hedgecock were involved in an incident that damaged both of their cars.
Cardwell went on from there to take the checkered flag and the $3,500 payout that went with it.
“We felt pretty good about our chances,” Cardwell said of his team’s confidence going into the Steelhead Nationals. “We’ve got a new engine by Foundation Engines and we went through the whole car the week before so we felt good going into the race. We qualified pretty decent by sitting on the outside pole with Cory(Hedgecock), and luckily the high line was working pretty well there so we got the jump on him and ended up winning our heat race. That put us on the pole for the feature.”
There was no shortage of talent in the feature race that Cardwell would have to battle for the win. Hedgecock has been dominate in the Limited Late Model class all over east Tennessee during 2013 and 2014. Welshan has won over 30 feature races this season. The two most recent 411 Motor Speedway track champions, in the persons of Ryan King and Rusty Ballenger, were entered in the race. Also, Super Late Model star Billy Ogle, Jr. was among the contenders.
“We started on the pole with Welshan and kind of got the jump on him, but he’s pretty good and got back around us,” Cardwell explained. “We fought in there for a little while. I could gain ground on him in lapped traffic, but then we came up on some pretty heavy traffic and my car was a little tighter than what I would have liked in traffic. That allowed Cory to get by me. Once Cory got by me, I knew I was in a little bit of trouble because he was pretty quick.”
Even though he was not in the lead of the race as the laps began to click away, Cardwell had positioned himself so that he could take advantage if the opportunity presented itself. And on lap 43, the opportunity presented itself.
“Cory and Jason got to racing each other pretty hard and ended up taking each other out,” the former 411 Motor Speedway track champion declared. “We’ve lost a lot of races the same way and I hate to see anybody tear their stuff up, but we were able to take advantage of it. Our crew has worked really hard this year and we were happy to get one.”
Cardwell is just one representative of a family that has been involved in racing around east Tennessee for many years.
Jason Cardwell(left) talks with brother Andy earlier this season in Bulls Gap.
“It’s a family deal,” the driver said of himself and his brothers. “We all work full time jobs and we work on the car when we get the chance. I like it that way. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Aside from family, Cardwell receives help from other sources as well.
“The biggest deal is we’ve run the first half of the season under horsepower,” he stated. “We were still running an engine that fit the rules of a couple of years ago. I’ve got a lot of help from Raymond Shepard, I couldn’t race without him. He had this new engine built by Junior Weisgarber, and it’s more up to date with the rules now. That’s made all the difference in the world.”
Even with his improved performance over the second half of the season, Cardwell was beginning to have doubts about winning a race in 2014. But those doubts were laid to rest this past Saturday night.
“I was starting to wonder if we were going to get one or not. It’s not easy anymore. You’ve just got to do the best you can.”
