Wytheville, VA(June 18, 2009) — The first half of the 2009 RACE22.com Fantasy Racing League has completed and one of the participants has come out on top by a large margin.
John Bowen, who became a contributor to RACE22.com over the winter and was quick to jump on board with the Fantasy Racing League in our first attempt at Late Model racing fantasy picks. Bowen didn’t start off as one of the favorites to win with so many “experts” in the media jumping on board, but in the end he came through with a big win.
Bowen took over the points lead in late May and never relinquished it and in fact padded his points lead every week despite the Fantasy picks having several twists and turns in the final four weeks. Bowen was never seriously challenged for the points lead in the final weeks and with his lead growing to 69 points this week over David Smith of DavidSmithMotorsports.com, the decision was made to cut the Fantasy picks one week short of the original planned length.
The Fantasy Racing League saw 11 of the smartest people surrounding the ranks of the Late Model Stock Cars ranks and a “Readers Choice” pick each week. Behind Bowen and D. Smith was RACE22.com contributor, Charles Hudson and our own Videographer, Kimberly Smith, who fell from second to fourth in the final week.
Kenny Lang of Left Turn Promotions and our own “Race Reporter”, Corey Latham completed the top five just ahead of the Readers Choice pick. RACE22.com Executive Editor, Langley Austin finished seventh just ahead of Late Model Digest Editor, Jim Carson. Austin and Carson were two of the favorites going in, but struggled over the May-June stretch of races.
Completing the twelve participants was Rob Staley of “Rob’s Ramblings”, Jerry Smith of Carolina Short Track Radio and Doc Love of Kick’n Asphalt Radio. J. Smith and Love really struggled over the final stretch and fell way out of contention finishing 11th and 12th.
Bowen was excited about winning especially against such stiff competition.
“Wow! Coming into this Fantasy Racing deal, I never figured I’d beat David(Smith), Langley(Austin) and Corey Latham,” said Bowen. “Those guys have so much knowledge about racing and I’m just excited to be able to participate. Now, I’m looking forward to defending my title in the second segment and who knows what kind of crazy twists they’ll throw at us.”
Many of the participants from the first half of the year will be back for the second half of the season which will start with the first weekend of racing in July and will run through the regular season of NASCAR Weekly Series races. That will set-up a playoff of sorts for the “Big Money” races at the end of the year including Martinsville, Myrtle Beach, Fall Brawl at Hickory, Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National and more races to be announced later.
With the second half of the 2009 RACE22.com Fantasy Racing League right around the corner we’re going to be bringing back some of the first half contestants(they will receive and invitation soon) as well as some new faces. Invites will be sent out to our friends from Speed51.com as well as some other “experts” that we want to participate and maybe give Bowen some tougher competition.
Final Official Points Standings for First Half of 2009 Season:
Pos.) Participant Name(Points Scored Last Week) Total Points
1) John Bowen(36) 129
2) David Smith(35) 198
3) Charles Hudson(39) 202
4) Kim Smith(51) 211
5) Kenny Lang(27) 214
6) Corey Latham(48) 219
7) Readers Choice(57) 227
8) Langley Austin(47) 239
9) Jim Carson(60) 250
10) Rob Staley(54) 271
11) Jerry Smith(76) 333
12) Doc Love(91) 386
