FLOYD, VA :: Daryn Cockram hasn’t focused as much on his Limited Late Model in the past few years, so when he considered this year a rebuilding year, he even managed to impress himself with his performance at a variety of different tracks in the 2014 season.
Cockram has raced at four different tracks this year and has recorded top-five finishes at all four tracks, including a win at Motor Mile Speedway in the season’s second race. He finds himself inside the top-100 in the NASCAR Whelen American Series Division II National Standings and now, he feels more victories could be on the horizon.
Cockram took a few seasons off to get his daughters, Brittany and Jessica, in to racing.
“I took so much time off getting the kids started,” Cockram said. “I put my stuff on the backburner for three years. This year, I told the guys we’d look at this year as a rebuild year, get our feet wet and get back in the seat and we’d go hard after it next year so it’s surprised us how competitive we’ve been at the tracks we’ve been going to.”
Cockram’s lone win on the season came at Motor Mile Speedway. Although he won the race in the tech shed, Cockram was comfortable with it knowing he had the fastest car all day and probably deserved to win the race anyway.
“The night at Motor Mile, we were the fastest car all day, sat on pole by 2 tenths, the cautions just killed us. Preston McGhee will tell you, I could get away from him. I put a straightaway on him, it just, it is what it is. They kept getting closer and closer and they kept having cautions. Preston did a heck of a job, he got around me good and clean. He got the win and I hated to take a win like that but a win is a win. It was kind of a letdown for the whole team because we had been so fast. It’s not like we just showed up at the track, everyone wrecked and we won. It was, in my eyes, they lucked out and got the win on the track because our car went away at the end. We were dominant all day.”
Cockram has spent much of his season at South Boston Speedway where he has recorded a handful of top-five finishes and a couple runner-up finishes. He feels a victory at the historic Halifax County racetrack is on the way.
“I really feel like we’re due one down there. We’ve got a lot of the big heavy hitters down there and they’ve taken notice there. They talk to me, like Peyton Sellers, he’s been a key factor for me. He’s like a coach. Justin Snow as well. They’ve won a pile of races there and have a pile of laps there. They massage me and coach me along and help me get used to the corners and the whole driving style down there.”
Along with Motor Mile and South Boston, Cockram also scored a podium finish in the Memorial Day Classic at Franklin County Speedway back in May. Cockram also traveled to Southern National back in July to compete in a Limited Late Model race in hopes of gaining points in the Division II standings.
“We started second which was my fault,” Cockram said of his car and qualifying effort at Southern National. “When we unloaded at Southern National, we were three-tenths faster than anyone down there. We took our Motor Mile car and my crew-chief asked what we needed to do. I felt we didn’t need to do anything. I tried something different with my lines and we went to qualify and I made a bad call. We never put new tires on like everyone else. I changed the rev limiter chip in the MSD box. The pole sitter qualified 16.018 and I turned a 16.019.”
Cockram felt he had a car that could contend for the win but a series of incidents with the track’s points leader, Haley Moody, resulted in a negative change of fortunes in a race he was otherwise optimistic about.
“It’s one of those deals, I was on the apron and all the way down to the line and she came in there and thought I was going to move up and let her drive under me. It’s one of those deals that could’ve been handled a whole lot different and I think everybody would agree on that because it looked bad for the sport all the way around. I don’t see where we were at any fault. I ran the same line every single lap. When you want that extra little bit, you’ll stick your nose in. I think she meant to bump me and get me up the track but she drove in there, hooked the apron and shot up in to me. It tore her car up and I caught mine. We continued to run second.
“She was influenced by a couple people to ruin the rest of our night for us. We had a car capable of winning pretty easily and ended up fifth place. She came out of the pits and ran me against the wall. I was in the third lane in the corners and I don’t race somebody dirty. I could’ve tapped the brake, turned left and took care of her. I thought the officials would do something but nothing was done. I’m not sure what to say about that deal. I got behind her and encouraged her on the straightaways and she decided it was in the best interest to let me around.”
Following that incident, Cockram stated that he has unfinished business in Kenly and intends to go back there and pick up a victory.
“We’ll go to Southern National and win the race and let everyone know we could win and finish what we started,” Cockram remarked.
He also has plans to travel to several racetracks throughout the remainder of the season.
“We want to run at Ace with Langley (Austin) before the end of the year. We’ll also finish the season at South Boston. We’ll run the Limited race in the Thanksgiving Classic, we’re running the Mischa Sell Memorial and we’re going to race at Martinsville.”
Cockram also has plans to move his daughters up as well. Cockram says he intends to move Brittany up in to a Limited Late Model and Jessica up in to a Mini Stock. Brittany currently races Mini Stocks at Franklin County, where she won the Mini-Stock championship in 2013. Jessica runs in the U-CAR division at the same track.
