USAR: Championship Series preview

Agnew & Huffman enter as top seeds

Myrtle Beach, SC-- When the checkered flag waved at Hickory Motor Speedway on September 13th, the USAR Hooters ProCup regular season ended. Now, fifty-eight drivers will turn their attention to the Championship Series, and they have million reasons why, literally.

The Alan Kulwicki Memorial Naturally Fresh Foods 250 at Winchester Speedway on September 20th will be the first of five Championship Series events that will determine the 2003 USAR Hooters ProCup Champion. The champion will take home the $250,000 championship share of the $1,000,000 points and posted awards fund.

Shane Huffman and Jeff Agnew will take top seeds and a 40-point cushion over the other 56 championship contenders. However, neither driver has a win at the high-banked, half-mile track. Agnew's best finish was second in last year's Championship Series event. Huffman's best finish came in the same event as the Hickory driver finished third behind Agnew and Clay Rogers.

Jason Sarvis and Brian Ross nailed down the second seeds for the Championship Series by posting strong runs in their respective divisions regular-season finale. Ross finished second at Motordrome in the Northern Division while Sarvis picked up his second win of the season at Hickory Motor Speedway in the Southern Division. Ross struggled to a 23rd-place finish in last year's event. Sarvis finished fourth last season and went on to win the USAR Hooters ProCup Championship.

Steven Christian and Kertus Davis will be third seeds as the Championship Series begins, but they have taken different routes getting there.

Christian lost the second seed late in the season to Sarvis and only has one top-5 finish in the last five events. On the other hand, Davis has three consecutive top-3 finishes, including his first-career win.

Michael Ritch and Jay Fogleman are seeded fourth for the Championship Series. Ritch moved up from the seventh seed by finishing third at Hickory Motor Speedway. Fogleman slipped from the second seed to the fourth seed in the last two events of the Northern Division after back-to-back finishes outside the top-5.

Mardy Lindley and Eric Corbett will round out the top-5 seeds for the Championship Series.

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