Series 2008 season review - Jason Meyers

2008 World of Outlaws Season Review: Jason Meyers

Concord, NC-- December 17, 2008--Jason Meyers had one goal heading into the 2008 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season, and that was to contend for the series championship. He did exactly that, en route to a career year with the series, racking up eight A-Feature wins, along with a series-best 48 Top-Five finishes, 55 Top-10 finishes and a second-place finish in the championship standings.

Meyers started the season off on a very strong note at Volusia Speedway Park in the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals, finishing fifth on opening night and following that up with a win on the second night of the season. He wrapped up the three-day event with another podium finish and left the Sunshine state just 10 points behind Craig Dollansky in the championship standings. Following a win at Lernerville Speedway in May, Meyers took the lead in the World of Outlaws standings for the first time in his career. He would battle Dollansky in the first half of the season and then Donny Schatz in the second half for the title.

Meyers started the year off with eight consecutive finishes of eighth or better. That momentum and consistency followed him throughout the season, especially during a hot streak that saw him rattle off 20 consecutive Top-Five finishes, the longest such streak of any driver this season, beginning with a win in the famed Brad Doty Classic at Limaland Motorsports Park in July, as he passed 20-time series champion Steve Kinser coming off the fourth turn in heavy lapped traffic to pick up the thrilling victory, by just 0.247 seconds.

"We were absolutely amazed at the season we had and are really grateful for all of the things that came about during the year that made it a great season," said Meyers. "That will make it an even greater season next year. To all of our sponsors and crew and everyone that works really hard, I want to thank them. We're looking forward to gearing up for next season."

Meyers has now finished sixth or better in the World of Outlaws standings in five of the last six years. His second-place finish this season matched his career best runner-up finish in 2005. His eight A-Feature wins this season aboard the GLR Investments KPC brought his career total to 26, which is 16th-best all-time.

In addition to the wins at Volusia Speedway Park and Limaland Motorsports Park, Meyers won at Manzanita Speedway, I-55 Raceway in a thrilling battle with Craig Dollansky, Lernerville Speedway, Virginia Motor Speedway, Nodak Speedway, Castrol Raceway and Silver Dollar Speedway in California, on the second preliminary night of the Gold Cup Race of Champions.

"It helps to go back to tracks year after year," said the California native. "One thing that has been tough over the last few years is that there have been so many rule changes with wings and tires. There have been many times where your notes from the year before haven't been able to help you. Hopefully the rule changes will settle and having good notes will help going back to tracks repeatedly."

With one of the strongest fields ever assembled in the 30-year history of the World of Outlaws, as 17 teams completed the season full-time with the series, Meyers and his team led by veteran crew chief D.J. Lindsey along with Brian Bloomfield, had to be on their game each and every night. Meyers led the series in laps led with 377, and set fast time a series-best 16 times over the course of the year, with Charlie Garrett power under the hood. He also was tied for the series lead with six wins in the Crane Cams Dash to earn pole positions.

"The competition is as tough as it's ever been," he noted. "I think that every year for the last three or four years, it has stepped up a notch every season. This year was no exception to that and 2009 probably won't be any different. We're going to go home and work hard this winter and hopefully be the leader when it comes to being on the edge of technology next season."

Meyers picked up nine overall wins with the World of Outlaws, including a preliminary feature win on the second night of the Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway in his home state of California, which put him in prime position to contend for the $50,000 top prize the following night. He led the first 25 laps of the 40-lap contest, before a lapped car took him out and ended his chances at adding his name to the record books as a winner of the famed event. He had a couple of other runs where he was leading or battling for the lead end due to bad luck. He and his team quickly put those nights behind them and focused on the next race and what they had to do to return to the winner's circle.

"You just have to leave it all behind you," he explained. "There is a saying that you win one tonight and it means nothing tomorrow. When you lose one night it doesn't mean anything the next night either. You just have to go into the next race and remember why you were leading that race the night before and what got you there. Hopefully you don't have that luck that you had the previous evening."

Just as he has for the last few off-seasons, Meyers will head Down Under to kick off his 2009 campaign in Australia along with a number of fellow World of Outlaws drivers. He has a couple of wins in his career in Australia.

"I'm going to visit Parramatta for the $50,000 to win show, but will probably only spend about seven days away from home," he shared. "I'll try to be home as much as I can this winter and spend as much time as I can with my family and work on this race team. We have a lot of things that we are working on for 2009 and it will take a lot of time in the shop to get it all prepared."

The 2009 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series seasons kicks off February 6-8 at Volusia Speedway Park in Florida with the 38th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH.

-credit: woo