For Chase Stockon, 300 is a nice round number. Stockon has been a stalwart USAC National Sprint Car Series competitor for the past decade.
For Chase Stockon, 300 is a nice round number. Stockon, a stalwart USAC National Sprint Car Series competitor for the past decade, reached the amazing milestone of 300 consecutive series starts at Plymouth Speedway in Indiana on June 26.
Stockon and his team have overcome every obstacle — mechanical woes, crashing, logistics, and so on — to get to every USAC National show since February of 2012 and make the feature. That‘s eight straight years, an unprecedented feat.
Along the way there were a couple of provisional starts, but in no way should that diminish what they have accomplished.
“I can‘t take much credit for it, really,” said the 32-year-old Stockon. “It‘s more a testament to our crew, and our engine builder. We have had very few mechanical failures through the years and obviously that‘s the difference.”
Stockon‘s modesty is only part of the story. Obviously, the driver from Fort Branch, Indiana has kept the car out of trouble through those 300 nights, winning 12 National events along the way, including the Tony Hulman Classic and the Western World.
The team has finished out of the top-five in USAC National points only twice during that span of eight years.
Stockon began his career in his family‘s sprinter, and early on connected with Tom Burkey of Superior Tank & Trailer. The two had a prior connection — Stockon‘s uncle George Prosser drove for Burkey some years ago in Ohio — and in 2009 Burkey loaned the Stockon family an engine. It was a pivotal pairing that has greatly impacted Stockon and his career.
Stockon and Burkey have continued their relationship to this day.
“Tom‘s loaned engine was better than anything we had, and things kind of snowballed from there,” Stockon said. “I never would have dreamed that one little engine he let us borrow would turn into what it has become. We started out with me owning the car and Tom providing the engines, and that‘s still how it is today.”
Another key element has been Stockon‘s crew chief, D.J. Ott, with whom Stockon connected in 2008. In addition, Kent Dix and Kevin Spindler have each been with Stockon‘s crew for the past five years.
“D.J. and I have had a longstanding friendship and relationship; his goals and mine line up pretty well. We‘ve won all the big (USAC) races we can win, with the exception of the 4-Crown at Eldora. That one is still on our bucket list.”
The one major success that has eluded Stockon is the USAC National Sprint title. He has consistently proven to be a contender, but has not quite closed the deal.
“It seems like the National title is a little out of our reach,” he admitted. “It just seems, financially, that it takes something more than we have. We have consistency, but there is something that we can‘t quite get over the hump. Maybe we‘re not spending enough money on tires, I don‘t know.”
To put Stockon‘s 300-race streak into perspective, consider this. In addition to Stockon, only two drivers in USAC history have hit the 200-consecutive mark: Levi Jones (284) and Dave Darland (204).
Among current fulltime USAC competitors, Chris Windom is currently second to Stockon with 150 starts — exactly half of Stockon‘s total.
“Until we got close to Levi‘s record (285) last year, I didn‘t think about it until Richie Murray of USAC brought it up,” said Stockon. “But once we starting thinking about what it meant, we realized that it is special.
“Being prepared, having a fast enough car to make the show…we had to run a lot of races to get here. We had only two engine failures that entire time, and that‘s a testament to (Charlie) Fisher Engines. Luckily we were able to recover each time and get into the show.”
So, after hitting the 300-start milestone, what‘s next for Stockon?
“I don‘t know, really,” he admitted. “We‘ve been doing the same thing for so many years, we‘ve reached a point where we just want to go out and have fun. My wife Breanna is a big part of our racing deal, and we have two boys in school so she isn‘t able to travel with us as much as we want.
“I still enjoy what we‘re doing, but I also enjoy putting the wing on and racing with MOWA or the Outlaws every now and then.”
Stockon isn‘t big on self-promotion, and he hesitates to use the word “me.” But he appreciates the history of the sport, and that‘s what has made his historic milestone all the more meaningful.
“When I think about the guys I looked up to — Tracy Hines, Dave Darland, and back in the day with Rich Vogler and Jack Hewitt — when you look back at the history and realize we were the first one to accomplish [300 consecutive starts], it makes it pretty special.”