Novak finished among the top-20 drivers who were seeking a pro license in the winter qualifying series for 2020 to earn his spot in the WoO World Championship, earning two wins along the way.
It was a grind, but Novak tipped that his Coca-Cola Series experience may actually have helped him in adapting to the lighter, more nimble sprint cars.
“I actually think the reason I got used to the sprint cars so fast is because a lot of the tendencies I have, especially on this current Cup package, are fairly similar to the sprint car quite honestly,” he said. “With the sprint car, the fastest way possible to race it – besides the smaller tracks like Limaland, Fairbury and Kokomo – is to to keep the wheel as straight as possible. You want to keep your momentum up as much as possible. In the cup car, it’s very similar to that. You want to keep the whale as straight as possible, not scrub off speed, uh, but still have the ability to saw it back and forth … which in the sprint car is what you’re doing constantly going into the corners. You’re just constantly back and forth on the wheel.
“I think in terms of that, it translated pretty well. Throttle control is just the biggest challenge for me,” noted Novak. “Especially when the track slicks off, I really struggle with getting off the corner consistently. One lap I’ll hit it really well and the next, I’ll just spin the tires too much. So that’s a little challenge for me.”
Novak admitted it was “a surprise” when he made the feature in his debut start with the WoO World Championship on March 23, but he’s since begun building his resume against the best on the service.
The 18-year-old has made two of the first four features of the season and finds himself just 31 points outside the transfer threshold to retain his dirt oval pro license for the 2021 season.
Those kinds of performances, he said, are what he needs to continue showing growth in the back half of the campaign.
“Man, making the show the first night really proved to me that I have the ability to qualify back into the series for next year and not have to run the qualifier series again, if we can just keep up that pace,” Novak noted. “It’s going to take work, but I believe that’s a reasonable goal. I honestly didn’t expect to make many mains this year, but we’ve made two of the four and if we can just keep doing that, it should set us up in the championship standings to make the series back.
“I really enjoy running the car and I’d like to run it every year; that’s definitely a goal of mine, at least until it becomes unsustainable,” he added. “If eNASCAR continues to grow and it gets to a point where I just don’t have the time to run sprint cars anymore, then we’ll cross that bridge, but I would love to continue to run the series. It is run really well and the World of Outlaws are very invested in it.
“I think if I hold my standards lower and keep surprising myself every week, that’s going to build my confidence for the rest of the year.”
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink iRacing Sprint Car World Championship continues April 20 at the virtual Limaland Motorsports Park.
All races are streamed live at www.iracing.com/live.