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SPOTLIGHT ON: Veteran Philips Vies For First Lake County Speedway NASCAR Title
A veteran driver at NASCAR’s shortest short track holds a late season track points lead in a strong bid to win his first feature division track championship there.
Chuck Philips, 38, of Madison, Ohio, leads the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Sportsman division points standings at Lake County Speedway, a flat .200-mile paved oval in Painesville, Ohio.
Philips’ bid to win the Lake County title is part of a homecoming season at a renaissance race track.
He leads the NASCAR Sportsman division points race by 56 points over Rodney Saunders with just a few events left on the 2010 schedule. His points lead had been up to about 100 when a late season wreck brought a bad finish and a loss of about half of his points lead.
Entering this weekend’s competition, Philips was ranked 13th in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Ohio state points race. His racing record was a strong 15 starts, three wins, 14 top fives and 15 top 10s. As a first-year NASCAR feature division competitor who filed for rookie status, his is also the Buckeye State’s leading NASCAR rookie.
Philips started his racing career at the challenging track 12 years ago in the Figure Eight division. The competition helped him develop his racing skills that eventually led him to compete on the track’s oval configuration.
“My grandfather raced at Painesville and so did my father-in-law, Nick Collins,” Philips said. “I’d go to watch races there. When a friend’s car came up for sale – a big Monte Carlo -- we bought it and went Figure Eight racing. That was the funnest racing in racing. After five years the next logical step was to the Sportsman division.”
Over the 2004-2006 seasons, Philips points finishes were fourth, third and second, respectively. But when he won his first Sportsman division championship, it was elsewhere.
Politely put, at the time Philips started racing at the track formerly known as Painesville Speedway, the place might have been more of a roughhouse than a “Madhouse.” Given that atmosphere, Philips still jumped in when the opportunity presented itself. But he decided to venture away from the track in 2007.
He migrated to a .375-mile paved banked oval in Lorain, Ohio, and won three consecutive Sportsman division track championships.
He says the new ownership of the newly-renamed Lake County Speedway and the new NASCAR sanction they attracted brought him back to his home track.
“Andy McCartney bought the track and (former Painesville driver and general manager) Randy Holbrooks made a lot of changes and improvements and became NASCAR-sanctioned this year so we wanted to give it a try,” Philips said. “They’ve got things going pretty good.
“Lake County Speedway has a real family atmosphere now. They have a no smoking and no drinking family section in the grandstands. They painted everything. They put up new fence and improved the restrooms. There’s no drinking in the pits. At one time, people used to bring kegs.
A former roughhouse, indeed. And today?
“Let me tell you what happened to me in the pits a few weeks ago, the night I just about destroyed my race car in a heat race," Phillips said. "We must have had 15 people from other teams in our division and other divisions working to help get the car ready for the feature. We could have lost the points lead that night but with everyone’s help, we started 11th and finished fourth.
“A couple of weeks ago, the same thing happened when another guy wrecked his car. It was a total group effort from the guys we race with who got him back on the track.
“Everybody in the pits wants to win races, but they want to win with everyone on the track. The night you win, you want to be the best by beating the best.”
Philips’ has come close to winning Lake County Speedway’s Sportsman division championship in the past, which fuels his desire to close out this season on top.
“We want it badly,” Philips said. "We’ve raced there for the most part of 10 years, and it would be nice to finally get it. But we’ve got guys like Ronnie Saunders and Dave Atwell who’ve raced there longer than me who you can’t count out.”
Philips is a project engineer in developing a ground fault circuit interrupter for chargers used in repowering electric automobiles, He and wife Jenny have two children, Shauntaye, 17, who started college courses while still in high school, and Justin, 16, who stands fourth in Lake County Speedway’s Factory Four division standings. Justin entered the weekend 29th in the asphalt top 100 of the NASCAR Finalist Division V standings with a record of 13 starts, one win, seven top fives and 12 top 10s.
“We’re pretty proud of both our kids,” Philips said. “They’re both enthusiastic about what they’re doing. Justin lives and breathes racing, so for better or worse, I’ve passed racing on to him.”
Philips’ crew includes his father, Chuck Jr., (the driver is Chuck III) Uncle Greg Philips, son Justin and wife Jenny.
Team sponsors on Philips’ Firebird include his employer North Shore Safety, Turner and Sons Construction, Muscle Nation, Sands RV and Yoe’s Race Engines.
A smiling Chuck Philips in the cockpit of his NASCAR Sportsman car at Lake County Speedway in Painesville, Ohio. Courtesy Lake County Speedway
