It's gotten tougher over the years

We've seen over the years drivers struggle coming up through the ranks. Jesse Turner last years champion had a hard road in the SCS and was a true testament to hard work and effort to rise up from backmarker race teams and went from the underdog to top dog of our sport. Well I'm going to give you a little insight of why it's harder than it ever has been before Jesse Turner started.

Jesse Turner started with Luke Martin as the Owner in good equipment came runner up to a win with him in Season 13 but was let go. Turner was left to race with an underfunded team in the #27 Bill Davis Dodge. Jesse Turner's average finish in Season 14 was 34th and finished 43rd in points in Season 14. Turner over the years overcame adversity and brought underfunded teams finishes inside the Top 10 on certain occasions including the Daytona 500 finishing 4th his personal best before Season 18. Season 18 was the year Turner finally broke through and got a decent ride and started to be more of a player. Most of the time through the races, Jesse Turner was so slow he would get lapped by the leaders. Little did they know Turner would soon become a champion.


Well unlike Turner... Turner had the privilege of having 42 cars entrying each and every race and being locked in. Racing and being out there was awesome for Turner as he just wanted to race with the big names. It's crazy now because he's a top driver. Never forget where you came from... Today's drivers trying to come up through the ranks struggle even worse than Turner had. We have qualifying each and every Friday for the weekends and some drivers and teams aren't even fortunate to race. Today you have to qualify inside the Top 18 in your qualifying session to race on Sunday. Drivers like Chris Dodd, Dajon Weeks, Sean Harple, Rick Schultz and others are finding it very rough... New teams with little experience or little equipment like Jeffery Finguy and James Shelly are finding it very tough to start up a new team even last years team Fisher Motorsports and Blue Flare Motorsports have struggled to make races.

Chris Dodd made his first race in nearly 2 months with CM Racing a start up team with little help. Rick Schultz jumped up to 17th late in qualifying good enough to make his 3rd start of the season...he's failed to qualify for 12 races this season the most of any driver as of now! David Culpepper made his 2nd start of the season as he also qualified 17th. James Shelly was inside the Top 18 for most of qualifying until James Silverfox and Matt Duncan bumped him out in the last min. The struggle to make these races are huge! Teams like Fisher Motorsports, HorizonGroup, and Blue Flare Motorsports have been qualifying outside the Top 18 and on some occasions they have been missing the races and some occasions they have been lucky enough to use provisionals by being high enough in owner points. However, some teams like ARC Racing, Finguy-Psytomi, CM Racing, Titanium Motorsports, and some others can't use owner points to get them into the races because they aren't high enough in points! Simply starting a team and trying to bring their start up team to the top has been a struggle to these teams because qualifying 18th or higher is more of a struggle than you think... For these drivers qualifying is more than just seeing where you start for the race... but more the focus of WILL you start for the race? If you can't start the race it makes it difficult to rise up the series. That's why the series today is much more tougher on a driver or team than it ever was back in the day.

Jesse Turner and Jeff James last year was competing for the title, Turner ended up winning it all. Nick Mace said leading up to Washington DC's finale last year he never thought Turner would make it because he remembered lapping Turner's car almost every race. Turner overthrown Mace for it all. Jeff James started in underfunded cars all his career. James won the Season 17 finale in an underfunded car which rose the eyebrows of car owner Luke Martin. Before Jeff James' win at DC, Jeff James had only 2 Top 10s in his career since starting racing in Season 14. Jeff James now is a top driver as well.


I ask drivers like Jeff James and Jesse Turner and others I know there is others out there just like these 2 drivers who had to start in underfunded equipment and work their way up. Never forget where you came from.

Good read, although now I know how hard it'll be to bring Titanium Motorsports up to a regular-qualifying team. But I'm up for the challenge.
Although, they might just go down to a National series only team next season to gain experience. I don't know about that yet.

Andreas: "I'm lucky that through out a lot of my career, that i had solid rides, even when i started out. I applaud all of the drivers and teams who have had to come up from nothing, using cars 2-3 years old. I wish them all good luck, and drivers like Jeff James and Jesse Turner show that anyone can become a top SCS driver, as long as they stay in and never give up on their dreams."

Sean: None of the major teams want to hire a young rookie driver. They feel that experienced drivers are more likely to win a championship. I honestly can't blame that sort of thinking. However it would be nice to see more teams take a risk on these young drivers!

Dodd: "I was so fortunate to be able to make the deal that I made with Conrad Matthews at the last second, because without it I wouldn't have even had a chance this season. While it most certainly isn't easy, and it does bother me sometimes to just miss out on races, it brings our team so much excitement when we do! We know that we have a LONG road ahead, but we have the faith that we can persevere and grow into a team that can one day contend for wins.

And while that is happening, we now have the Hardee's National Series, where we are much closer in terms of equipment, and that will hopefully give us some confidence to be able to work harder on both series, and hopefully improve results all around!"

Noah: Can't agree any more, Andreas!

Dajon Weeks will be joining YAMP in 2017 as a ROTY contender. David Culpepper is planned for a full time ride in 2017 as well. These were already planned. Plus Athenian took a chance on a rookie, and a semi decent older driver.

Kurtis: "It's amazing to see drivers overcome slumps in their careers to end up to where they are now. Some had to work hard starting from the bottom and eventually made their way up to impress and gain respect from other drivers. Some become champions, and others end up being front runners."

Fitzwater: I was one of those drivers who struggled in SCS early in my career look at me now hunting for my 1st SCS Title