In other words, Showalter, who oversees the crew chief and his team, has never missed an event in series history.
“Twenty years later … no, I never imagined it’d be this long,” Showalter said. “I’ve always wanted to open up my own landscape business and I still have dreams of doing that.”
Tonight, Showalter will be satisfied playing in the dirt at Eldora. Kyle Busch Motorsports won the 2014 MudSummer Classic with Darrell Wallace Jr., and has three drivers perhaps capable of giving KBM a repeat.
Erik Jones is third in points. Christopher Bell makes just his third Truck start but knows Eldora well after finishing 18th in the Kings Royal winged sprint car race Sunday. And Hinckley, Ohio, native Matt Tifft — who Showalter works with — drives KBM’s winningest Toyota Tundra with eight victories in 21 starts.
“We’ve got a really young group of guys that are running (at Eldora),” Showalter said. “They aren’t even legal to drink yet.”
For his part, Showalter has enjoyed his share of champagne moments in NASCAR. He celebrated Truck series titles with Travis Kvapil and Mike Bliss. His team won the inaugural race at Mansfield Motor Speedway — 30 minutes from his home in Amherst — in 2004. He’ll add another milestone when he hits 500 consecutive races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 26.
There have been close calls. An ACL injury in 2004 slowed him down, but he insisted on having surgery on a Monday so he could be on a plane to the track on Thursday. A kidney stone had him in the hospital on race day in 2013, but he passed that challenge, too.
“Sooner or later it’s going to happen,” Showalter said of seeing the streak end. “I am getting older … so a shop job probably will come in the near future.”
Showalter and his team had won the ASA Series championship in 1994 when Ford asked about being a flagship team in the new Truck series. Showalter agreed and hasn’t stopped yet.
And he hopes tonight’s MudSummer Classic keeps on trucking right onto Eldora’s victory lane stage.
“We go to win every week. That’s what we do here at Kyle Busch Motorsports,” Showalter said. “Anything but a win we feel that we failed.”
Jones sits third in points but Bell might have the best shot at winning. He comes into the MudSummer Classic in the same spot Jones did last season — with nothing to lose.
“Going into the first two (NCWTS) races my only goal was to finish the race. I think coming into Wednesday night my goal is to contend for the win,” Bell said.
Jones, meanwhile, has to keep the points chase in perspective. Taking risks might not be an option.
“It’s kind of survival, really. We have to get through this race and figure how to make it a good points day,” Jones said. “It’s easy to really put yourself in a bad position in this race and lose a lot of points in the championship hunt.”
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