A Salute to the 1995 Champions

by Steve Lafond

A new champion in America's premier winged sprint car organization, and a familiar face in the premier non-winged organization. These are but a few of the stories that dominated the headlines of a very busy and exciting sprint car season. This page salutes some of America's best racing drivers: sprint car champions!

Dave Blaney - World of Outlaws Champion

Dave Blaney emerged from the shadows of Steve Kinser to claim the 1995 Skoal World Of Outlaws championship aboard the Casey Luna-owned and Kenny Woodruff- wrenched Ford powered Vivarin sprinter #10. After finishing second in World of Outlaws points the previous two seasons, Blaney finally broke through and won his first major title. Blaney credits engine builder Ron Shaver for getting the Ford power plant to produce more power as the year progressed. Blaney scored 12 A-main event feature victories on the grueling 72-race series, earning $312,875 along the way, and leading 255 main event laps. "When I was growing up, I never thought I'd be racing for the World of Outlaws championship," Blaney said. "The last couple of months, I got caught up in the points race. It kind of made me forget how lucky we are not just to win the points race, but to have the opportunity to be racing for it. The whole reason I'm champion is because Kenny Woodruff, my wife, Lisa, and the rest of the team worked so hard. They're the ones who put in all the work." It should be a big celebration for Christmas at the Blaney household as Dave's brother Dale won the All Star Circuit of Champions points title.

Lealand McSpadden - SCRA Champion

Lealand McSpadden, "The Tempe Tornado", won the 1995 SCRA non-winged sprint car championship aboard the Ron Chaffin-owned Ellis/Shaver by a scant 8 points in what will go down in history as the closest, most exciting year-long battle the non-wingers have seen. The SCRA held 33 races on 13 different dirt tracks in four states from February through November. McSpadden battled fellow Arizonan Ron Shuman all season, with the point lead changing hands 14 times between 5 drivers: Eric Wilkins, J.J. Yeley, Rip Williams, Shuman, and McSpadden. McSpadden visited victory lane 10 times on his way to his second sprint car championship, and had 22 finishes in the top 5, leading the most main event laps with 194. Lealand is noted for his famous "I don't run for championships, I race to win" philosophy, yet he has won two championships without trying, and would have won many more had he stayed in one place long enough. After clinching the championship at Ventura in late November, McSpadden announced that he would not be defending his crown, and would instead divert his efforts to a new NASCAR SuperTruck deal in the works for 1996, effectively retiring from sprint car racing. What McSpadden leaves behind is a legacy of sprint car greatness, both non-winged and winged, that is hard to match.

Brent Kaeding - NARC and Golden State Challenge Champion

Brent Kaeding held off the season long challenges of Paul McMahan to claim the 1995 NARC Budwiser Shoot Out Series sprint car title. It was Kaeding's eighth career Northern Auto Racing Club driving championship and his fourth as car owner. Kaeding also continued his dominance of the Budwiser Golden State Challenge sprint car series in 1995, claiming a record seventh "King of California" crown. Kaeding racked up a NARC club high nine feature event victories in the 32 race series, winning at seven different tracks. He also hit a milestone by capturing his 100th career NARC main event at San Jose Speedway on May 20th. In the 13 race Golden State Challenge series, Kaeding had a series high three victories in the highly competitive "King of California" series that saw no less than nine different drivers appearing in victory lane. Kaeding's championship efforts came aboard his own Motorola sponsored, Shaver powered Gambler sprinter #69 wrenched by Billy Albini. Kaeding admitted that runner-up Paul McMahan had him looking over his shoulder most of the season. "Paul was the reason I've got a few more gray hairs", Kaeding stated. "Hopefully, I'll be able to return the favor when my son, Bud, hits the sprint car ranks!"

Tony Stewart - USAC Silver Crown, Sprint Car and National Midget Champion

Tony Stewart of Rushville, Indiana became the first driver in United States Auto Club history to win three National driving championships in the same season. In 1995, Stewart won the True Value/USAC Silver Crown Championship, the Loctite/USAC Sprint Car title, and repeated as the Skoal/USAC National Midget champion. Only once previously since the inception of the Silver Crown series in 1971 had a driver won all three championships during a career, let alone in the same season! Here are some of Stewarts 1995 numbers. Sprint cars (26 races): 7 victories, second 4 times, 15 top-five finishes; Silver Crown (10 races): second 3 times, 5 top-five finishes; Midgets (23 races): 6 victories (3 on pavement, 3 on dirt), second 5 times. In 48 percent of the races he's competed in, Stewart has either finished first or second! Of all the great drivers who preceded him in USAC, Stewarts 1995 accomplishments set him apart as perhaps one of the greatest USAC open wheel drivers of all time.