"On behalf of all of the employees of Whelen Engineering Company, I wish to express our deepest sympathy to the family, friends and fans of John Blewett III and all those who mourn this loss in our racing family. He was a son, brother, husband, father and absolute racer."
For more than 25 years, racing at short tracks throughout the country has provided the foundation for NASCAR. That tradition continues in 2007 as the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series will crown champions at the track, state and national level.
The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is NASCAR's national championship program for short-track racing. Connecticut-based Whelen Engineering, a leading manufacturer of automotive, aviation, industrial and emergency vehicle lighting is the series sponsor. More than 10,000 drivers compete at 49 NASCAR sanctioned short tracks throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The track champions will be determined by local track points. A competitor does not have to be a track champion in order to win a state or national championship.
State champions will be those competitors who accumulate the most NASCAR points at any NASCAR-sanctioned track within a state or province. Points will not transfer between states, but a competitor may compete for more than one state championship.
The national champion will be the competitor who accumulates the highest total of NASCAR points. Drivers will be able to compete at any NASCAR-sanctioned facility in North America.
In true NASCAR tradition, each champion will have the opportunity to be recognized at the NASCAR WHELEN All-American Series Banquet held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Spa in Las Vegas, Nev. The national champion will then be honored at the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Awards Ceremony in New York City, recognized as one of the sanctioning body's eight series champions.
The new simplified point structure will feature an "inverted" point's format, with car counts affecting the amount of points a competitor receives. Points will be awarded in ascending order with the last place car receiving two points, next-to-last receiving four and will then move up through the field in two point increments. (For example, the feature winner in a 10-car field will receive 20 NASCAR points, while the feature winner in a 25-car field would receive 50.) Competitors will count their 18 highest point finishes with a season-ending date of September 30, 2007.
A new national ranking system will also go into place. Throughout the season the top 500 feature division drivers will be ranked nationally according to their NASCAR points. At the end of the season, each top 500 driver will receive a certificate of recognition from NASCAR displaying their 2007 ranking.
The national champion will earn a reserved spot in the 2007 NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale, Calif. In addition, drivers will be competing to put his name on the new, handcrafted trophy commissioned by NASCAR to honor the national champion. The perpetual trophy, which is over 3 feet tall and 84 pounds, displays the names of all 25 previous national champions on nickel silver sub-base plates.
The 2007 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion will receive a separate first-of-its-kind individual champions' version of the award.
The local racing program was founded in 1982. Since its inception, the series has been a successful starting point for the careers of many top drivers. NASCAR stars Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Kurt and Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Travis Kvapil, Bobby Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Scott Riggs, Elliott Sadler and Brian Vickers all began their careers in this series.
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