9/23/2004
by: NASCAR Public Relations
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Sept. 23, 2004) – Ron Barker, a 45-year-old
Modified race car driver from Dubuque, Iowa, has made NASCAR
history.
Barker, who competes at Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway as well as
Farley (Iowa) Speedway, has won the 2004 NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series
ShorTrack Division national championship – the top honor for support
division racers in the series. Winning a championship is nothing new
– Barker was the ShorTrack Division Midwest Region champion in 2003.
What Barker has done this season, however, has never been
accomplished before in the 22-year history of the NASCAR Dodge
Weekly Series.
By competing at those two tracks – Dubuque and Farley – Barker has
won both the Midwest Region and Heartland Region championships for
the ShorTrack division. He is the first driver to win two NASCAR
Dodge Weekly Series regional championships in the same season.
NASCAR’s ShorTrack Division regional championships are determined by
the Competition Performance Index (CPI), which measures wins,
top-five finishes and other factors to establish a regional ranking
of drivers. The national title is decided by a CPI comparison of the
racing records of the eight regional champions and it’s easy to see
how Barker accomplished this feat.
At Farley, Barker recorded 12 wins and 16 top-five finishes in 18
starts. His Dubuque record was equally impressive: 10 wins and 14
top-five finishes. Barker uses the same race car at both tracks;
competing at Farley on Friday nights and Dubuque on Sundays. Along
with the regional and national honors, Barker has won track
championships at both facilities.
At the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series awards banquet in Nashville,
Barker will be presented with $1,000 for each of his two track
titles, $2,500 for each of the regional championships along with a
$10,000 national champion’s bonus from Whelen Engineering – a total
of $17,000 in post-season prize money.
While Barker was the top award winner in the ShorTrack Division, six
other drivers also won regional championships
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