Freeman said there weren‘t any tricks to his title run.
“I had a lot of luck really. I‘ve always been the type to use a basic setup and stick with it. I used old Gambler set-up sheets and advice Jack Hewitt gave me,” Freeman said. “I would set it up in the shop and have it ready to go. Once we got there, I‘d adjust a little bit of tire pressure and stagger. We were always good. I won a handful of heat races and only finished outside of the top three once, and that night I got crashed out. I won the last race of the year and clinched the championship. I was able to make it to all of them and win the championship.”
Freeman‘s car is one of the oldest in the series and it has an interesting history. It is a 1985 Gambler chassis once owned by the Fortune brothers and driven by Rich Vogler and Rickey Hood among others.
“It‘s the old Coors Light No. 39 Rich Vogler drove in 1986,” Freeman said. “This year, I‘m gonna have a 1986 Gambler. The Gamblers were always a very good car and won a lot of races. They still handle really well. When I graduated high school, I went and worked for Gambler, so I‘m very familiar with them.
“I run a 377 and it may not have as much horsepower as some of them, but it still runs really well.”
Most of the races are held in Central Indiana and Freeman travels from Kentucky.
“I‘ve got one of the farthest drives but it‘s just something I wanna do. I try to use my head and drive smart since I don‘t have a ton of money and don‘t want to tear up my equipment. Some of these guys take more risks than I do, and those risks sometimes take them out.
“This year we got a lot more people coming and some of the races are gonna pay more. A lot of guys are running brand-new cars. You see a mixture of both old and new cars in this series,” Freeman concluded.
It is looking like it could be a good year, as the series has secured a handful of events at Paragon Speedway and will have an occasional $1,000-to-win show. Twelve events were on the initial schedule, though, the first two were rained out.
“I think long term, it‘s looking good,” Gross said. “Right now, we got 70 guys who are saying they could run with us this year. I think it‘s about to explode and 
get crazy.”