Undoubtedly, the highlight of the season came in early August when Stockon earned his first Indiana Sprint Week title, erasing a seven-point deficit entering the feature to claim the championship, sealing the deal after the bitter heartbreak of a runner-up Indiana Sprint Week finish in 2015 meant he had unfinished business to settle, using the brief break between events to make sure everything was dialed in for the final stretch.
“The crew worked their butts off during the break between the first half and the second half of the week,” Stockon praised. “Kent said there’s no excuses; we’re going to bring the best piece we can to the racetrack. I think it’s hard work like that that has given us the success we’ve had over here.”
Moving into 2021, Stockon is the not the lone man contesting a full complement of USAC races any longer following the team’s addition of series Rookie of the Year contenders, Paul Nienhiser and Carson Garrett. With the success right off the bat a year ago, Schmidt looks forward to more success in the coming year, and more fun.
“We started off as a one-car deal, then we wanted to add another,” Schmidt said. “That worked out in our favor and we had a lot of fun doing it. Â It’s just one of those things that kept snowballing. We came across a deal to run Chase full-time last year and I felt like we were pretty good right out of the box. It’s grown over the winter and we’ve added a couple more guys. We just want to continue to try to be successful and have fun doing it at the same time.”
For Stockon, his role remains the same, to win races and compete for a championship. But, in a somewhat different scenario, he will have two full-time teammates to race alongside, which he admits will be different, but a challenge he’s prepared to take on.
“It’s definitely going to be a bit different,” Stockon acknowledges. “I guess you could say that, since I’ve been over here, I’ve been out of my comfort zone a little bit, and I’ve had to learn how to adapt to different things. This year, once again, it’s going to be a learning experience and I think I’m up for the challenge. As far as a mentor, I don’t know what advice I have to offer, really. We’re just going to go out and everybody’s going to put forth 100 percent. If everybody does that, I think we’ll have another successful year across the board, every driver on the team. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
For Schmidt, the goals are abundantly clear what he wants KO Motorsports and Stockon to accomplish in 2021.
“The big picture is that we really want to win a championship; that’s everybody’s big picture,” Schmidt said. “We’ve just got to continue to strive for that goal, work hard, keep our heads down and keep going.”