BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The fight for the SPEARS Modified Series presented by Lucas Oil championship will go down to the final race this Saturday at Kern County Raceway Park.
The COMP Cams 60 presented by General Tire will be the eighth and final race of the season and Jeremy Doss and Eddie Secord will battle to determine who will reign as the series champion heading into 2021.
The race was originally scheduled to be held at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway, but the ever-changing landscape caused by the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a change of venue for the season finale.
“Moving to Kern is not what I was wanting at all,” Secord admitted. “This gives Jeremy the edge for sure. He’s been good there all year. I did get my first Spears (Modified Series) win there, so we hope for a good finish.”
Doss enters the finale with an 18-point championship lead. Doss and Secord have battled back and forth all year, with the largest lead prior to this being seven points by Doss. Secord led the standings after the fifth race by five points, but he now finds himself trailing Doss entering the finale.
For Doss, the move of the finale from Irwindale to Kern County doesn’t change his approach.
“I don’t believe it changes our strategy, we still have the same goal in mind and that is to go win the race and championship,” Doss said. “I believe Kern favors me, just because that track, in general, has been one of my strong suits this year.”
Doss is used to tight championship battles. In 2018 he battled Eric Schmidt throughout the 2018 SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour season for the series championship. Doss enjoys the challenge, but he admits it creates added pressure.
“I’d say it makes it both more fun and stressful,” Doss said. “It’s always nice to have a big points cushion, but I feel when it’s such a close battle it challenges us both to be better, which makes it fun for me anyways.”
Secord, a six-time Pro 4 late model champion, will be looking to claim his first championship in a modified after scoring two wins this year.
“I would say it’s been fun. Just being in the running for a championship of this caliber is pretty cool. Yes, it’s been stressful at times, but you have to keep going,” Secord said.
Entering the penultimate event at The Bullring at Las Vegas, Secord trailed Doss by one point. However, his season-worst eighth-place finish allowed Doss to stretch the gap to 18 entering the finale. An incident the prior week at Madera (Calif.) Speedway left his car wounded, adding to the difficulties at Las Vegas.
“I messed up the car before Vegas, at a race in Madera,” Secord admitted. “The car was bent up worse than I thought, and I missed it. We have had an awesome season and we will keep racing like we do.”
Doss is hoping to end his season on top with a victory and a championship. Should he claim the title, he’ll be the first driver to win series championships in the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour and the SPEARS Modified Series.
“Like I said before, I enter every race with the same goal in mind, and that is to win and hope the championship comes along with it,” Doss said. “This championship would mean a lot to me. I think it’d be neat to be the only driver to have won a championship in both current SPEARS divisions, and it’s always nice to add to the resume.”
As much as Doss would like to win the championship, Secord would like to deny him that honor just as much.
“It would be pretty awesome (to win the championship), but Jeremy would really have to struggle, and we would have to win to make it happen,” Secord said. “To have the caliber of a driver like Jeremy and the Wilcox team makes you race harder all season. They don’t make mistakes, so you must be on your A game to beat them. We got a couple wins this year and that’s pretty cool.”