Matt Hawkins Gets Back On Track at Iowa Speedway

Hawkins Scores a Top 10 Finish

After a blown engine slowed Matt Hawkins in the first race of the USAR Pro Cup Series Championship, he had a lot of confidence as he headed to Iowa Speedway over the weekend. After all, that’s where Hawkins picked up his first ARCA RE/MAX Series win in his first career ARCA race. 

“We did have huge confidence going in,” says Hawkins, “We thought we thought we could contend for a win.”

Hawkins seemed to pick up in Newton, Iowa right where he left off as the #2 Jani King/ Racing Radio’s Dodge was good right away in the race. 

“We thought the car was really good all weekend,” says Hawkins, “We were real fast the whole time.”

But Hawkins’ mechanical problems seemed to follow the team to Iowa. 

“In qualifying we thought we had a motor issue,” says Hawkins, “We were faster in practice and then qualified 11th.”

Hawkins and team found their problem just 10 laps in to the Alan Kulwicki Memorial Race 2 Recovery 225, when a rocker arm broke.  The problems then continued when the #2 Dodge blew a left rear tire that put them two laps down. 

Matt Hawkins is now only 14 points out of the top 10 in championship standings. (51 Photos)

“We’ve just had the worse season on mechanical issues,” says Hawkins, “But we just try to bounce back.”

And that’s just what Hawkins did Saturday.  After getting both of his laps back, Hawkins began to charge towards the front and ended the day with a 6th place finish. 

“For us that was like getting a win,” says Hawkins, “To finish sixth with only seven cylinders seemed like a win.  I was happy, but still a little frustrated; I think we could have dominated the race.”

With Benny Gordon winning the first two Championship Series races, Hawkins knows it’s won’t be easy to try and contend for the title. 

“After Mansfield, when we blew up, we knew we would have to put some wins together to try and win this thing,” says Hawkins, “We’ll have to put together a good two races now.”

But don’t count Hawkins out on the final two racks of the Pro Cup Championship Series.  Both Southern National Raceway Park and Rockingham are tracks Hawkins feels good about. 

“Rockingham should be a good track for us,” says Hawkins, “We finished 4th in the ARCA race there back in May.”

Hawkins now has a few weeks off before race three of the Championship Series at Southern National Raceway Park on October 18th.