Mack collects MRA trophyat banquet

~ The area driver won the super late model points championship.

Joey Mack traveled 6,250 miles just to compete for a championship.

He made those miles count.

Mack, 30, of Benton, traveled another couple of hundred miles Friday to pick up his Midsouth Racing Association super late model points championship at an awards banquet in Jonesboro, Ark.

"I had a lot of help from a lot of different people," Mack said from the road Friday. "I've got great motors right now. I've had good race cars. Everything's just really working. ... We just really got things going in the right direction right now."

Mack enjoyed the points lead early in the season, but Jeff Floyd passed him for the lead in the middle of the season.

"I really just felt like I came in an underdog," Mack said. "I just had to outsmart him and outlast him. I led the first several weeks, and the only time I lost the lead, I was a little overanxious and got caught up in a wreck of someone else's doing. I knew that's exactly what I couldn't afford to have any more of those.

"We tried to stay cool and be there at the end. I ended up winning a couple races just trying to be patient."

Mack said he covered 6,250 miles to reach the different tracks during the 16-race season that spanned from April through September. He traveled as far as Texarkana, Ark., and Pocola, Okla., for races. He had to balance his job at Cape Communications with preparing his car, traveling to races and then racing Friday and Saturday evenings.

"Sometimes when you work so hard all week, you just look forward to getting on the road so you can get some sleep," he said. "It's a long day Friday. We drive all day and we race all night. But then we've got to work on the car when we're done. We look forward to that long sleep Saturday."

But all the long hours and hard work paid off, when he was honored for his championship Friday.

"I'm absolutely ecstatic," he said. "I don't even know where to start."