Sides Highlights Season With Top-10 Streak & Strong Knoxville Nationals Outing

Story By: SHAWN MILLER / SIDES MOTORSPORTS – BARTLETT, TN – A nine-race top-10 streak from late March through April was the highlight of the 2017 season for Jason Sides.

“Consistency is something you strive for when you race on the road full time and we were as consistent as we’ve been in years during the month,” he said. “It was a good month or so. Everything played together and went well. You want to win, but at the end of it all you have to be in the top 10 to make ends meet.”

Sides finished the season with 24 top 10s, including 23 with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series. Eight of those were top fives, including a season-best runner-up result on April 28 at Plymouth Speedway in Plymouth, Ind. – the final race of his nine-race top-10 streak, which is his best streak since capturing nine top 10s in a row in August and September of 2010.

Sides led 28 laps of the 35-lap main event, but he was passed for the lead with two laps remaining.

“When you look back you don’t have many opportunities to be leading a race with two laps to go so that stings,” he said. “That late in the race, in traffic and everything starting to slow down, we’re trying not to run up on a lapped car that quick. (David) Gravel could see that and he made the most of it. I’ve won them like that in his position a few times. It’s heartbreaking to lose.”

Sides also returned to the Knoxville Nationals A Main for the first time since 2012 and he posted a 16th-place result, which tied his second-best finish at the marquee event.

“First you have to get in the race and then you worry about doing what you’ve got to do,” he said. “It’s a big deal just to get in that show. I hate that it didn’t turn out better, but at the end of the day we made it in the show.”

Additionally, Sides set quick time during World of Outlaws qualifying four times this season, which tied his career-best number set in 2009.

He ended the season 11th in the World of Outlaws championship standings and was only two points out of 10th place, which would have marked his seventh top 10 in the last nine years.

“We had some bright moments and some frustrating ones throughout the season, which you are bound to have on the road,” he said. “It’s a grueling season and it’s tough to not have the budget and help that a lot of teams have, but I love racing so we keep finding a way to make it work. I’ve done it so long now I don’t know what else to do. I enjoy it. The driving and the car washes sometimes gets old, but the race day itself, I enjoy the hell out of it.

“A huge thank you goes to all of our sponsors. A lot of people and businesses step up to help us get up and down the road and to race tracks across the country. Thank you to all of them as well as everyone who helps our team and the fans who support us.”