Breaking Down The Northeast Region's '410' Sprints

As many of you know, we've been holding our own little points standings for 410 Sprint Car drivers in the Northeast region of the country. The list of qualifying tracks is mainly exclusive to Ohio and Pennsylvania, however a few races just outside of that area have counted for points.

The uniqueness of the Northeast Sprint Championship comes in the form of the points system. Points are awarded to drivers by virtue of a feature finish only, and completely dependent upon car count that night.

For example, the winner over an 18 car field would only receive 3 points, whereas the 3rd-place finisher amidst a 40 car field would also receive 3 points. A full points breakdown can be found at the bottom of this article.

Points can be earned until the end of October. Here is how they stand now.

Tied 1st - 101 Points - Danny Dietrich & Greg Hodnett
It's hard to imagine that after 5 months of hard racing, traveling, and wear-and-tear, that two drivers would be tied for the points lead heading into fall. There is no question that these are the two most dominant drivers in Central PA this season.

Dietrich's magical season has included 14 wins, 3 of which came over fields of 34 or more, earning him the maximum points (5) in one race.

Hodnett's career-year has been eerily similar. He has amassed 13 wins in the region thus far. Greg has also matched Danny Dietrich's total of 3 wins in max point races.







3rd - 76 Points - Dale Blaney
The "King of the All Stars" has had another spectacular season. The 25 points deficit can partially be blamed on running less races than the leading pair. Although Blaney only has 10 counting wins on the year, a remarkable 9 of them have come when the stakes are the highest and there have been 34 or more sprints on hand. As if that wasn't enough, he has 2 additional max point wins outside of the area that do not qualify for this championship.





4th - 70 Points - Brian Montieth
The early season points leader has cooled off considerably of late, but his early success is astounding in itself. Montieth has 8 wins total on the year, with 5 coming at Lincoln Speedway and the remaining 3 at the historic Williams Grove Speedway.







5th - 51 Points - Stevie Smith
Running a very limited schedule and still managing to sit 5th in the current standings may be the biggest accomplishment of the season. Stevie and the Rahmer gang have often been the fastest car when they hit the track, no matter where that may have been. In his limited number of starts, Stevie has earned 8 wins at 5 different tracks so far in 2015.



Full points standings can be found HERE

Regional Points Races
Central PA
1- Danny Dietrich [101]
    Greg Hodnett [101]
3- Brian Montieth [70]
4- Stevie Smith [51]
5- Lucas Wolfe [42]

Ohio/ASCoC
1- Dale Blaney [76]
2- Byron Reed [38]
3- Cody Darrah [35]
4- Sheldon Haudenschild [34]
5- Greg Wilson [32]

Western PA
1- A.J. Flick [19]
    Brandon Matus [19]
3- Carl Bowser [18]
4- Ed Lynch, Jr [15]
    Jack Sodeman, Jr [15]

WoO/Independent
1- Donny Schatz [31]
2- Shane Stewart [15]
3- Joey Saldana [11]
4- Rico Abreu [10]
5- Daryn Pittman [8]
    Paul McMahan [8]
    Sammy Swindell [8]
    Steve Kinser [8]


Points System:
34+ Cars - 5 points, 4 points, 3 points, 2 points, 1 point
24-33 Cars - 4 points, 3 points, 2 points, 1 point
23 or less Cars - 3 points, 2 points, 1 point