By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Chris Cockrum was one of the handful of underdog stories to burst into the top 10 Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway.
However, if you ask Cockrum, he feels like the winner.
Making only his second start of 2019, the superspeedway-only driver came home 10th in the Money Lion 300. The result, his best in 17 Xfinity Series starts, was the first top 10 for Rick Ware Racing since 2016.
“We may not have won the race but this feels like a victory,” Cockrum said. “I feel like I can go out in the infield and turn cartwheels.”
The excitement for a 10th-place result came after some hard times for the Georgia native, who not only scored his first top-10 finish, but had never seen a top-20 result in his on-and-off Xfinity career.
Finally, the luck stuck with the 32-year-old.
“To come out of here with a top 10, this is awesome,” he said. “In years past I come down here and luck hadn’t been on my side. It was nice to break through now. I’m
Cockrum put the team first in postrace interviews, noting the hard work behidn the scenes that made this possible.
“I’ve got four guys on my team who work full-time,” he said. “I got good sponsors behind me, everybody associated with this program — I’m more happy for them than I am for myself. I’m the fortunate one who gets to drive the car but it’s their hard work at the shop.”
Cockrum still stopped to appreciate this big day in his racing career.
“This is probably the top of the mountain right here,” he said. “Coming from the local short tracks, you come in running Trucks, running Xfinity stuff — coming out of here with a top 10, this is awesome.”
With only the July race at Daytona on his 2019 schedule, Cockrum hopes this finish “kicks open the doors” for more starts.
“This is only the second race of the year for me. Right now, I probably only have the superspeedways lined up,” he said. “I’m hoping after this, now it’ll kick the door open and we’ll have more races now.
“This is just a small operation but everyone puts their heart and soul into it. I cannot thank everyone at the shop enough for their hard work.”