Music: {allcanada} CHAMPION PROFILE: Scott Steckly

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The margin for error in a 12-race season is slim. Drivers and teams generally can bounce back from one bad outing, but two sub-par performances stretches it about as far as it can go.

Quick starts were the foundation of Scott Steckly's first two NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 championships in 2008 and 2011, but a pair of finishes outside the top 20 was how he launched his 2013 campaign.

In both of his previous championship-winning seasons, the Milverton, Ontario, driver claimed wins in the season opener. The 2013 kick-off event on the road course at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park near Bowmanville, Ontario, ended with a Lap 13 accident and the No. 22 Canadian Tire Dodge on a rollback tow truck. The result was a 24th-place finish.

Accidents happen and their occurrence is more palatable early in the season as opposed to late. The battle cry is always to regroup and get pointed in the proper direction the next time out.

The next time out was at Delaware (Ontario) Speedway, but after a start from the pole position the Steckly camp was not able to get it pointed in the right direction. This time the enemy was a faulty rear end gear. They were able to get the car back on the track, but a 21st-place finish was all that could be salvaged. Two races into the new season and Steckly was already staring at a 36-point deficit in the point standings.

CHAMPION CREW CHIEF: RANDY STECKLY

The less-than-stellar start to the season further exacerbated the hollow feelings for the team left over from 2012 when they failed to reach Victory Lane for the first time in a season since the series began in 2007. The four podium finishes were of little consolation to the team that scored race wins in each of its first five seasons in Canadian Tire Series competition.

"We didn't have a great start – that's for sure," said Steckly. "We weren't about to quit, though. We just decided that we were going to really dig down and win as many races as we (could)."

POS	DRIVER
1	Scott Steckly
2	D.J. Kennington
3	Jason Hathaway
4	Martin Roy
5	L.P. Dumoulin

No confidence was lost, but the 22 Racing team needed to shake the doldrums in order to get back into the championship conversation. Like a child running into the arms of its mother or relaxing into a favorite chair, they visited an old friend.

A pair of runner-up finishes at the oval at CTMP and the road course at Circuit ICAR in Mirabel, Quebec, cleared the haze for the Steckly troops, but a visit to Motoplex Speedway and Event Park in Vernon, British Columbia, proved to be a catalyst as the season neared the midway point. If the half-mile tri-oval situated in the Okanagan region of Western Canada is not a Steckly favorite, it sure should be. His average finish in six races coming into this year's race was a stout 1.83. He started fourth on the grid and went on to lead a race-high 99 laps en route to his first win of the season and first since September 2011 at Riverside International Speedway in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, that helped seal his second series title. This victory left Steckly just 14 points behind in the championship standings.

"Honestly, I'm not sure why we do so well in Vernon, but no complaints from me," said first-year crew chief Randy Steckly. "It actually makes me a little nervous having had so much success there."

The one win quickly turned into a three-race win streak in the span of just 14 days after taking the checkered flag at both Auto Clearing Motor Speedway in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Autodrome St. Eustache (Quebec). And the once 36-point deficit was now a 10-point lead which was the largest advantage for any of the three drivers – Louis-Philippe Dumoulin, D.J. Kennington and Steckly – who sat atop the standings throughout the year. But the drama wasn't done.

Heading into the season finale at Kawartha Speedway near Peterborough, Ontario, Steckly again was looking uphill to Kennington on the season's leader board. Trailing by five points, Steckly would have to win the race and capture the bonus point for leading the most laps to control his own destiny and render whatever result Kennington could muster moot.

Steckly got off on the right foot by winning his series-best fourth Heluva Good! Pole Position and went on to claim his 15th series career victory while leading a race-high 113 laps to complete the up-and-down season journey.

"The lapped cars make it pretty hard sometimes when they are racing side-by-side and won't give you a lane," Steckly said. "We were as patient as we could. We knew the car had to be good near the end so we didn't push it too hard through the middle of the race. I pretty much knew those cautions would be coming at the end, that's pretty much a given in this racing. To hold everybody off was amazing.

"We knew we had to win and lead the most laps and that was the only thing we went there to do," he said. "We wanted that third championship; we wanted to be the first one to do it."

Steckly, who is also the car owner, said he couldn't have done it without his team and that anyone who thinks NASCAR is not a team sport should hang around his shop and on pit lane during races.

"There are so many people behind this team who do so much work and it just worked out great," he said. "I can't really put it into words just how much this means to everyone involved with 22 Racing and my family. This team worked its butt off week in and week out."

Steckly and his 22 Racing team will be presented with the 2013 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 championship trophy on Saturday, Dec. 14 as part of the NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Awards ceremony in the Crown Ballroom of the Charlotte (N.C) Convention Center inside the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The awards ceremony is slated to be streamed live online in three languages – English French and Spanish – at www.nascarhometracks.com.