ISRA POWER Series issue #1 | Page 3

When Taraska won the Toyota Owner's 200 at Michigan to start the season it was his first trip to victory lane in the POWER Series. Not only had Taraska shown he could win, he did so by beating out series veterans Brian Motisko and Mike Kelley as well as three time and defending series champion Tim Johnston. While many would consider those three drivers to be the main threat to the rookie for the points title, the real challenger had just finished 5th. Corey Davis had spent Season 6 as a mere journeyman driver in the series. Running only 5 races, Davis had managed a win at Watkins Glen along with 3 top 10s to prepare for Season 7 and a full run at Rookie of the Year honors. During the course of the season Davis returned to victory lane four times and even matched Taraska's series leading 15 top 5's. While Davis battled with Kelley and Johnston for the points lead for most of the season, Taraska used an impressive hot streak which was capped off by him winning the Jeff Byrd 200 at Bristol in March to pull within 4 points of Davis for the season's points lead. Taraska finished 4th at ACS while Davis' 5th place finish meant Taraska was within 2 points of the lead headed into Vegas. At Vegas Taraska finished 3rd while Davis finished 5th again. Headed into the series finale at Texas the points battle between the two was down to a dead heat. Taraska finished 2nd at Texas, 2 spots ahead of his rookie rival, to claim his first ISRA POWER Series title.