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Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Friday, April 18, 2008

The team to beat

By JEFF BROWN | Tribune Sports Editor

How does Steve Carlson top Steve Carlson? He doesn’t.

The veteran West Salem, Wis., stock car driver realizes duplicating, or topping last year’s season in which he became the first driver from the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway to win a Whelen All-American Series national short-track championship would be virtually impossible.

Then again, Carlson is not your ordinary driver.

“Trying to top that would be pretty hard to do, or even match it,” said Carlson, who won an incredible eight feature races (out of 20 attempts) en route to track and national titles in 2007. “You can’t count on having those type of years very often, if ever.”

Carlson, who drives for the DMT Motorsports Team owned by Tim Jacobs of Sparta, Wis., is supported by a top-notch team and teammates. Kevin Nuttleman, a 10-time track champion at the Fairgrounds Speedway, and second-year driver Emily Sue Steck, are back in their respective seats this season.

“We raised the bar again (last year),” Jacobs said. “As a team owner, we’ve won three championships in three years with two different drivers (Carlson and Nuttleman). That is pretty awesome. We have chased that national championship since 1989 (when he was a crew member of Nuttleman’s team), and we finally won it.

“Man, it was a fun winter. It was long on the marketing end, but fun with all the travel that NASCAR took us on. It makes you want to do it again even more.”

While drivers like Stoddard’s Paul Proksch, Cashton’s Tony Bagstad, Holmen’s Todd Korish and Sparta’s Shawn Pfaff could legitimately challenge for a track title, the best battle might very well be within the DMT Motorsports team itself.

Carlson and Nuttleman are two of the top drivers in the history of the track, and with the absence of Fall Creek’s Andy Burgess and Bangor’s Steve Holzhausen — both of whom are not expected to race at the Fairgrounds Speedway this season — those two could very well finish one-two in the points once again. The question is, who will be No. 1?

“Steve had a fantastic year. It was one of those years where everything goes right for you,” said Nuttleman, who is entering his 29th year of racing. “I’ve had those years and know what they are like. I also know how hard it is to have everything go right like that.”

The DMT Motorsports Team, with Brian “Toby” Nuttleman serving as the overall crew chief for all three cars, built a new car for Nuttleman this year. It has some of the latest changes in technology, and was fast during practice runs on Wednesday.

“I like a car that is set up a bit different than Steve’s,” said Nuttleman, who enters the season with 99 career Late Model victories at the Fairgrounds Speedway. “Toby had a vision over the winter, and we put it to use.”

Will that vision be enough to chase down Carlson? Maybe, maybe not. Carlson will be driving the same car he won the national title with. The only difference, he said, is that the team put a new body on the car when it was put on display at the national championship banquet.

“With something special like that, you don’t want to fool with it,” Carlson said. “All I know is that I’m having a lot of fun. I have a good car, a really good team and I’m having fun running here.”

Jacobs, for the most part, is having fun, too. With Carlson and Nuttleman he has two front-running veterans. And with Steck, he has the only female driver in the division, and one who has tremendous potential.

Steck earned rookie of the year honors in 2007, and finished 11th in points, just 12 points out of the top 10.

“We have expectations for her. She is not a rookie any more,” Jacobs said. “You have to focus and get it done. I think she’s got what it takes.”