FOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS. ONE FINAL POINTS NIGHT. EVERYTHING IS ON THE LINE AT CARTERET COUNTY SPEEDWAY

SWANSBORO, N.C. — One race. Four championships will be determined and some of the closest points battles Carteret County Speedway has seen all season.

When the Islander Resorts & Kings Car Wash Battle at the Beach, presented by B&S Body Shop, takes the green flag on Saturday, September 19, it will be much more than another night of racing on the Crystal Coast. For the Bombers, Legends, Jr. Mini Cups and Street Stocks, this is the final points race of the 2026 season.

Carteret awards points based on finishing position, with 10 points for first, nine for second, eight for third and continuing down the finishing order. With such small margins separating several of the championship contenders, every pass Saturday night could have championship implications.

After an entire season of racing, there is nowhere left to make up lost ground. This is it.

BOMBERS: STANCILL AND ARTEMISIO ARE DEAD EVEN

You simply could not ask for a closer championship battle.

Deanna Stancill and Harry Artemisio enter the final points race tied at 56 points apiece.

And this is not a battle that suddenly appeared at the end of the season. Stancill and Artemisio have gone at it all year, trading strong runs and fighting for every point available. Neither has been able to put the other away, and after everything that has happened this season, they will arrive September 19 with absolutely nothing separating them.

Stancill has already celebrated a victory at Carteret this season, but Artemisio has matched her consistency in the championship race and refused to let the No. 9 get away.

Now there is no points cushion for either driver.

No protecting a lead. No calculating how many positions they can afford to give up.

They are tied. One final race will settle a season-long fight, and that makes the Bomber finale one of the biggest races of the night.

LEGENDS: THREE POINTS AFTER AN INTENSE SEASON

The Legends championship has been intense from the beginning, and somehow, after an entire season, just three points separate the top two drivers.

Keagan Abrams leads Scotty Benford 43–40 entering the finale.

Both drivers are from Swansboro. Both know Carteret County Speedway. And both have spent this season fighting through one of the most competitive Legends battles the track has seen this year. With Carteret’s finishing-position points system, three points can disappear very quickly. A few positions on the racetrack could be the difference between leaving Saturday night as the 2026 champion and leaving wondering where those three points could have been found earlier in the season. Abrams has the advantage, but Benford is close enough that neither driver can afford a mistake. After the way the Legends have battled all year, it seems only appropriate that the championship will require one more race to decide.

JR. MINI CUPS: THE DEFENDING CHAMPION VS. THE ROOKIE

The Jr. Mini Cup championship brings one of the best storylines of Championship Night.

Defending champion Maci Stancill enters the finale with 36 points, but rookie William Grube Jr. is only six points behind with 30.

For Maci, this is familiar territory. She has already experienced the pressure of a championship run and knows what it takes to finish a season on top.

For Grube, everything about this championship chase is new. This is his rookie season, yet he has put himself within six points of the defending champion heading into the final race.

That gives Saturday night a classic matchup: the young driver trying to defend her title against the rookie who has spent his first season racing his way directly into championship contention. Six points is an advantage, but with 10 points available for a victory, it is far from an insurmountable one. These may be some of the youngest racers at Carteret County Speedway, but when the Jr. Mini Cups take the green flag Saturday night, they will be racing for one of the biggest prizes of their young careers.

STREET STOCKS: SMITH HAS THE LEAD, BUT SHARP AND COUNCIL AREN’T DONE YET

And then there are the Street Stocks. Tyler Smith enters Championship Night as the points leader with 37, but the numbers behind him make this one far from settled. John Sharp sits second with 30 points, just seven behind Smith, while Jesse Council is third with 28 points, nine behind the leader. With a race victory worth 10 points, there is enough opportunity available Saturday night to make this very interesting.

Smith controls his own destiny and arrives with the strongest position of the three, but he does not have the luxury of simply ignoring what is happening behind him. Sharp needs to make up seven points in one race, meaning finishing positions between the two will be critical. Council faces an even steeper climb at nine points back, but mathematically the final race still matters. Depending on the finishing order, field size and applicable championship tiebreakers, his season is not something to simply write off before the green flag.

The Street Stock standings heading into the finale have Smith at 37, Sharp at 30 and Council at 28, setting up yet another race where fans may find themselves watching the championship points change with virtually every position gained or lost.

FOUR VERY DIFFERENT CHAMPIONSHIP STORIES

That is what makes September 19 so compelling. In the Bombers, Deanna Stancill and Harry Artemisio have battled all season and arrive at the finale tied. In the Legends, Keagan Abrams and Scotty Benford are separated by only three points after an incredibly competitive season. In the Jr. Mini Cups, defending champion Maci Stancill holds a six-point advantage over rookie challenger William Grube Jr. And in the Street Stocks, Tyler Smith holds a seven-point lead over John Sharp, with Jesse Council still lurking nine points from the top.

Four divisions. Four completely different championship stories. One final opportunity to score points. The championship races will be part of the Islander Resorts & Kings Car Wash Battle at the Beach, presented by B&S Body Shop, which will also feature the East Coast Flathead Fords, Crown Vic Super Outlaw Series and Virginia Vintage Racers.

For the championship contenders, though, Saturday night carries a different kind of pressure.

There is no next points race. Months of work in the shop, long nights at the racetrack, wins, bad breaks, close finishes and every single position fought for throughout the season have brought them here. By the time the final checkered flags fall on September 19, four Carteret County Speedway championships will be decided.

Racing begins at 6 PM Saturday, September 19. Tickets are available at CarteretSpeedway.com.

Remaining divisions race September 26th to determine championship for Mini Stocks & UCARS.

For the complete 2026 points standings in each division, visit Carteret County Speedway on MyRacePass.