Haley NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion

Justin Haley put to bed last Friday night in Dover, Delaware, a finish to a long solid march to an amazing year in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship. In his sophomore year in the NKNPSE, Haley set a few records and came away with the big championship trophy for his efforts. 
Rain was persistent throughout the weekend, but it let up just enough Friday afternoon for a single practice session to be held, and Haley’s crew chief sent him out in a race trim setup. After a few minor adjustments and a switch to new tires, Haley would continue to set consistent lap times. Due to the early rain, the starting field would be set according to the rulebook. Haley, having a 29-point lead in the championship, would start from the pole position. The team knew he only had to finish 25th or better to secure the championship trophy. Second-place contender Kyle Benjamin would start to his outside. 
The green flag would see Haley jump out to a solid lead, putting about eight car lengths on Benjamin while the pair put about 20 lengths on the rest of the field. Haley would lead for the first 42 laps, before Benjamin worked his way around him. It seemed a light intermittent-to-continual mist throughout the race would plague some cars and cause doubts of running the full 125 laps. 
Later in the race, Collin Cabre would go hard into the back of Haley’s No. 5 car coming out of Turn 4, causing him to get loose and slip back to the sixth position. Cabre, running second, would later put himself into the Turn 2 wall on lap 102, ending his night. 
Several restarts at the end would see Haley battle back to a fourth-place finish. While Benjamin took the Dover 125 trophy, Haley maintained a 22-point lead over him for the huge championship trophy. 
Consistency is the key in any championship battle, and Haley, with several records under his belt, came away with a few more in the NKNPSE. Haley and his team completed every single lap of every race in the 2016 season. That amounts to 1,671 circuits this year. Haley set another record with an average race finish for the season of 3.4. 
Haley also finished in the top five in 13 out of 14 races, while never being outside of the top 10 finishers. He secured a win at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and at Columbus Speedway. He is the second-youngest driver to win a NKNPSE championship, just weeks older than past champion and record holder Joey Logano. 
This is the fourth consecutive NKNPSE championship for the HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks team, and Haley is the eighth-consecutive teenager to win the title. 
Haley said after the race, “We really wanted two trophies tonight. I didn’t want to just come out here and ride around for the championship. We’re here to win every race. We wanted to prove this championship was ours. This season, this win, was for Grandpa Braun.”
The Dover 125 will air on NBCSN on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 4 p.m. EDT.