Denton Secures Runner-Up In Young Lions National Points

Cole Denton (46) leads the Young Lions field during Saturday's Asphalt Nationals Young Lions feature. (Dominion Raceway photo)

SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. – Cole Denton capped off a stellar U.S. Legend Cars International season with a top-five finish in Saturday’s 33rd annual Asphalt Nationals at Dominion Raceway.

The strong result allowed the Pascagoula, Miss., teenager to finish runner-up in the INEX Young Lions national championship standings in a year where he never anticipated the opportunity to run for the overall title, let alone come into the last race with a legitimate chance to win it all.

Denton – who came into the event tied for the point lead in the Young Lions division – qualified second-fastest in a 28-car field for the final and most prestigious race of the season, outpaced only by one of his title rivals in West Coaster Ashton Williams.

After a third-place finish in his 10-lap heat race, Denton lined up on the front row for the 35-lap championship feature, with Williams on the pole and fellow national rivals Keelan Harvick and Rodney Dowless Jr. starting behind him deeper in the field.

Though Denton didn’t lead a lap during the finale, he never ran lower than sixth and contended among the best of the best throughout the race. The catch in terms of the championship battle was Harvick, who slipped by Denton just before the lap-10 benchmark to hold a track position advantage.

Harvick went on to take the race lead with 11 to go, while Denton grabbed fifth place inside of nine laps to go and held serve until the finish.

With only Harvick ahead of him among the point contenders, Denton ended 12 points shy of the ultimate goal of a season championship, but still climbed from his familiar yellow-and-green No. 46 with a huge smile at the boxes he was able to check throughout the year.

“We came into the Asphalt Nationals hoping to win the national championship, and I know we came just a little bit short of that, but we never even believed at the start of the year that this chance was even in the cards for us … so to finish second in points is a huge accomplishment for our family team,” Denton said. “I felt like we were solid in the feature; we just never quite had the right lane on restarts to be able to get where we ultimately wanted to be.

“One of the things that I am really proud of is that we had the fastest lap of anyone in the feature (at 17.218 seconds on lap 29), and that’s something that’s not easy to do when you look at the quality of cars and drivers we were racing against,” he added. “We’ll take pride in the year that we’ve had and see what the winter brings for the future. A huge shout out to 77 Speed Shop and Matt Jones Motorsports for the fast cars we’ve had all season long; without them, we couldn’t have been here in the first place.”

Denton ends the season with 24 wins, 34 top five, and 38 top 10 finishes in 41 INEX points races.

Denton would like to thank 77 Speed Shop, Matt Jones Motorsports, Race Face Brand Development, Race Face Digital, the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, Myers Construction Co., and City Chevrolet for their continued partnership and support of his racing efforts.

About Cole Denton Racing

Nicolas “Cole” Denton is a 13-year-old Gulf South racer with dreams of racing at the top level of stock car racing. From Pascagoula, Miss., Denton began racing go-karts at the age of four and advanced into Bandoleros by the time he was eight years old, where his racing brand and nickname were born.

It was in Bandoleros where Denton, a fan of the iconic racing movie Days of Thunder, adopted the No. 46 as his car number and stylized his Bandolero scheme in black and neon green – akin to the same Mello Yello colors that Tom Cruise’s character Cole Trickle campaigned in the 1990 film.

Denton quickly picked up the nickname “Cole Trickle” at his races, and the persona stuck as his racing stock climbed, leading him to continue racing under the name Cole as he advanced and found success.

His breakout season came in 2022, when Denton accrued 40 wins and 59 podium finishes in 62 starts en route to the INEX Bandolero national championship, leading him into his first year in Legend cars last season.

Away from the driver’s seat, Denton is an avid iRacer, cyclist, and push scooter racer. He also practices flying on a flight simulator and attends both local and NASCAR races as his schedule permits.

For more information on Cole Denton, visit his website at https://coledentonracing.com/.