The Surprise Win of the Year Award (Two Way Tie): STRANGLEHOLD’S BILL MCMAHEN and FULL THROTTLE

1) STRANGLEHOLD’S BILL MCMAHEN

Bill Mcmahen was the driver who grabbed the checkered flag in the upset of the year, when Stranglehold beat Orange Crush.  The fact that Stranglehold won was a surprise, yes, but the reason Mcmahen earns this award is because of a far greater surprise.  Mcmahen didn’t learn that Stranglehold won (let alone that he was the winning driver) until he was being interviewed by SpeedChannel after the race ended.

2) FULL THROTTLE

If you thought it was unusual to have no idea that your team won for ten minutes after the race ended, then you’re going to probably want to sit down for the story of Full Throttle’s surprise win.  Full Throttle learned that they won their first round match up against Mean Green Machine two weeks after the conclusion of the race.  TWO WEEKS!

Full Throttle runner, Levi Turnbaugh, completed five laps before any of Mean Green Machine’s drivers did… but thanks to a counting error in the scoring booth, one of Turnbaugh’s laps wasn’t counted.  When people began looking at video of the race in the weeks after Fourth Night, this scoring error came to light and Full Throttle disappointedly learned that they had actually won their race.