The CRA Super Series championship battle certainly isn’t lacking for drama with three events still remaining.

Cody Coughlin leads Dalton Armstrong by 13 points with Wes Griffth Jr. a distant 60 back. But the battle amongst the front-runners has been fierce both on and off the track. Most recently, the two engaged in a hard-fought battle in the closing stages of the Battle at Berlin 251 which led to some animosity.

But time hasn’t entirely smoothed-over the lingering byproducts of fighting for a championship. In fact, Coughlin doesn’t even want to acknowledge his closest rival moving forward.

“I don’t really think about them,” Coughlin said. “I’m focused on what we’re doing. I don’t even care what they’re doing. I guess they’re having a good year. I wouldn’t know. I’m focused on myself.”

But make no mistake — he knows.

For his part, Armstrong is equally displeased with Coughlin, but hopes the two can compete over the final three races with respect and without incident.

“Honestly, I don’t care,” Armstong said in response. “I’m just here to race. I want to be the bigger person with this deal. I feel like he’s raced me dirty all year but I’m going to keep my composure. If we do what we’ve been doing all year, that should be enough.”

With a maximum of 110 points available per race at 330 total, the championship is still totally up for grabs. And with two of those races at high-speed Winchester Speedway (the other is at Lucas Oil Raceway,) there is a sense that anything could happen.

“It feels like this is going to come down to the last race at the Winchester 400,” Armstrong said. “It would take something crazy to happen for that to not be the case.”

The intensity is a reflection of just how much the championship means to both contenders. This is a crown previously won by Scott Hantz, Chris Gabehart, Johnny VanDoorn and Travis Braden. This is Coughlin’s last season as a full-time Late Model driver so he wants to make history in the process.

He leads both the CRA Super Series standings and has a near-insurmountable lead in the JEGS Tour Pro Late Model division.

“We’re trying to go NASCAR racing next year and be more selective with out Late Model stuff,” Coughlin said. “So we decided that this would be a cool send-off for what we’ve been working towards the past few years.”

In fact, Coughlin didn’t even plan to run for a championship this year but changed course when he emerged through the summer with a lead in both divisions. He’s even canceled some NASCAR Truck starts — including one this weekend in Canada — to achieve this goal.

Armstrong views his future a little differently. The 22-year-old younger brother of Xfinity Series regular Dakota Armstrong also wants to compete in NASCAR but currently lacks the funding to do it. He recognizes that victories in races like the Redbud 300 and a possible breakthrough next month in the Winchester 400 could go a long way towards getting there.

The championship wouldn’t hurt either.

“It would just be a huge boost of confidence,” Armstrong said. “We’re capable of this but its nice to have the actual title. I think of guys like Erik Jones and Daniel Hemric whom have had success in the Midwest in recent years here. Johnny VanDoorn has been good for so long. To win their championship means a lot to me as I try to move forward.”

Three to go.

Stay tuned.

The next CRA event at Winchester is the World Stock Car Festival and it will have a live PPV broadcast via Speed51.com. It is the traditional tune-up race for October’s Winchester 400.