Words and photos by Joe McHugh

The final Xtreme Meltdown event of 2013, held Nov. 9 at Houston Motorsports Park, marked the season finale for the Texas Automatic Outlaws series, which now includes the popular and ever growing X275 and Ultra Street classes.

The battle for the TAO series championship saw Chris Domino come into the race holding a near lock on the top spot by having a 31-point lead over E.J. Hickl. The championship scenario was pretty simple: all Domino had to do was stage and break the beam, which is an official qualifying attempt. That would get him a 50-point bonus for attending all 2013 series events, and that would lock up the title, and that was what happened in a bizarre first qualifying round.

Domino had an exciting end to the 2013 season that culminated with his first series championship. Domino had wrecked his tried, true and consistent Pontiac Grand Prix at the last event at Houston Motorsports Park on October 5. The next series event was just two weeks later in Prescott, Arkansas, and with a wrecked ride Domino had visions of a vanishing championship. 

When asked about that Domino said, “I sat around all day (Sunday) after the race moping about it trying to decide what to do. I talked to my wife (Karyn) about it and she said, ‘you gave me an option a few years ago about going racing and I said we’re going racing, so get off your butt and either get that car fixed or get another one,’

“So I did both. I called Vic Custer at EasTexas Race Cars and his guys who are excellent craftsman did a ten-day around. They had a five-man crew there waiting on us Monday morning. The next Wednesday I picked the car up and away we went to Prescott.  We were number-one qualifier in Prescott and won the race.”

When asked about how it feels to finally have that championship title, Domino said “I feel like it’s a year behind, I feel like we had last year wrapped up and then we hurt the motor, but I’ll tell ya, it feels freakin’ awesome! We worked hard for this and it feels awesome.”