Paul McMahan
Paul McMahan decided to part ways with CJB Motorsports Thursday after three years with the team. His last race in the car will be next week's World Finals in Charlotte. (Jeremy Elliott | jelliott@pennlive.com)
Paul McMahan has spent the last few days mulling over one of the most difficult decisions in his racing career.
See, fans only see the glitz and glamour moments in Sprint Car racing. The confetti baths in Victory Lane and the celebrations.
What they don't see is the disappointment and self evaluation. The time a driver spends assessing a situation and coming to the realization he or she needs a change.
McMahan took that step the last few days. It came to a head Thursday, when he announced over Facebook that he was parting ways with the CJB Motorsports World of Outlaws team and that their last race together would be next week's World Finals in Charlotte.
"It was my decision," McMahan said in a phone interview. "We had a meeting last Friday and talked about things.
"I have the utmost respect for everyone at CJB, and I thought it would be best for me personally and everyone involved that we go our separate ways at the end of the year."
Continued McMahan, "It was tough for me personally to move on, but I felt it was the best for CJB Motorsports. There are no hard feelings, no animosity. I'm friends with those guys, and we are going to run Charlotte and have a beer afterwards."
McMahan hooked up with CJB Motorsports, which is owned by Chad and Jenn Clemens, before the 2013 season and embarked on an all-out assault on the highly competitive World of Outlaws circuit.
There were no first year growing pains. McMahan surprised fans with four wins and a third-place finish behind Daryn Pittman and Donny Schatz in the point standings.
The team continued to improve in 2014. McMahan won five races and posted a career-best 42 top-five finishes and 75 top-10 runs to place third behind Schatz and Pittman for the second year in a row.
Past success led to high expectations coming into 2015. But on-track struggles have left McMahan with only three wins and a seventh-place position in the point standings heading into the World Finals.
"This season was real tough," McMahan said. "We are accustomed to finishing in the top five every night, and this year we just didn't do it.
"It's been bad luck. I've made mistakes, and we've had bad cars at times. It's not one thing you can put your finger on. It just didn't go our way. It's been frustrating for me, Chad and Barry [Jackson], as well.
"This had nothing to do with a 10-win season or anything like that. This is a what-have-you-done-for-me- lately sport. We had a successful two years, and this year wasn't so good.
"Chad has given me opportunities and everything I needed to go race. We were never pointing fingers, and we were always trying to make the race team as good as we could. It just didn't go our way."
McMahan has no immediate plans in place for next year. No calls were made, and none have been received. At least, not yet.
One thing is for sure, McMahan, 45, isn't ready to retire. He still feels he has plenty of wins and good runs in him.
"This happened less than an hour ago," McMahan said. "I'm taking a moment to myself to figure out what I want to do. I'm not ready to retire, by no means. I just need to take a step back and let this all sink in.
"There are not a whole lot of rides available, but I've been doing this 20 years. I know how this game goes. I'm going to go have dinner with my wife and kids tonight for some family time and start figuring out what I'm going to do tomorrow."