Tim Wilkerson appeared to be the angriest winner in Memphis.

There was barely a smile on the face of the six-time 2008 winner as he entered the post-race press conference.

The devil is in the details.

Wilkerson was docked 15 points for putting oil on the racing surface after stopping Ashley Force in the final round. Such a penalty left him with less points than the driver he beat in the final round.

Nevermind the fact he almost single-handedly dismantled the entire John Force Racing juggernaut on race day.

Tim Wilkerson appeared to be the angriest winner in Memphis.

There was barely a smile on the face of the six-time 2008 winner as he entered the post-race press conference.

The devil is in the details.

Wilkerson was docked 15 points for putting oil on the racing surface after stopping Ashley Force in the final round. Such a penalty left him with less points than the driver he beat in the final round.

Nevermind the fact he almost single-handedly dismantled the entire John Force Racing juggernaut on race day.

After winning last weekend’s Dallas title, Wilkerson told the media his wife was on the verge of evicting him from their house because he’d been a grouchy S.O.B. since losing in the first round to Ashley Force in Charlotte.

He was grouchy again in beating her in the final and it all whittled down to what he deemed as a mistake that led to the oil put on the track. He’s been a clean runner with a plethora of free oildown credits prior to the championship phase of the season.

Just like his points lead, those were erased as well.

“I seen some 4.22’s and 23’s in front of me so it didn’t make me feel too bad winning with a 23,” Wilkerson said. “I knew we could go faster than that so when we came back we stepped it up because I thought the track was better than we gave it credit for all weekend. We were really behind all weekend doing bad and then we just had some dumb errors there.

“Now I’m getting points taken away for leaking on the track and that’s just not conducive to our car so we need to go back and fix that thing. If we lose this thing by 15 points, I’m going to be a mad hombre.”

Wilkerson is hopping mad at dumb luck. His car didn’t blow up in the final round.

“No, it was the same thing in Dallas,” Wilkerson added. “A bolt comes out of the car and goes all the way through, no rods break lose but it was just silly. It’s silly to have two oil downs like that. It’s just a little bit because of that pressure and the time restraints you get put on you in between rounds. Things don’t get checked as close as they normally do and we’re going to have a long talk about that back in the pit area. The stuff needs to be looked at a little bit closer. That’s all my tears for the day.”

Once he got past the anger, he did have to smile at beating all of those Force cars. He’s adamant that his success isn’t making a mockery of the multi-car teams.

If anything, Wilkerson points out, he’s in the position today because of them.

“Truth be known there hasn’t been a day one of those crew chiefs hasn’t helped me in one way or the other and tomorrow I could go over and talk to Coil or talk to Jimmy Prock or talk to Johnny West or Todd Okahara, any of those guys,” Wilkerson said. “If I had a question or a problem, they would be nice enough to help me. Now, they might tell me something wrong but they still might want to help.

“We’re like a family over there. There’s not a crew chief out here in the last couple of years that hasn’t helped me fix something on my car that is bad on it.”

Wilkerson is sitting back and every detail seems to be falling in place. He might have lost 15 points, but the pain was lessened when the three drivers ranked behind him fell early.

“I think that happened for Tony last year, he had everything falling in place for him at Vegas everyone went out and he went out and won the race ,” Wilkerson said. “Although we have been leading the points since St. Louis and the only time we weren’t leading the points was when we left Charlotte. We know we have a good car; we just have to keep from making those dumb mistakes where we win the race and in the final round have an oildown like we did here and in Dallas.

“We’ve got to stop getting nicked for the points on those stupid leak downs. I’m a little upset with myself over that type of thing but you have to put that kind of thing behind you and say hey we won the race.”

Make no bones about it. Wilkerson likes playing the odds, puts him in reminds of his high school wrestling days.

“When I was a kid I wrestled in high school and I wasn’t very big and I wasn’t very good, you know we were in an AAA school and the kids were very good,” Wilkerson recalled. “I used to spar with this kid who was a state champion and the coach would say when you wrestle him you don’t even look like the same wrestler you wrestle so good. Once you treat everybody else that way when you wrestle.

“I’ve been thinking about that maybe when I race these champions I got to start treating them like that not like there is no chance I can beat them.