Tyler Emory was furious Sunday at Hagerstown Speedway, struggling to settle the anger attached to describing the mistake that caved his chances at winning the Appalachian Mountain Speedweek event.

Staring down leader Drake Troutman with Gregg Satterlee hot on his heels in the final laps, Emory lost the handle of his car and slipped off the top of Hagerstown’s turn-two racing groove. Satterlee, the eventual winner, raced on by and so did Kyle Hardy.

“I mean, that was a huge mistake,” the 30-year-old Emory said flatly. “To do it once was bad enough. To do it twice was downright stupid. … I’m pretty honest on how this stuff works. There’s only one way to get better.”

Emory finished fourth Sunday at Hagerstown, good enough to preserve the miniseries lead that now stands at 72 points ahead of Thursday's fifth-round action at Bedford (Pa.) Fairgrounds Speedway. It’s a telltale sign the second-year Super Late Model racer is progressing mightily fine.

The King George, Va., native is outpacing the Northeast’s best with Hardy, Rick Eckert and Satterlee following suit in the miniseries standings. Three races down, he has finishes of fifth, second and fourth and has yet to qualify outside the top-two in his group.

But through all this, Emory’s learning just how stringent the road to success in Dirt Late Model’s premier division really is.

“You ask about consistency, and we’ve been decently consistent, but, I mean, I want to consistently win races,” Emory said. “I don’t want to consistently finish second.”

Emory’s knows he's fairly green as a Super Late Model racer. At least for now. His first and only win thus far in the premier division came a month ago today at Marion Center (Pa.) Raceway. Last year as a teammate of regional stalwart Jason Covert at Cameron-Mann Motorsports, he finished second on three occasions and took his share of rookie lumps.

But with Covert now out of the picture and racing Bryan Klinedinst’s No. 43A, Emory’s the new centerpiece of the Chaptico, Md., race team. Covert, who occupied the ride from 2014 through last season, has left Emory an extensive handbook, so to speak, on what goes into a successful race team.

“The experience Jason shared with me was very, very helpful,” Emory said. “He’s been around a long time. It showed Friday (at Clinton County). He kicked our ass on Friday. He was good. He’s usually pretty good. He had some problems (at Port Royal and Hagerstown). But you aren’t going to have one of these cars and not have problems, I tell you that.”

Just like any racer that’s yet to establish oneself, inheriting a high-profile ride — regionally or nationally — comes with a sense of responsibility. In other words, there’s an undeniable pressure.

“You talk about pressure and taking over for Jason,” Emory said. “I get to go in the race shop every week with, I don’t know, 10 checks with Dave’s name on them and 30 checks with Jason’s name on them. I get to walk into a shop and see that clearly they were very successful. That’s a little bit of pressure I probably put on myself more than anything. Just to get to see it, it’s a pretty awesome shop.”

On the same token, Emory’s not overly burdened behind the wheel. Car owner Pete Cameron is the grandfather of Emory’s fiancee, Megan Mann, and the overall team dynamic is one of a family.

“Everyone involved … they are very well aware that tomorrow night we could not make the show. And that’s just how this goes. It’s nice driving for people that are more than aware. You can’t be good every night. People don’t appreciate the Rocket house car and (Brandon) Overton and (Jonathan) Davenport and (Tim) McCreadie. For them to unload and be fast every night, that’s a tough, tough deal. And they are with the best of the best.

“These cars have so many things you could mess up that to not know what everything is doing is really hard. It really is. You’re good one minute, and then you make a few small changes and then next thing you know you’re out in left field.”

One of the biggest stressors for the team last year was fielding two cars — for Covert and Emory — with minimal help.

“Last year was a tough year … it’s really hard taking care of two cars during the week,” Emory said. “We have two cars now, but we usually don’t race one.”

This year, Emory isn’t only the focal point of the team, but there’s some depth to their crew as well. Joe Chamberlain, a 45-year-old journeyman mechanic who used to work for Michael Waltrip’s NASCAR Busch Grand National Series team in the late 1990s, has joined the Cameron-Mann team and taken a lot of the load off Emory’s shoulders. Recent high school graduate Casey Alvey, 18, is another beneficial addition to the team’s crew.

“I wouldn’t say we were underprepared last year, but it feels like we’re more prepared this year even though when we get to the track it’s a fire drill,” Emory said. “We’ve worked really hard.”

Of course, no team gets anywhere in Dirt Late Model racing without some degree of productivity at the shop. As for Emory, he’s ramped up his late-night shop work considerably and he’ll continue to raise the intensity until he finds a reasonable baseline.

“We haven’t had the car the same way each time I hit the track … we’ve been testing because

You have to try stuff otherwise you fall behind,” Emory said. “It feels like we’ve raced 100 times already even though it’s only been 15.

“You have to love the grind. Fortunately (Megan) loves the grind. (Joe) loves the grind. Pete loves the grind. Casey at home … We spend every night until midnight out in the shop working on these things. That definitely helps. I’ve given some of the rules, like taking care of the body and a lot of other stuff off to other people so I can focus on shocks and suspension to make this car faster. You can’t feel like you’re falling behind, that’s for sure.”

Four races are down and four races remain in the second coming of the Appalachian Mountain Speedweek, and Emory is in the driver’s seat to claim the title, leading Satterlee in the championship race. Should he finish on top, he’ll join Josh Richards, McCreadie, Satterlee and Eckert, among others, to win the miniseries title, which would be quite the accomplishment.

But Emory isn’t thinking that far ahead. He’s focused on finishing and winning races more than anything.

“Man, it’s tough being the point leader. You can’t worry about it,” Emory said. “All you can do is go race and try your best. Look at all the good cars that were here. Jason didn’t make the show (at Port Royal and Hagerstown). So, I mean, I could very well not make shows.

“I feel like if we win a championship without any wins there’s always an asterisks next to it. There’s not, but to me it feels like it. I’d like to at least win one if we were to win the points championship.”