It has been a hard drifting season for Falken Tire Mustang driver Justin Pawlak. After the first three rounds of the seven-race Formula Drift season, Pawlak had failed to advance past the Round of 16. That put him deep into the rankings, and increasingly the Championship runner-up seemed to be out of the running for the 2013 season.

But Pawlak has finally broken out of his rut and nabbed an important 2nd-place finish, his first podium of the 2013 season. That moves Justin way up the rankings to 5th place.

Pawlak had to face plenty of big names on his way to the final round of The Gauntlet at Wall Speedway in New Jersey, including Chris Forsberg and Conrad Grunewald. But Pawlak was able to beat them both, thanking his crew for getting the Mustang in the best working order its been in since the Streets of Long Beach.

Unfortunately, Pawlak was unable to defeat eventual winner Diago Saito, who has been on fire since the second round when he picked up a first-place finish. Saito also defeated Vaughn Gittin Jr. in the Round of 16, though we would have loved to have seen Gittin and Pawlak face off in the final round.

As for Gittin, he still sits in second place in the points standings, though his points cushion has been substantially diminished, with three other drivers within 20 points and Diago Saito holding a comfortable 61-point lead. But fortunes can change in an instant in Formula Drift, and with three races left, it is still anyone’s game.