2012-02-17

Sean Corr Wins First Career Menards Pole Award at Daytona

For Immediate Release:

Friday, February 17, 2012

 

 

Four Times Disallowed for Inspection Failure

 

(DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.) - Sean Corr needed just 49.271 seconds to finish his best lap around Daytona International Speedway, but had to wait several hours to win his first Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell.

 

 

Corr will start first in the opening race of the 60th season for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, having been awarded the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 pole after original polesitter Bobby Gerhart saw his time taken off the board for an engine inspection failure after qualifying.

 

Corr, 27, of Goshen, N.Y., started eighth in a 2010 race at Pocono, but has never been higher at the green flag. The original surprise of his No. 82 Empire Racing/United Way Ford so significantly improving its best performance was easily surpassed by the astonishment over his late move from second to first.

 

"Can you pinch me?" Corr asked after learning that he had actually won the pole with his lap of 182.663 mph.

 

"I really don't know if I'm dreaming because this is something that's only in a dream. I was just walking through (the media center) once thinking to myself, 'I never thought I'd be walking in the media center in my race suit,' much less twice in one day."

 

Corr described what he originally perceived as trouble in his qualifying lap before realizing he had actually laid down a strong time.

 

"The car felt really smooth," said Corr, 27 and of Goshen, N.Y. "When it came off of (Turn) 2, it hit a little bit of a headwind and I felt like the slowest guy ever going down the backstretch but I guess it really wasn't. The car was really good yesterday in practice, drafting, running side-by-side, and even in single-car runs. It was still very fast. I think we have a good shot at our team's first top-five for tomorrow.

 

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to win it, but I'll be content at the end of the day with a top-five. To break that mark with our team would be incredibly huge."

 

Entering what he hopes is his team's second full season, Corr stressed the improvement shown by Empire Racing.

 

"We really have a great group of guys. Now I think we've locked on to the best group of people we've had. Ben Leslie, my crew chief, he's worked a lot with Ford so he brought in a ton of knowledge."

 

Ryan Reed, who initially qualified third, will start second in his career debut for Venturini Motorsports.

 

"It was a really solid lap and I was really, really happy I'm sitting (in the top three) for my first time here at Daytona," said Reed, 18 and of Bakersfield, Calif. "The car felt really good and I look forward to tomorrow's race. During qualifying it's pretty good, but it'll be even better during the race."

 

Reed admitted slight disappointment in missing the Menards Pole Award, but given the news Reed received one year ago this month, the high starting position is a major source of pride.

 

"A little over a year ago, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and it really affected my life in every way. I was told I'd never be able to drive a race car again, yet here I am."

 

Steve Blackburn, yesterday's practice leader, will start third. Blackburn originally qualified fifth, but, in addition to Gerhart, three other cars did not pass post-qualifying inspection. One was fourth qualifier Paulie Harraka's, allowing Blackburn to jump two spots. Cars driven by Brennan Poole and Joey Coulter also failed the review for height violations discovered shortly after the session's conclusion.

 

Tom Hessert will start fourth, just ahead of Chris Windom, Cale Gale, Drew Charlson, Chris Buescher, Chad Hackenbracht, and Mikey Kile. Buescher finished second to Gerhart in last season's race; he later finished second in the final standings and won the series' Rookie of the Year award.

 

Nine-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel will start 17th in his first race for ThorSport Racing and his pursuit of his first Daytona win in 21 starts.

 

Poole will start 33rd, three spots ahead of Harraka after both secured provisional starting positions. Gerhart will start his 25th consecutive Daytona race in the 42nd position. Coulter did not qualify.

 

The 80-lap, 200-mile Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 airs live on SPEED at 4:30 p.m. Eastern tomorrow, with live timing and scoring available at ARCARacing.com. Gerhart is the defending and all-time leading winner at the track, with wins in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2011. The race is scheduled as the first of 20 this season.

 

The ARCA Racing Series will host a final, 45-minute practice at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Live timing and scoring will be presented by ARCA Nation at ARCARacing.com.

 

2012 is the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards' 60th Anniversary Season, featuring 20 races at 18 tracks. The complete 2012 event schedule is available at ARCARacing.com.

  

2012 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Event #1

Daytona Int'l Speedway, Daytona Beach Florida, 2-18-12

Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200

POS

NO

DRIVER/HOMETOWN

TIME

SPEED

1

82

Sean Corr/Goshen NY

49.271

182.663

2

15

Ryan Reed/Bakersfield CA

49.362

182.326

3

94

Steve Blackburn/Prestonsburg KY

49.416

182.127

4

52

Tom Hessert/Cherry Hill NJ

49.449

182.006

5

32

Chris Windom/West Lafayette IN

49.475

181.910

6

6

Cale Gale/Mobile AL

49.516

181.759

7

28

Drew Charlson/New Bremen OH

49.525

181.726

8

17

Chris Buescher/Prosper TX

49.537

181.682

9

58

Chad Hackenbracht/New Philadelphia OH

49.537

181.682

10

1

Mikey Kile/Westlake LA

49.547

181.646

11

4

Brandon McReynolds/Mooresville NC

49.576

181.539

12

66

Mark Thompson/Cartersville GA

49.611

181.411

13

35

Nelson Canache/Caracas Venezuela

49.677

181.170

14

22

Alex Bowman/Tucson AZ

49.797

180.734

15

09

Brett Hudson/Owensboro KY

49.941

180.213

16

33

Milka Duno/Caracas Venezuela

49.971

180.104

17

44

Frank Kimmel/Clarksville IN

50.113

179.594

18

9

Max Gresham/Griffin GA

50.134

179.519

19

78

Aleks Gregory/Baton Rouge LA

50.215

179.229

20

08

Alex Kennedy/Aztec NM

50.332

178.813

21

68

Will Kimmel/Sellersburg IN

50.375

178.660

22

39

Fain Skinner/Live Oak FL

50.395

178.589

23

90

Zach Ralston/Marion IA

50.416

178.515

24

16

Matt Lofton/Roxboro NC

50.433

178.455

25

30

Terry Jones/Amherstburg Ontario

50.561

178.003

26

12

Leilani Munter/Rochester MN

50.578

177.943

27

00

Ed Kennedy/Coppell TX

50.609

177.834

28

88

Buster Graham/Lafayette LA

50.729

177.413

29

29

Sloan Henderson/Franklin OH

50.746

177.354

30

13

George Cushman/Waterville NY

50.810

177.130

31

2

Brandon Davis/Huntington Beach CA

50.813

177.120

32

11

Rick Clifton/Circleville OH

50.826

177.075

33

25

Brennan Poole/The Woodlands TX

Provisional

34

31

Mike Harmon/Birmingport AL

Provisional

35

23

Spencer Gallagher/Las Vegas NV

Provisional

36

55

Paulie Harraka/Wayne NJ

Provisional

37

10

Ed Pompa/Ballston Spa NY

Provisional

38

34

Darrell Basham/Henryville IN

Provisional

39

48

James Hylton/Inman SC

Provisional

40

18

Bill Coffey/Danbury CT

Provisional

41

02

Josh Williams/Port Charlotte FL

Provisional

42

5

Bobby Gerhart/Lebanon PA

Provisional

43

04

Larry Barford Jr./Denton MD

Provisional

 

 

The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards has crowned an ARCA national champion each year since its inaugural season in 1953, and has toured over 200 race tracks in 28 states since its inception. The series has tested the abilities of drivers and race teams over the most diverse schedule of stock car racing events in the world, visiting tracks ranging from 0.4 mile to 2.66 miles in length, on both paved and dirt surfaces as well as a left- and right-turn road course in its most recent season. This year, the series will visit Alabama's Mobile International Speedway and Minnesota's Elko Speedway for the first time; ARCA's first visit to Minnesota will give ARCA a race in a 29th state.

 

Founded by John and Mildred Marcum in 1953 in Toledo, Ohio, the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is recognized among the leading sanctioning bodies in the country. Closing in on completing its sixth decade after hundreds of thousands of miles of racing, ARCA administers over 100 race events each season in three professional touring series and local weekly events.

 

No comments: