Connected to ARCA's Past, Charlson Has Career Day;
Monday, February 20, 2012 News & Notes from ARCA's Season Opener at Daytona (TOLEDO, Ohio) - Drew Charlson had made just one ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards start prior to Saturday's Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200. |
Last October, he finished an unremarkable 24th at Toledo Speedway, no surprise for a 17-year-old driver making his first competitive laps in the national tour. One year ago, Charlson attempted to qualify at Daytona, but couldn't make the 43-car field. Now 18 - and just eight days past that milestone birthday on Saturday afternoon - Charlson improved upon his career debut and more than made up for last year's failure to start. Charlson charged to the outside as race leader Brandon McReynolds ran out of gas on the final lap of Saturday's race, falling in line just behind Bobby Gerhart and pushing the veteran to a win just as both cars approached the start/finish line. Gerhart's win was his eighth in 25 starts, both Daytona ARCA records, and Charlson earned a runner-up finish that he'll remember forever. "Bobby's spotter (Jason Jarrett) came on and he just said, 'Stick with them, stick with them,'" Charlson said. "I stuck to his bumper and came out of the turn to give him a shove. It's just amazing. This is my second ARCA start. We're just a small team working out of a two-car garage, and I can't thank everyone - Aluma Aluminum Trailers, AgriGold, and Heitkamp Crop Insurance - enough. It was just awesome." With his Lap 83 heroics came the demise of the driver who had led Laps 19-82 - 64 in all: McReynolds. "That's got to be heartbreaking," Charlson said, "to sit in the spot like he did. He led a lot of laps, and I feel for him. That's just the way it goes." Charlson is from New Bremen, Ohio, the same town where sprint car driver Allen Crowe died in a racing accident in 1963. Crowe's name is familiar to many in the ARCA Racing Series; the Allen Crowe 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds is the first of ARCA's dirt track races each summer. Likewise, New Bremen Speedway, the track that took Crowe's life, hosted six ARCA events between 1957 and 1973. He plans to run at least two more ARCA events this season. "Right now, we plan on running the Talladega race. Aluma has stepped on board. Their home track is Iowa Speedway, so we're for sure doing those two tracks. Anything's open right now." W. Kimmel Keeps it in One Piece, Earns Award: Will Kimmel's No. 68 Ford stands firmly in the middle ground in the ARCA Racing Series. The family name rings well in ARCA's 60th Anniversary Season, a year celebrating many accomplishments of ARCA's past - including those of Kimmel's father Bill, uncle Frank, and grandfather Bill. Frank is no longer part of the Kimmel Racing bunch, though, having departed for ThorSport Racing early in the offseason. The move leaves Will Kimmel as the face of a team with plenty of fan support and a famed name, but no major sponsor. That mattered little to Will Kimmel on Saturday, though, as he finished third in the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200. "Unbelievable," Kimmel said. "I feel like we stole that race. It was just unbelievable. Me and my team, we (started) 21st. The car did not draft at all in happy hour; it ran away from other cars. I'm ecstatic now. (Enterprise Software Development) on the quarter panel, Clarksville Schwinn and Crosley, they help out whenever they can, and we have an all-volunteer crew. I'm just happy to be here. We came out of here good." Asked about his plans to carry the Kimmel name forward from a team's perspective in the ARCA Racing Series, the 23-year-old from Sellersburg, Ind. spoke uncertainly about what was next but said he hopes to have a plan soon. "Right now, I'm not sure," he said. "I'm glad we got out of here in one piece and we're going to roll the car back in the trailer, of course. It looks like we're going to go to Mobile. I'm sure we'll figure something out, and run that, and maybe Salem and Talladega. We'll see what happens." Another highlight of Kimmel's day came in one of ARCA's special award categories, as his rise of 18 spots from a 21st-place start gave him the first CGS Imaging Hard Charger of the Race Award for 2012. Bobby Gerhart's 41-position rise is not eligible for the award since he started with a provisional spot. Daytona the Debut for 10: Ryan Reed, driving Venturini Motorsports' No. 15 JDRF Chevrolet, finished best among the 10 drivers making their first career ARCA Racing Series start in Saturday's race. Reed ran second to Brandon McReynolds for much of the afternoon, but finished 12th - still good enough to top fellow debut driver Fain Skinner by three spots. Zach Ralston (18th) and Brandon Davis (19th) each finished in the top 20 while making their maiden ARCA starts. Nelson Canache Jr. (22nd), Paulie Harraka (26th), Larry Barford Jr. (28th), Sloan Henderson (40th), Aleks Gregory (41st), and Bill Coffey (42nd) all made ARCA debuts. Half of Top 10 New to Daytona: In all, 24 of the 43 drivers who started Saturday's race had never competed in an ARCA Racing Series event at Daytona International Speedway before this year. Five of those drivers finished in the top 10, led by Charlson in second. Max Gresham, Brennan Poole, Chris Windom, and Alex Kennedy finished sixth through ninth, respectively. F. Kimmel Disappointed, but Encouraged: Frank Kimmel finished 23rd in the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, the final driver on the lead lap after being penalized for advancing his position below the yellow line just before taking the checkered flag. Kimmel was disappointed to miss his first Daytona victory in his 21st start at the track, and more frustrated with missing a sure top-10 finish because of the official decision. However, his run in the season opener has him feeling confident about his chances in 2012 with his new team, ThorSport Racing. "This definitely wasn't the way we wanted to end this race," said the driver of the No. 44 Ansell/Menards Toyota, in a team press release. "It is an unfortunate situation. We had a good car in practice and the guys really worked their tails off to get this Daytona setup ready for us. This team just became a team six weeks ago, so it's a testament to their hard work that we could bring it home in the top 10. I understand the ruling, and again, it's unfortunate, but it is the sanctioning body's decision. We learned a lot today, and the positive is we're that much more close as a team going into Mobile in March. We'll get after it there."
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. 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. |
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