After Missed Opportunity in 2011, Poole Looks Forward to Pocono; News & Notes from ARCA's First Race at Elko Speedway
For Immediate Release: Monday, June 4, 2012 (TOLEDO, Ohio) - Brennan Poole blitzed the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards field in Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell last June at Pocono Raceway. He appears to have momentum as he looks forward to the triangular track after winning Saturday's Akona 200 presented by Federated Car Care at Elko Speedway. |
Poole, who qualified more than a half-second faster than fellow front row starter Ty Dillon at the 2.5-mile track last spring, talked in Victory Lane about his forecast for Saturday's race, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. and air on SPEED one hour later. This spring, Pocono Raceway completed a re-pavement project. "I think it's going to be real fast," said Poole, who became the 145th driver with multiple wins in ARCA Racing Series history. "It'll be fun. We had a really good car last year, and I think the pavement's going to change it up some, so we'll just have to see when we get there. I think the tapered spacer's going to be in effect. That's really going to change how you get through the center of the corner. You'll be carrying a lot more momentum, trying to keep that momentum wound up." Poole led the first seven and 23 total laps last June, but missed a chance to win when fog shortened the race and officials awarded leader Tim George Jr. with the victory. Poole finished fifth. Despite the new surface, he feels adjusting will be manageable. "Fortunately, I think we'll have enough practice and we have a lot of experienced guys around to be pretty strong," he said. "It's going to be a good race and I think you're going to see the good guys right on top of each other all race long, and I think you're going to see that the following week at Michigan." At Elko, Poole led the most laps and earned the Aaron's Lap Leader of the Race Award. Before Saturday, Poole had not led all season, but he is now second in the year-long Aaron's Lap Leader standings; he trails Alex Bowman, 252-148. Poole's win also gave him the honors as the top Team Messina Rookie Challenge contender for the race. His 30-point score in that award's standings gave him a 14-point lead on Venturini Motorsports teammate Ryan Reed (No. 15 RaceHard.com Toyota), 154-140. Poole Takes Back Points Lead: Tom Hessert (No. 52 Federated Auto Parts Chevrolet) entered Elko Speedway with a slim 15-point lead, but Brennan Poole left with the advantage - albeit slightly narrower. Poole leads Hessert by 10 points, 1410-1400, and the two are just ahead of Chris Buescher (No. 17 BeavEx/Reliance Tool Ford), who stands at 1395 points after a third-place finish. Frank Kimmel (No. 44 Ansell/Menards Toyota) improved to fourth, 45 points behind Poole. He edged Chad Hackenbracht (No. 58 CGH Motorsports Chevrolet, -50) out of the spot. Alex Bowman (No. 22 St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital Dodge) improved to sixth on the strength of 15 bonus points for qualifying and five for leading laps. With a 130-point deficit to Poole, he is five points ahead of Ryan Reed and up 20 on Matt Lofton (No. 16 Strutmasters.com Chevrolet). Mikey Kile did not race Saturday, but remains ninth, one step ahead of Jared Marks (No. 12 SRT Motorsports/UNOH Dodge). Marks is 405 points out of the lead. He turned 18 last Monday, and before this week has never appeared in the top 10 in points. ARCA will release the official new driver standings Tuesday. Lofton Turning Things Around: Matt Lofton struggled to open the 2012 season, finshing only as high as 14th in his first three races. Since then, Lofton has been second at Talladega, 11th at Toledo, and second in Saturday's Akona 200. He improved one position in the driver point standings after Saturday's race. "I've got to thank everybody at Coulter Motorsports and Strutmasters.com," said Lofton. "It was an awesome car. We unloaded off the trailer good and to be able to rotate the center as well as we were without using the brake pedal and start up front like we did, we just had a great race." "Wild Race Track," Says Buescher: After finishing third and escaping major damage while tied up in a final-lap dustup that primarily involved Tom Hessert and Larry Barford Jr., Chris Buescher dismissed some preconceived notions about Elko Speedway - in particular, that the track is too narrow for door-to-door racing. "It's a pretty wild race track," Buescher said. "I'm glad we got to come up here. There are a lot of beat-up race cars, but we halfway expected that. We were hoping it wouldn't be the case, but you've got to kind of expect it coming to a place like this. "I think we showed there's a passing groove," he said. "We raced two-wide a lot of the race; a lot of people did. I think it was a heck of a show, even from where I was sitting. I had a ball." Kimmel Takes Third Top-Five: Frank Kimmel finished fourth in Saturday's Akona 200 and is one of just two drivers - with Tom Hessert - with three top-five finishes in six races this year. He discussed his experience on a new track for the ARCA Racing Series. "I really enjoyed it; what a great little race track," he said. "I knew it was going to be a lot of fun and it was, just good, tight, hard racing. We pitted quite a bit earlier than some of the other ones, and that kind of caught us in the end. We were pretty much out of tires." Experiencing just four caution periods over 200 laps on a new, small track surprised the veteran. "When the track is so slick, the drivers really have to pay attention, you know," he said. "Sometimes, when it's so easy to drive, you get complacent. Here, you had to stay on your toes every single turn and every single lap." Bowman's Pole His Third: Alex Bowman used his Twitter account early Sunday morning to make a vow for the rest of his racing season. Bowman promised to "figure out what we're missing on these short tracks," a statement he felt necessary after winning his third Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell but finishing just 11th. Bowman led eight laps from the initial green flag before Matt Lofton passed him; Bowman did not lead again. Poles at Mobile International Speedway, Salem Speedway, and Elko have Bowman two clear of any other driver in the field. In relation to recent successful qualifiers, Bowman has work to do to catch Ty Dillon's mark of seven poles last year, but he has already matched Craig Goess's series-high three from 2010. Six Winners in Six Races: Six different drivers have won in the first six races this season: Bobby Gerhart (Daytona), Cale Gale (Mobile), Alex Bowman (Salem), Brandon McReynolds (Talladega), Chris Buescher (Toledo), and Brennan Poole (Elko). Such variety was last present in ARCA at the start of the 2008 season, when Michael Annett, eventual champion Justin Allgaier, Matt Hawkins, Scott Speed, Joey Logano, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Matt Carter each won one of the year's first seven races. Over in a Snap: The checkered flag in the Akona 200 presented by Federated Car Care just missed the one-hour mark, as the race finished in one hour and 44 seconds after only four caution flags. The race, at 200 laps or 75 miles, ended with the shortest elapsed time since a 125-mile race at Pocono Raceway on July 31, 2010. Robb Brent won that race in 57 minutes and 32 seconds. The Akona 200 was the 34th race since that Pocono event. Age No Issue for Hard Charger: James Hylton, who in just under three months will turn 78 years old, earned the CGS Imaging Hard Charger of the Race Award for improving more positions from start to finish than any other driver carrying a decal for CGS Imaging, ARCA's Official Wide Format Digital Printing Supplier. Hylton (No. 48 Radon.com Ford) improved six positions, from 26th to 20th. Prior to Saturday at Elko, Hylton had not finished in the top 20 of a race since last September at Salem Speedway. Four Drive to Career Highs, Two Others Tie Bests: Matt Lofton's second-place finish matched a career high that he achieved at Talladega Superspeedway in May, and four other drivers drove to the best finishes of their ARCA careers. Mason Mingus (No. 32 Call 811 Before You Dig Chevrolet) finished ninth, his best. Additionally, Spencer Gallagher (No. 23 Allegiant Air Chevrolet) was 14th, Larry Barford Jr. (No. 04 First Mariner Bank/Trauma Doc Dodge) was 17th, and Dustin Hapka (No. 2 Sure Step Chevrolet) was 18th. Hapka's start was his first in the ARCA Racing Series, and he was the only driver making his debut at Elko. Nelson Canache (No. 35 Venezuela Tourism Toyota) finished 16th, tying the career-best result he achieved at Toledo Speedway in May. Newly-Paved Pocono Next, on Saturday: The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will visit Pocono Raceway for the first of two events this season on Saturday, June 9. SPEED will air the race at 2:30 p.m. on a same-day delay, one of 10 broadcasts for the series on the network this season. ARCARacing.com will feature live timing and scoring of all on-track events Friday and Saturday. 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 26 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 0.375 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 visited Alabama's Mobile International Speedway and Minnesota's Elko Speedway for the first time. 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. CONTACT: Griffin Hickman, ARCA Don Radebaugh, ARCA |
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