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[/media-credit]Buescher Passes Kimmel, Leads Final 48 Laps for Fourth Toledo Speedway Win
(TOLEDO, Ohio) – Through the final third of the Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care at Toledo Speedway, the two drivers leading the field had earned a combined 12 victories at the half-mile oval.
Chris Buescher passed nine-time winner Frank Kimmel just after a Lap 153 restart and held the veteran off over the final 48 laps to score his fourth Toledo win since the start of 2010, a span of just five races. Buescher also drove the No. 17 Roulo Brothers Racing Ford to a win in last year’s season finale, and swept the ARCA Racing Series events at Toledo in 2010. The win was the sixth of his career and first in 2012.
Kimmel (No. 44 Ansell/Menards Toyota) led 20 laps, and for a while was running the fastest laps on track – along with Buescher. His lead approached two seconds – before Buescher used the race’s ninth caution and ensuing restart to his advantage – and he appeared primed to end a 67-race winless streak just an hour’s drive from new team ThorSport Racing’s headquarters in Sandusky, Ohio.
Grant Enfinger finished third, ahead of Clint King, Tom Hessert, and Mikey Kile. Clay Rogers, Chad Hackenbracht, Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell winner Alex Bowman, and Jared Marks completed the top ten on a warm, sunny day before a new-look Toledo Speedway, which featured two new grandstand towers overlooking the ARCA Racing Series for the first time.
Buescher’s final margin of victory was 3.514 seconds in a race with 10 caution periods for 42 laps. ARCA will release more information from the race shortly.
The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will visit Elko Speedway in Minnesota for the first time on Saturday, June 2, in the Akona 200 presented by Federated Car Care. In 60 seasons, the tour has hosted races in 28 states, and Minnesota will be the 29th. ARCARacing.com will feature live timing and scoring coverage from the race, which will begin at 8 p.m. Central.
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 visited Alabama’s Mobile International Speedway for the first time. In June, the first event at Minnesota’s Elko Speedway 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.
