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[/media-credit]Toledo, OH (May 22, 2012) — The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards returned to Toledo Speedway on Sunday afternoon for the running of the Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care.
Venturini Motorsports, celebrating their 30th anniversary in the ARCA Racing Series, once again fielded five cars for the short track event.
Leading the way for team Venturini was 16-year old Clint “The Kid” King, who captured his third top-5 finish of his young career in just six series starts. King driving the No.66 Jaclyn North Country Music Artist Chevrolet continued to impress by displaying the skills and patience of a veteran driver en-route to a fourth place finish after starting 13th.
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King, who made his series debut with back-to-back pole positions in 2011, has become the sleeping giant for Venturini Motorsports showing consistency race after race. “We missed our qualifying trim a little bit, but our race trim was spot on,” King said. “We just had to be really patient and work our way through this field. It was such a tight field, but a blast to drive. It was one of the hardest times I’ve had in ARCA so far. Big thanks to Grant Enfinger; he’s an awesome race car driver. We battled back and forth so many times today, and both of us have clean race cars and didn’t take each other out, so he’s an awesome driver. I appreciate the opportunity to run with him. (Crew chief) Teddy Brown and Venturini Motorsports, everybody there, did a fantastic job preparing this race car.” |
Brennan Poole who entered the weekend leading the ARCA Series point standings started off by qualifying second in his No.25 CJ Solar Band Chevrolet, but cut a tire late in the race while running in the top-10. The misfortune dropped the title contender off the lead lap and extinguished any chances of challenging the field for the checkered flag. Poole would finish in the 22nd position and drop him to third in the series point standings, 20 points behind new standing’s leader, Tom Hessert.
Bakersfield, California driver Ryan Reed continued his successful rookie campaign wheeling his branded No.15 RaceHard.com / JDRF machine capturing a 12th place finish and walking away from Toledo second in the Rookie of the Year point standings.
Although Reed won’t be shown as the race winner on the stat sheet, the 18-year old National Celebrity Advocate for JDRF shined off-track.
Reed along with partners RaceHard.com, PacificHealth Labs, and Accelerade used the Toledo event to kick off Ryan’s Mission Wristband drive to bring more awareness to T1D and support JDRF’s research efforts. Ryan’s Mission Wristband initiative and goal is to raise $150,000 by December 31, 2012. Information on Ryan’s Mission and his wristband drive can be found atwww.ryansmission.org.
International driver, Nelson Canache who features Venezuelan Tourism on the side of his No.35 Venturini prepared car gained tremendous experience this weekend en-route to his 16th place finish in the Menards 200 event at Toledo. Canache, who is a former Venezuelan driving champion, is making the leap to stock-cars in 2012. He is focused on gaining experience and using the diversity of the ARCA Racing Series to prepare him for his goal of rising to the ranks of NASCAR
The rookie, who defines the term “professional race car driver”, enters every ARCA event with extreme optimism and the desire to improve and become more comfortable in these foreign 3,400 lb. ARCA cars. Despite having zero experience on any of the race tracks making-up the ARCA schedule, Canache is improving week-after-week.
Erik Jones with huge fan support from his nearby hometown of Byron, Michigan made his final ARCA start before celebrating his 16th birthday on May 30th . Jones turned in another strong qualifying effort putting his No.55 Paragon Corvette Reproductions machine sixth on the starting grid.
Benefiting from a good starting spot the highly-talented rookie driver was in the mix all day driving his car as high as the second position before a late race incident slammed his car hard into the front-stretch wall taking him out of competition, crediting him with a 26th place finish.
In addition to the team’s racing efforts, Venturini Motorsports along with Nashville based, So Good! Entertainment produced several concert events leading up to the ARCA weekend festivities at Toledo Speedway.
Nashville recording artist and former American Idol Semi-Finalist, Jaclyn North joined Nashville based CJ Solar Band Friday and Saturday for performances at the Toledo Speedway Bar & Grill while capping off the weekend playing Sunday during ARCA’s fan fest pre-race party.
The Country rock duo also served as Venturini Motorsports team sponsors; the CJ Solar Band served as primary sponsor for the No.25 car driven by Brennan Poole and Jaclyn North sponsored the No.66 car driven by Clint King.
ABOUT VENTURINI MOTORSPORTS
Venturini Motorsports (VMS), fielding cars in the ARCA Racing Series, is one of the premier NASCAR driver development programs in the country. The 2012 season marks the team’s 30th Anniversary of competition in the ARCA Series. Multiple team championships and consistent on-track success, VMS has evolved into one of the most recognizable names in motorsports.
Since 2007, VMS has assisted in the career development of notable NASCAR drivers such as Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier, Steve Arpin, Brian Scott, Max Gresham, Miguel Paludo, Josh Richards, Ryan Blaney, and Scott Lagasse, Jr.
Official: www.VenturiniMotorsports.com | Twitter @VenturiniMotor | Facebook: Venturini Motorsports
