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[/media-credit]FRANK KIMMEL MICHIGAN PREVIEW
Driver of the No. 44 Ansell/Menards Toyota Camry ARCA RACING SERIES * RainEater Wiper Blades 200 * MICHIGAN INT’L SPEEDWAY
No. 44 Ansell/ Menards Toyota Camry ARCA RACING SERIES – RACE 8 OF 20 – Michigan International Speedway
For the second consecutive week, Frank Kimmel and the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards competitors will tackle a newly repaved racetrack, at Michigan International Speedway. This will mark the second event of 2012 on an intermediate style racetrack which compliment the short track portion of the ARCA schedule. After battling back from tire woes last week at Pocono Raceway to finish sixth, Kimmel and the Ansell/Menards team enter Michigan continuing to carry momentum after seeing their streak of top ten finishes extended.
The ARCA Racing Series was the first series to host a race on Pocono’s new pavement, and will do the same this weekend at MIS. With the asphalt similarities, Kimmel and the Thorsport Racing team hope to have their #44 Ansell/Menards Toyota perform similarly to last week’s event in Long Pond, PA. With five consecutive top tens leading into this weekend’s Rain Eater Wiper Blades 200, Kimmel is poised to take another step towards his tenth series crown.
The nine-time series champion has made more starts at MIS than any other driver in the ARCA Racing Series with 23. Kimmel has also shown the way to victory lane twice, in June 1998 and 2005. With finishes in the top ten in the last two events at MIS, Kimmel has also been known to start towards the front in his career, combining strong qualifying efforts as well as high points positions. Kimmel has started in the top ten in five of the last seven MIS events, and has nine top fives and thirteen top tens.
TOP TEN STREAK: Kimmel is gunning for his sixth consecutive top ten finish of 2012. His stretch of top tens dates back to Talladega in April where he finished 7th. Kimmel has also finished in the top ten in three of the last four races at Michigan.
ON THE RECORD: Kimmel can tie Iggy Katona’s all-time record of 43 pole awards on Saturday morning during Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell. With 74 career victories, Kimmel is five wins behind Katona’s all-time wins record in the ARCA Racing Series.
POINTS REPORT: After 7 of 20 races, Kimmel sits fifth in series points, 95 points out of the lead. Thus far, Kimmel has three top-5’s and five top-10 finishes in 2012.
CLOSE TO THE FRONT: Kimmel has not started outside the top 15 at Michigan since June of 1999, span of fifteen races. He has started five of the last seven MIS events in the top ten, and is looking for his first career pole at MIS.
CHASSIS CHOICE:Kimmel will pilot chassis A-2 out of the Thorsport Racing stable in the RainEater Wiper Blades 200. This chassis saw its first laps of competition last week in Pocono where it qualified 5th, and was raced to a 6th place finish.
MICHIGAN MENARDS APPEARANCE: Kimmel will be signing autographs at the Jackson, MI Menards location on Thursday night from 7-8PM local time, following ARCA Racing Series practice. Kimmel will be joined by Sprint Cup Series driver, and defending Brickyard 400 winner, Paul Menard. The #27 Menards Sprint Cup Showcar and the #88 Menards Camping World Truck Series showtruck will be on hand as well.
THOUGHTS FROM THE DRIVER: Frank Kimmel WHAT CHANGES DO YOU ANTICIPATE AFTER THE REPAVING AT MIS? “It will be similar to Pocono, but different as well. The majority of the lap at MIS, you’re in the turn. We’re going to have the same issues trying to get the car to turn, and have to be on the throttle a lot. I think we’ll be wide open the whole lap, especially for qualifying, and probably even in the race at times. You’re going to need a car that turns good, but stay wide open a lot too.”
HOW VITAL IS AN INTERMEDIATE TRACK PROGRAM TO WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE ARCA RACING SERIES? “You have to have a good program at every place we go. Five years ago, we had more intermediate tracks than anything else. It’s switched to where we have a lot of short tracks now. It’s all important with two races at superspeedways, two on dirt, a road course and these intermediates. They guy that wins the championship is going to be good everywhere we go, no matter what type of track we race on.”
Race Info June 15th, 2012 Michigan International Speedway 2-Mile Paved Tri-Oval RainEater Wiper Blades 200 100 Laps/200 Miles
Broadcast Info: Live Timing & Scoring at ARCARacing.com Thursday, June 14: Practice 4:05-5:40 pmET Friday, June 15: Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell -10:00 amET RACE – 5:15 pmET
LIVE ON SPEED @ 5:00pmET
Team Facts: Current Driver Point Standings: 5TH
Chassis: A-2 – Raced at Pocono (6th)
Engine: TRD (Toyota Racing Development) & TRIAD
Frank Kimmel ARCA RACING SERIES results at Michigan Int’l Speedway: WINS: 2 POLES: 0 Top 5s: 9 Top 10s: 13 Total Appearances: 23
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