Kimmel frustrated at Chicagoland; Still leads ARCA

JOLIET, Ill. (July 21, 2013) — Frank Kimmel had a frustrating race Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway in his ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards’ primary sponsor’s own race — but he tied his career streak for consecutive top-10 finishes and maintained a healthy lead in the championship standings after finishing ninth in the Ansell ActivArmr 150.

Kimmel, the nine-time ARCA champion who came into the day with a 175-point lead in the standings and riding a string of 20 consecutive top-10 finishes stretching back to July 2012, was optimistic after qualifying fifth in Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell earlier Sunday afternoon.

But in the end the outcome of the short, 100-lap 150-mile showdown was less than pleasant for the driver of the No. 44 Ansell / Menards Toyota fielded by ThorSport Racing.

“I was really disappointed in our finish — really aggravated because I felt like we didn’t finish in the position that I thought we deserved,” Kimmel said. “That happens sometimes and that’s part of racing, but we pride ourselves on our ability to usually finish a little better than maybe we should — that’s the mark of a championship team and we know that’s what we have at ThorSport.

“We always try to improve on what we think we should get, and (Sunday) I thought we had a top-five car — we pretty much proved that all weekend by coming off the truck and going right to the top of the practice sheet, which we don’t usually do.”

Kimmel was perplexed by the way the race played out on a steamy in the Chicago suburbs.
“We just had some differences in pit strategy versus what some of the other guys did and the car didn’t run well in the middle of the race when we tried two tires and I didn’t discover that the high lane in Turns 1 and 2 was going to be so much better than the bottom,” Kimmel said in summary. “We picked up almost eight-tenths of a second by moving up high on the racetrack in 1 and 2 and if we’d done that earlier in the run maybe we wouldn’t have lost so much track position.”

When that occurred and Kimmel had to pit with about 12 laps to go, he lost a lap that he wasn’t able to recover. Even when leader Justin Boston ran out of fuel with less than two laps remaining — handing the first series win to rookie Corey LaJoie in a racecar he built himself — Kimmel didn’t pick up a spot, ending up ninth.

“So that made it a disappointing finish because I felt like we should have had a top-five car, easy,” said Kimmel, who was third-best in the weekend’s only practice, on Saturday — ironically behind LaJoie. “Jeriod (Prince, crew chief) and all the guys worked really hard all weekend and it’s just disappointing when you don’t get what you deserve.”

The best part of the day was, despite the frustration Kimmel felt at “not being able to out-run the leaders to enable us to stay on the lead lap, there at the end,” Kimmel’s chief championship rival Mason Mingus only finished sixth. Since Kimmel got bonus points for leading a lap while Mingus didn’t, Kimmel unofficially takes a 165-point lead to this weekend’s Sunday race at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Ironically, that’s where Kimmel’s current 21-race string of consecutive top-10 finishes began, on July 1, 2012.