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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Aug. 18, 2013) — Frank Kimmel’s 80th career ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards victory, as well as his ninth career checkered flag at the Illinois State Fair, will have to wait.
But after a helter-skelter final few laps in Sunday’s Allen Crowe Memorial 100 on the fairgrounds’ one-mile dirt oval, Kimmel could still summon a smile after he finished fourth in his No. 44 Ansell / Menards Toyota, behind second-time 2013 winner Brennan Poole.
“It was very exciting those last few laps,” Kimmel said. “Everybody was going for it — people jumped the (last) start and that made a mess of everything — but all-in-all it was a good day…
“At it least it was a good points day because we didn’t run like we should. We didn’t quite get the setup like we should’ve and I think the track changed on us, and due to the short practice we weren’t able to work on it a whole lot.”
The bottom line was that Kimmel — who led 20 laps in the middle portion of the race when crew chief Jeriod Prince’s pit strategy shuffled Kimmel’s Camry to the front from laps 51 to 70, where he was able to hold on for a whille — scored his 25th consecutive top-10 finish.
But even more important than that, when Kimmel’s chief championship contender, Mason Mingus, had a mechanical issue with his car late in the race that relegated the Tennessee teenager to a 16th-place finish, Kimmel opened-up his widest lead of the season in the standings.
With seven races remaining, pending the release of ARCA’s official standings Tuesday morning, Kimmel has a 245-point lead over Mingus.
That didn’t seem plausible early in Sunday’s lone one-hour practice, when a rock deranged a line to the car’s carburetor, which caused a brief engine fire and a long delay in the car practicing.
Kimmel’s ThorSport Racing crew got the No. 44 out for 12 laps at the end of the slightly-extended practice and Kimmel was ready to race, after qualifying 11th in Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell.
Kimmel was pleased with how Prince’s strategy worked out.
“When you don’t have a car that can win, you have to work on beating them somewhere else,” Kimmel said. “We were a little behind on our chassis and didn’t quite have the speed a couple of the other cars did. If the final caution had come out with 25 or 30 laps to go, I think by the end of the day we were going to be one of the fastest cars.”
The final caution created a green-white-checkered finish and even though local dirt-racing hero Kelly Kovski took the checkers first, he and two other drivers were penalized fpr jumping the restart, which moved Kimmel to fourth.
“We led some laps, got up front and it was a good points day,” Kimmel said in summary. “When you can take a bad day and come out good with it, that’s a good day, especially when you look at how this championship can change in a heartbeat.” The series next heads to Madison, Wis., for the Sunday afternoon Herr’s Live Life With Flavor 200. The Allen Crowe Memorial 100 will air on the NBC Sports Network on Friday, Aug. 23 at 11 p.m. ET, the third of four ARCA short-track races to be telecast by NBC this season, including the Madison race. |
| ABOUT MENARDS:
With 280 stores in 14 Midwestern states, Menards has the tools, materials and supplies for all your home improvement needs whether just needing a light bulb or can of paint to building a deck or new home. Menards is known throughout the home improvement industry as the low price leader; it’s no wonder their famous slogan – “SAVE BIG MONEY” – is so widely known and easy to remember. Menards does things right – the company’s strength and success can be seen in the well-stocked and maintained stores, the lowest prices in town and the way guests are always treated like family in a hometown hardware store atmosphere.
ABOUT ANSELL: Ansell is a world leader in providing superior health and safety protection solutions that enhance human well-being. With operations in North America, Latin America/Caribbean, EMEA and Asia, Ansell employs more than 11,000 people worldwide and holds leading positions in the personal protective equipment and medical gloves market, as well as in the sexual health and well-being category worldwide. Ansell operates in four main business segments: Medical Solutions, Industrial Solutions, Specialty Markets and Sexual Wellness. Information on Ansell and its products can be found at www.ansell.com.
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ABOUT THORSPORT RACING:
ThorSport Racing, based in a state-of-the-art 100,000-square-foot facility in Sandusky, Ohio, is the longest-tenured NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team. Thorsport, which has run full-season Truck Series schedules annually beginning in 1998, in 2013 will run the No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra driven by Matt Crafton, the No. 98 Carolina Nut Co./Curb Records Toyota Tundra driven by Johnny Sauter and the No. 13 SealMaster Toyota Tundra driven by Tracy Hines in the Truck Series and the No. 44 Ansell/Menards Toyota Camry driven by Frank Kimmel in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. |
