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NEWTON, Iowa (Sept. 7, 2013) —Â For the second consecutive race Frank Kimmel showed the mettle of a nine-time ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards champion, as he battled to a 10th-place finish in Saturday night’s Prairie Meadows 150 at Iowa Speedway.
Kimmel, who battled a variably-handling No. 44 Ansell / Menards Toyota all day on the .875-mile oval where he now has seven consecutive top-10 finishes, had a couple concerns about creating a good finish.
First, when Kimmel scrambled back to 11th late in the race, it put him in position to re-pass Caleb Armstrong for 10th, which he did with less than two laps to go.
That enabled Kimmel to extend his career-best string of consecutive top-10 finishes to 28, over the past two seasons with ThorSport Racing.
Kimmel had come to Iowa, with four races left this season, with a 305-point lead over rookie Mason Mingus. Mingus didn’t run particularly well in practice, but he grabbed the top starting spot in Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell, in which Kimmel earned only the 14th starting position.
Mingus, who received 15 bonus points for the pole, gained five more bonus points for leading the race’s first 26 laps and then picked up his final 15-point gain in the race by finishing seventh.
Thus, Kimmel is unofficially 270 points ahead of Mingus with three races remaining, beginning next Saturday with the second race this season at the half-mile Salem (Ind.) Speedway, close by Kimmel’s home in Borden, Ind.
“It’s always really comforting — and comfortable — to go back to Salem because it’s close to home and you’ve got a lot of good fans there,” Kimmel said. “I’ve always had a lot of people show up to see if we can win the race and I think we’ll have a good opportunity to win there.
“We’ve been competitive in a lot of these races lately — we weren’t (Saturday) night but the car’s been good everywhere we go. Our pit stops have been good so if everything goes well and we make the right adjustments I think they’ll have to deal with us.” Saturday night’s Iowa race never achieved expectations for Kimmel and company. At the start, it took Kimmel 20 laps to reach the top 10. At the second caution most of the back half of the lead-lap cars pitted and Kimmel only went back to 12th at the restart after a good pit stop.
From there, despite running a bunch of laps as good as the leaders Kimmel wasn’t able to advance too far into the top 10. But it looked like he was sitting pretty after his ThorSport pit crew moved him from seventh to fifth on their final stop, with 64 laps left. But the lack of consistent handling ultimately reared up and sent Kimmel back.
There, he battled a horde of youngsters who used a variety of lines to send him back to 12th. The veteran Kimmel thought he knew why, even if he couldn’t work it in his favor.
“They changed the tire (compound) this time,” Kimmel said of ARCA and Hoosier’s decision. “I think it was the same (Hoosier) tire we used at Pocono. Maybe it was too hard for here, but I don’t care because everybody had to deal with it.
“I started running up the top — actually, I ended up there a couple times when I didn’t mean to (laughing) — and we worked on it from there. But it was such a fine line for my car to run up there. If I hit it right it was pretty good but if I didn’t I was hanging on.” In the end, Kimmel tried to draw solace from his pit crew.
“We picked up a few spots on our (last) stop and that was great — our over-the-wall guys continue to develop and that’s what we need,” Kimmel said. “We came out of that stop in great shape and the car ran good for about 10 laps and then it started fading again.
“We kind of fought that all night, where it ran really good at the beginning of the run and then it would slow down on us… We tightened it up a little and it got too tight in the middle (of the corners), so we freed it back up and it was too free in (to the corners). |
| 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 |
