Concord, NC (September 23, 2013) – Despite losing power in the final stretch of the ZLOOP™ 150, Justin Boston ensured he would not experience a total wash at Kentucky Speedway for the second consecutive day.
Following a delay for over 17 hours after heavy precipitation washed out the 1.5-mile racing surface Friday night, Boston started fifth in his 20th ARCA Racing Series presented by Meanrds event, the first for ARCA at Kentucky since 2009.
Boston’s eighth-place finish might not have totally been up to the standards of a driver with four top-fives in seven recent races, but it did return him to the top 10 after finishing outside that group in consecutive races for the first time in his ARCA career.
“I guess you can call it a recovery, because we finished, but I’m a little disappointed in myself,” said Boston, who had finished 16th at Iowa Speedway and 23rd at Salem Speedway earlier this month. “I didn’t make all good decisions and I didn’t put us in a good position. I feel like we should finished at least top five, and we ended up eighth. Definitely at the end there, we lost some horsepower, but I still should have been better today.”
Horsepower was indeed an issue for Boston, whose No. 25 ZLOOP™ Computer & Electronic Recycling Centers Toyota sustained an unusual broken engine part late in the race. That kept him from improving his position over the final 25 laps.
Before that, though, Boston had already rebounded from a minor issue once. He had trouble with the initial start of the race, falling to seventh by Lap 6. He moved back to fifth soon after that, though, and stayed there through a Lap 36 pit stop for tires, fuel, and adjustments.
With fresh tires all around, Boston improved to fourth right after the Lap 40 green flag. He then moved up to third when leader Chase Elliott slowed down on the next lap.
Boston struggled at the race’s halfway point, and he was back in fifth for the Lap 62 restart that would tell his story for the finish.
“With this compound of tire we have here at Kentucky, it’s really hard and you’ve got to keep it as warm as possible,” he said. “I think I just screwed up on the restart, and it was compounded by having cold tires. I didn’t get a good run down the backstretch and I got passed by a couple of cars. We could never find a way to get back by them.”
Boston fell back to seventh there. Despite Venturini Motorsports general manager and No. 25 crew chief Billy Venturini encouraging him with 30 laps left that this was “the time to go,” Boston could not make the full improvement he needed.
He fell back to eighth, nearly eight seconds off the pace, at Lap 77. Teammate Erik Jones passed Boston soon after that, and Boston maintained eighth place over the final 20 laps to earn his 15th top-10 in 20 ARCA starts. With the finish, Boston gained an advantage over Mason Mingus in the Scott Rookie Challenge standings.
“We gained some points, so we’ll go to Kansas and try to keep the 32 behind us,” he said. “I hope everything can fall into place and I can win the rookie of the year award.”
Mile-and-a-half tracks are one place Boston says he could use some more experience, so he’s thankful that’s where the October 4 ARCA season finale is scheduled.
“I can’t wait, because I really think we did well at the Kansas test,” said Boston, who was third fastest in that session. “I’m learning on these bumpy tracks. It’s just different, because out of any races this year, I think I’m struggling most on the mile-and-a-half tracks. The more of those I get to run this year, the better I’ll be next year.”
Corey LaJoie won the race, which finished in one hour, 12 minutes, and 33 seconds and at an average speed of 124.149 mph. Thirty-two cars started the event.
Practice for the Kansas Lottery 98.9 at Kansas Speedway will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday, October 4, with qualifying following at 5:35 p.m. The 99-lap, 148.5-mile race will air live on FOX Sports 1 at 7:30 p.m., and ARCARacing.com will present live timing and scoring of all on-track events. All listed times are Central.
About ZLOOP™ Computer and Electronics Recycling Centers
ZLOOP™ Computer and Electronics Recycling Centers (ZLOOP™) make eWaste recycling easy. Founded in Hickory, North Carolina in 2012, ZLOOP™ guarantees eWaste is recycled domestically and that computer hard drives are permanently purged of all information. ZLOOP™ is extremely mobile and able to handle any size job on-site with a commitment to security, speed and auditing. ZLOOP™ also is compliant with federal, state and local government regulations for the safe and secure destruction of highly sensitive data, and is working toward certifications from the Responsible Recycling Practices for Electronics Recyclers (R2), U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Defense, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, ITAD, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACIA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). For more information on ZLOOP’s eWaste recycling services, call today at 1-855-WHY-EASY (1-855-949-3279) or visit the website, zloopit.com. eWaste is Serious Waste. Recycle™.
About Venturini Motorsports
Venturini Motorsports (VMS), fielding cars for over 30-years in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, is one of the premier NASCAR driver development programs in the country. 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, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Brian Scott, Kevin Swindell, Miguel Paludo, John Wes Townley, Josh Richards and Johanna Long.
In 2012, VMS and the Venturini family was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame and now find themselves enshrined with such sports icons as Joe DiMaggio, Mario Andretti, Vince Lombardi, Tommy Lasorda and Rocky Marciano, among others.
After nearly two decades away from NASCAR, 2013 marks VMS’s modern day return to the series with John Wes Townley driving the team’s familiar No.25 in selective NASCAR Nationwide Series events.
Official: www.VenturiniMotorsports.com | Twitter: @VenturiniMotor | Facebook: Venturini Motorsports
