Kimmel qualifies 19th for ARCA Racing Series Daytona opener

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 15, 2013) — Frank Kimmel qualified his No. 44 Ansell/Menards Toyota Camry 19^th — right about where he expected to Friday in Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell at Daytona International Speedway.

But it’s in Saturday’s ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards season-opener, the Lucas Oil 200 presented by MAV TV American Real, that Kimmel, the nine-time ARCA champion, expects to shine despite a qualifying lap in 50.755 seconds, an average speed of 177.322 mph.

“This car is a really, really nice piece that my team at ThorSport has put together, and we’re expecting it to race really well Saturday,” Kimmel said. “That’s how we run, and it’s about as fast as we’ve run since we got it off the trailer. That’s about how we expected to run by ourselves, but we think this car will work well in the draft and we’ll find that out in Happy Hour, [Saturday].”

Final practice is scheduled on Saturday from 10 – 10:45 a.m. ET and the 50^th annual Lucas Oil 200 is scheduled to go green at 4:30 p.m.

Kimmel, who has an ARCA-second-best 76 career wins, has never won at Daytona. But his career record in 21 starts is impressive, with seven top-five finishes and 13 top-10s, including second-place runs in 2004-2005.

“I get asked all the time what it takes to win at Daytona, but it’s been pretty darned hard for me — it’s the best race track in the world and we just haven’t managed to get the job done, yet,” Kimmel said with a chuckle, after qualifying.

John Wes Townley, a regular competitor in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, won the pole with a lap in 181.313 mph in a Venturini Motorsports Toyota. He’ll start alongside Venezuelan ARCA Series regular Milka Duno.