Brandon McReynolds Scores First Career ARCA Victory at Talladega
[media-credit name=”ARCA Racing Network” align=”alignright” width=”300″]
[/media-credit]20 years and 1 day ago, Brandon McReynolds sat in Talladega Superspeedway Sprint Cup Series Victory Lane after his godfather Davey Allison with his dad, Larry McReynolds, who was Allison’s crew chief.
Flash forward to today and Brandon McReynolds passed Matt Lofton on the last lap to win the International Motorsports Hall of Fame 250 at Talladega for his first career ARCA victory in his seventh career ARCA start.
“That was a good race,” the 21-year-old said. “I gotta thank Chad Hackenbracht. I just can’t thank Steve and Sandra Turner and everybody back at Turner Motorsports for this.”
On a restart with four laps to go, the 21-year-old worked his way past Hackenbracht to move up to second as he pushed Lofton into the lead. Then on the final lap coming through the tri-oval, he got a shove from Hackenbracht that pushed him by Lofton for the win.
“I didn’t know I had it,” McReynolds sys. “Tab, my spotter, he did a great job. We’re looking for sponsors. 58 gave me a big push and we brought it home. It was a great.”
It marked sweet redemption after McReynolds lost the lead at Daytona on the final lap earlier this year due to running out of fuel. He had also come close before at Talladega as he led late in the race last year, before being passed.
“That kid amazes me,” his father Larry McReynolds says. “He had a plan, he started making it 20 laps to go and he knew where he needed to be. I can only think that he gets that from his godfather Davey. We need to get something on those quarter panels. I couldn’t be prouder. Thanks to Steve and Sandra Turner for giving him the opportunity.”
Lofton would come home second after leading the majority of the laps throughout the day.
“We got a ton of experience,” he says. “We really needed this quality run here. We’ve had fast racecars, with the exception of Daytona. It shows all of our hard work with how we’ve come back from Daytona. Gotta thank Joe Coulter for this.”
Hackenbracht would finish third, which marked a solid finish for the family-owned team on a limited budget.
“I can’t thank the guys enough,” he says. “We’re way low in our budget; only have three people working for us. We’re working on it. I was lonely there at the front. I knew they were going to high or low, but I’m glad to get a finish that we deserve.”
Tom Hessert and Steve Blackburn would complete the top five. Will Kimmel would finish sixth, followed by Frank Kimmel, Brennan Poole, Brendan Davis, Sean Corr and Kevin Swindell.
The race saw two big incidents throughout the day, with the first happening on lap 11. The big wreck started when Steve Blackburn went for a spin after contact from Brennan Poole, causing a chain reaction that collected eight other drivers.
One of the drivers involved in the wreck was Bobby Gerhart, who has eight top 10s in 15 Talladega starts and is known for solely focusing on his Superspeedway program.
“Jason Jebb just notified me that there was a spin on the bottom and then got blocked up and there wasn’t too much I could do. I just got caught up there,” he says.
Another driver involved in the wreck was NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular Joey Coulter, who was driving for the family owned team.
Other drivers involved include Alex Bowman, Milka Duno, Mike Harmon, George Cushman, Terry Jones, Mark Thompson, Drew Charlson and Donnie Neuenburger. The race was put under red flag for a bit to clean up the mess
The other incident came with 20 to go when Mike Affarano, who was making his first ARCA start, rolled over six times on the front stretch.
“I’d like to man up and say, ‘Oh, it was spectacular,’” Affarano says. “But I had my eyes closed. I was holding on for dear life and just saying, ‘Just nobody hit me.’”
The next race for the ARCA Racing Series is at Toledo Speedway on May 20th.
Lap by Lap: International Motorsports Hall of Fame 250
[media-credit name=”ARCA Racing Network” align=”alignright” width=”180″]
[/media-credit]With a last lap move, Brandon McReynolds scores his first career ARCA victory.
Green Flag as Matt Lofton leads Frank Kimmel and Chris Buescher who are side-by-side.
Lap 2 Lofton leads Kimmel and Buescher single file.
Lap 3 Lofton leads Kimmel, Brendan Davis, Tom Hessert, Chad Hackenbracht, Ryan Reed, Buescher, Brandon McReynolds, Spencer Gallagher and Sean Corr
Lap 5 Will Kimmell pass Corr for 10th
Lap 8 Contact midpack but they keep going; Kimmel and Corr pass Gallagher
Caution Lap 11 Wreck involved Steve Blackburn, Milka Duno, Mike Harmon, Joey Coulter, George Cushman, Alex Bowman, Terry Jones, Mark Thompson, Drew Charlson, Donnie Neuenburger. Steve Blackburn goes for the spin after contact from Brennan Poole, causing the big wreck.
Red flag put on lap 12 to clean up the wreck
Restart Lap 17 as Lofton leads Frank Kimmel, Davis, Hessert, Hackenbracht, Reed, Buescher, Mikey Kile, Josh Williams and Kevin Swindell
Lap 18 Kile passes Buescher for seventh
Lap 19 Hachkenbracht, Reed, Kile, Buescher, Williams, Swindell and Kimmel pass Hessert as he has a tire going down; Roger Carter has gotten into the outside wall. Caution comes out for debris……..Some of the leaders pit, taking tires and fuel; Brett Hudson gets the lucky dog.
Restart Lap 28 as Lofton keeps the lead single-file over Davis.
Lap 31 Lofton leads Davis, Hackenbracht, Buescher, McReynolds, Swindell, Blackburn, Reed, John Ferrier and Williams
44 to go Lofton leads Davis, Hackenbracht, Buescher, McReynolds, Blackburn, Reed, Swindell, Corr and Williams
Caution 43 to go for debris as Poole passes Williams for 10th; Mark Thompson gets the lucky dog……Leaders come down pit road; Buescher has a slow pit stop; Reed stalls the car
Restart 40 to go though the yellow comes out as Ryan Reed spins due to a flat tire……Hackenbracht leads Lofton, McReynolds, Corr, Davis, Blackburn, Frank Kimmel, Hessert, Will Kimmel and Kile; Thomas Praytor gets the lucky dog.
Restart Lap 33 to go
32 to go John Ferrier and Mikey Kile wreck. Kile and Larry Barford Jr. make contact, sending Kile for a spin. Meanwhile, Brett Hudson makes contact with Ferrier, sending him into the outside wall.
Restart 26 laps to go
24 laps to go Hackenbracht leads Lofton, McReynolds, Corr, Hessert, Blackburn, Will Kimmel, Frank Kimmel, Davis and Swindell
20 to go Caution as Mike Affarano flips over numerous times on the front stretch….Red flag as they work on getting him out…….Mike Affarano gets out of the car and walks to the ambulance……Ryan Reed gets the lucky dog…….
Restart 10 to go Hackenbracht leads Lofton, McReynolds, Corr, Hessert, Blackburn, Will Kimmel, Frank Kimmel, Davis and Swindell
Caution 8 to go Hudson’s hood flies off to create a debris caution
Restart 4 to go Matt Lofton and Brandon McReynolds pass Chad Hackenbracht on the backstretch for the lead
Last Lap Brandon McReynolds gets by Matt Lofton on the last lap with help from Hackenbracht to win.
Bowman, Gerhart and Coulter Among Drivers Involved in Big Wreck In ARCA Talladega Race
[media-credit name=”ARCA Racing Network” align=”alignright” width=”300″]
[/media-credit]Alex Bowman (pictured) was the fastest car in practice, however he was one of the ten drivers involved on lap 11 of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame 250 at Talladega Superspeedway.
The wreck started when Steve Blackburn went for a spin after contact from Brennan Poole, causing a chain reaction that collected the eight other drivers.
One of the drivers involved in the wreck was Bobby Gerhart, who has eight top 10s in 15 Talladega starts and is known for solely focusing on his Superspeedway program.
“Jason Jebb just notified me that there was a spin on the bottom and then got blocked up and there wasn’t too much I could do. I just got caught up there,” he says.
Gerhart had just radioed his guys telling them that he was going to ride after the car had gotten hot from racing closely.
“We had a really, really good car that sucked up real well,” he says. “But in this heat, you couldn’t do it for long.”
Another driver involved in the wreck was NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular Joey Coulter, who was driving for the family owned team.
“I hate it for Rip It; that’s two races in a row that’s been terrible luck,” he says. “The guys have worked hard, but that’s speedway racing, the racing is really tight.”
Other drivers involved include Milka Duno, Mike Harmon, George Cushman, Terry Jones, Mark Thompson, Drew Charlson and Donnie Neuenburger. The race was put under red flag for a bit to clean up the mess.
The early incident in the race could’ve been caused by inexperience mixed in with veterans, along with fast and slow cars being mixed together due to qualifying being rained out. With qualifying being rained out, the series was forced to start by last year’s owners points.
“I think it’s just the way it is,” Gerhart says. “The series doesn’t have much they can do when things happen like this. With drivers not having the experience, there are some drivers up there that may not have as much experience. But I can’t finger point it on anybody in particular as I don’t know what happened.”
Some of the inexperienced have been working on side drafting, however Coulter says the wreck was more so caused by everybody fighting for the bottom of the track.
“I just got out of it,” he says. “That’s where that mess started.”
Justin Lofton has led the first 32 of 94 laps so far.
