Canadian Driver Maryeve Dufault Qualifies In ARCA Series In Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, February 11, 2011: Maryeve Dufault, the Sorel, Quebec Canada native will make her ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards debut Saturday afternoon after she qualified a solid 24th on Friday afternoon at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

Dufault, driver of the No. 12 Tony Marks Racing Dodge Charger maneuvered her automobile around the newly re-paved 2.5-mile superspeedway in a time of 49.726 seconds at 180.992 miles per hour.

The ARCA Racing Series Rookie of the Year candidate out-qualified some of ARCA's finest including nine time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel, Cunningham Motorsports' Joey Licata Jr., NASCAR star Chad McCumbee and Grant Enfinger who is driving for 2008 ARCA Racing Series championship team Allgaier Motorsports.

Saturday's Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 will also mark the inaugural ARCA debut of Tony Marks Racing (TMR), one of the newest multi-car teams within the ARCA Racing Series.

"I am very happy to be in the show and race tomorrow," said Dufault, a resident of Redondo Beach, California. "After practice yesterday, I was thinking about all of what could go wrong or whether or not we would have the speed to make it in. It's an amazing accomplishment being a new team, having no points and overcoming those pressures and fears to get in the race. I am just so happy to be a part of the Tony Marks Racing (TMR) program. Thankfully, we found the speed we were looking for from practice yesterday. The TMR team did an amazing job with our Dodge and I'm very proud of each and everyone one of them!"

She added, "I also have to thank all of our sponsors including Dodge and Victory Water H20. It's just very special to be in this race tomorrow. Our goal is to finish the race as high as we can and give our team some momentum heading into the next race at Talladega in April."

Now that she is solidly in the show, Dufault and her Larry Moore-led crew will turn their attention to tomorrow morning's "Happy Hour" drafting session, which will allow the avid open-wheeler to get a jump-start on drafting in preparation for her inaugural superspeedway debut.

Immediately after "Happy Hour" but before Dufault straps in her No. 12 Tony Marks Racing Dodge Charger Saturday afternoon for the first of 19 events of the year, she will be joined by car owner Tony Marks and a special guest in the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway Press Conference room on Saturday morning at 10:45 a.m. for an announcement concerning full primary sponsorship of her No. 12 Dodge for the remainder of the 2011 ARCA Racing Series season.

To coincide with their announcement and to help develop a new fan-base and center some attentiveness on their new marketing partner, Tony Marks Racing will carry an on-board camera for Saturday's anticipated thriller.

The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona (80 laps / 200 miles) is the first of 19 events on the 2011 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. The 48th ARCA race held at Daytona is a three-day show. A forty-five minute final practice session is etched in on Saturday, February 12th from 10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. The event will take the green flag later that day shortly after 4:30 p.m. The race will be televised live on SPEED with additional race coverage including live timing and scoring and radio broadcast through the ARCA Racing Network (ARN) online at arcaracing.com. All times are local.