ARCA RE/MAX: Kimmel to Run His 200th Race and Raise Money for JDRF
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
June 23, 2001Frank Kimmel could hardly believe his eyes when he looked at the 2001 ARCA RE/MAX schedule and discovered that his 200th race would be in Memphis. After all, Kimmel is a huge Elvis fan.
"It's hard to believe that this is my 200th career start in ARCA. It seems like only yesterday that I was starting my first ARCA race and capturing the Rookie of the Year title in 1992. And it's been totally awesome to still be competitive and competing for a third championship," said driver Frank Kimmel.
Kimmel's career ARCA RE/MAX record is impressive with 103 top-5 finishes, 137 top-10 finishes and over 4000 laps led. Since joining the #46 Advance Auto Parts team and owner Larry Clement in 1996, Frank has run 109 races with 26 wins, 60 top-3 finishes, and 72 top-5 finishes.
A key to Kimmel's success is his crew chief, brother Bill Kimmel, Jr. Bill, a 4-time NASCAR champion at Louisville Motor Speedway, brings a wealth of knowledge to the team. His driving experience enables him to make the changes necessary to keep Frank at the front of the field.
Frank Kimmel, the defending and two-time ARCA RE/MAX series champion, is the current points leader with 4 wins in the first 10 races, and that lead could have been bigger if the team hadn't had some tough luck recently. Kimmel has been so dominant that he has won four pole awards and leads nearly all-statistical categories. Kimmel also has lead more than 3 times as many laps as his closest competitor has. This statistic is doubly sweet because each lap that Kimmel leads throughout the 2001 season equals a $2 donation by the team to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, an organization that sponsor Advance Auto Parts strongly supports.
"To help celebrate the running of Frank's 200th ARCA race, Advance Auto Parts is going to up the stakes for the Memphis race, by donating $20 to JDRF for each lap that Frank Kimmel leads," said Wendy Delano, Marketing Director for Advance Auto Parts. "We're very proud of the way the team has been running and their efforts to help support such a worthwhile cause." Kimmel is glad that Advance Auto Parts chose to support his 200th career race in this special way. "I am so fortunate to be associated with such an outstanding sponsor as Advance Auto Parts. It's great that Advance will be donating $20 for every lap that I lead at Memphis to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This is an exciting challenge and I plan to earn a lot of money for the kids," Kimmel said.
Text provided by ARCA
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