ARCA RE/MAX release, points, Kentucky

CURRENT TOP-10 POINTS: 1. Frank Kimmel 1300; 2. Damon Lusk 1265; 3. Chad
Blount 1260; 4. Jason Jarrett 1060; 5. Shelby Howard 1040; 6. Andy
Belmont 1005; 7. Chase Montgomery 980; 8. Todd Bowsher 970; 8. Billy
Venturini 970; 10. Mark Gibson 960.

Kimmel captures Kentucky

SPARTA KY (5-11-02) Frank Kimmel capped off a wild night of racing
Saturday night under the lights at Kentucky Speedway with a victory in
the Channel 5-155.

With a stand-alone crowd of 30,000 looking on, Kimmel passed race leader
Chad Blount with less than 10 laps remaining and then fought off the
determined Blount to earn his 36th career ARCA RE/MAX Series victory and
third consecutive on the tour. In addition, it was Kimmel’s third
consecutive win at the Sparta, Kentucky speedplant.

“It was a great race,” said Kimmel. “We love coming here. I thought it
was a great crowd for an ARCA stand-alone race. Chad Blount treated me
super clean. We never touched. The Advance Auto Part-Pork Ford was wound
up tonight.”

Blount, with three laps remaining, took one final run at Kimmel in turn
one. The 22-year-old Walkerton, Indiana rookie drove inside of the
eventual winner through the corner but Kimmel carried more steam off on
the high side and drove away down the backstretch. Blount, who missed
out on an Atlanta win earlier this year by .001 seconds, trailed Kimmel
across the final stripe by less than three-tenths of a second.

“We seemed to have a little better car than him (Kimmel) the last couple
of laps but I didn’t want to get my first win having to rough somebody
up,” said Blount. “I’m used to clean racing and that’s the way I want to
keep it. Second is a pretty decent.”

Blount, in Todd Braun’s unsponsored Dodge Intrepid, had a five-length
advantage over Kimmel with less than ten laps remaining and appeared to
be headed toward his career-first victory. However, it all changed when
lapped traffic spun directly in front of the leaders off turn two with
nine laps remaining.

“It was a situation where I was in the right place at the right time,”
said Kimmel. “He (Blount) was three or four car lengths ahead of me and
had already made his decision to go to the outside of a lapped car. When
they started wrecking, he was already committed to the second groove and
that opened up the bottom for me.”

Jason Rudd, in only his second superspeedway start, finished a very
respectable third in the Graybar Electric Dodge giving Dodge second and
third in the final running order. Old Milwaukee polesitter John Metcalf
bounced back from a disastrous pit stop to finish fourth in the RE/MAX
Int’l Chevrolet. Andy Belmont, with new sponsorship from Wheel Control,
charged from the 21st starting position to finish a solid fifth.

Nine cautions for 38 laps for a variety of wrecks, spins and
wall-bangers kept the field tightly bunched throughout the 155-mile
event while eight lead changes among four drivers kept things fairly
busy up front. Outside polesitter Kimmel, who won the Loctite Halfway
Leader award, led the most laps with 72 followed by Belmont with 16.
Blount led 12 while AJ Henriksen led four. Belmont was also the Hoosier
Tire Hard Charger of the race for advancing the most positions while
Blount earned Highest Finishing Rookie honors. Ron Cox, who was running
fourth late in the race in the Buffalo Wild Wings Chevrolet, was awarded
the Landrum Spring Hard Luck award after being involved in an accident
with a lapped car. There were no injuries.

Dutch-born driver Michael Vergers finished sixth in the
BruichLaddich.com Ford ahead of veteran Mark Gibson in the Williams
Brothers Lumber Ford in seventh. 16-year-old Shelby Howard, in the
iHigh.com Chevrolet, continued to impress with a solid eighth while
Damon Lusk, in the Dynatek-One Race America Chevy, nursed a broken
transmission home in ninth. Billy Venturini, in the Jeff Wyler
Chevrolet, rounded out the top-ten.

In addition to the healthy crowd in attendance, the event was carried
live on Speed Channel as well as live on the local Cincinnati,
Ohio-based NBC affiliate WLWT. WLWT was also the title sponsor of the
event.

ARCA (734) 847-6726 or arcaracing.com