Kimmel Steering for Record 7th ARCA RE/MAX Series Crown; Starts at Daytona

(1-21-05) Whether it's the ARCA RE/MAX Series or the higher leagues in NASCAR, it's hard to be a champion.

Six-time RE/MAX Series champion Frank Kimmel would know. The Clarksville, Indiana second-generation racer will seek his seventh series title when the 42nd annual Advance-Discount Auto Parts 200 rolls off from Daytona Int'l Speedway Saturday afternoon, February 12.

And while the comparison between the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the ARCA RE/MAX Series could be considered apples to oranges, there are, nonetheless, common denominators.

To be a champion in either sanction, you have to excel on a variety of track shapes and sizes over the course of a long, grueling season that stretches from February to October for ARCA, and even longer for NASCAR.

Both Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Richard Petty pumped out seven NASCAR Cup Series championships each over the course of their careers earning legendary status along the way.

Kimmel, on the other hand, has earned six ARCA RE/MAX Series championships. If he can do it again in 2005, he will, not only become the only seven-time ARCA national champion (Iggy Katona also has 6 ARCA titles), but the first driver in 53 years of incredible history to win six consecutive. He is already the only driver who has won four and five straight.

Whether Kimmel will be mentioned in the same sentence as Earnhardt or Petty in future days is yet unclear. But what is clear is that if he earns an ARCA-record seventh series crown in '05, he can rightfully join Earnhardt and Petty as a seven-time stock car champion in a national tour that requires drivers to be skillful on similar short-tracks and many of the same superspeedways. In the case of NASCAR, throw in a couple road courses; in the case of ARCA, throw in a couple dirt tracks. Either way, it's hard to be a champion in either league.

In other comparisons, we know that Petty, in 1,185 career Cup starts, won 200 races (first all-time) over the course of 34 years.

For Earnhardt, his 76 career Cup wins (sixth all-time) were spread among 676 career starts during his 26-year NASCAR tenure.

In percentages, this means that Petty was a winner in approximately 17% of the races he started. For Earnhardt, his wins represented just over 11% of his total starts. Kimmel, on the other hand, over a relatively short 15-year tenure, has earned 56 career series wins (second all-time) in 280 career starts. In other words, he has won exactly 20% of all the races he has started. This is no small thing. And while you may be uncomfortable with the ARCA/NASCAR comparison, Kimmel's impressive numbers are coming at a much quicker pace, nonetheless.

Further, Kimmel, during his 15 years in ARCA, only won five races between 1990 and 1997. Since hooking up with car owner Larry Clement fulltime in 1998, the year of his first championship, Kimmel won 51 races bringing his career total to 56. Therefore, the Kimmel/Clement combination produced an astounding ratio of starts-to-wins that is, arguably, unrivaled in American motorsports. During their 7-year run together (and counting), they have won 33% of all the races they have started.

But of course, Kimmel is not yet, and may never be a seven-time ARCA RE/MAX Series national champion. But given his track record lately, which includes six titles in seven years, you may not want to bet the farm against it.

Possibly the most telling and impressive stat outside his win-to-start ratio is his lap-leader mark of 8,251 laps-led in 144 races. In addition, Kimmel is already the all-time leader in career earnings with over $3 million, more than twice as much as the next driver in line.

And with so much potential career yet ahead of him, it's fun to wonder what Kimmel's career stats will look like when he finally hangs up his goggles for good somewhere down the road, whenever that should be.

Whether Kimmel joins the seven-timer club or not remains to be seen. But either way it shakes out for Frank James Kimmel, he is a proven commodity and a remarkably talented multi-time champion in major-league national stock car racing; and it's hard to be a champion, let alone a seven-time one at that.

The February 12th Advance-Discount Auto Parts 200 from Daytona is LIVE on PEE Channel at 4 pm Eastern.