Patrick Sheltra Finishes Fourth At The Rock; Secures First ARCA Title

ROCKINGHAM, October 9, 2010: Patrick Sheltra may have lost the battle, the American 200 presented by Black’s Tire & Auto Service but he won the war, the 2010 ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards championship with a fourth place finish in the ARCA season finale Saturday afternoon at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.

The finish was good enough to secure the ARCA Racing Series championship title by 20 points over Craig Goess Jr., who finished right behind the No. 60 Tequesta Road and Bridge of Florida / Jones Group International Toyota Camry in fifth.

Sheltra, the 24-year old rising star quickly made his march to the front and took control of the field on lap 61 to collect five bonus points. Sheltra would then re-inherit the lead on lap 87 and led until the final restart of the day when a tight handling machine developed and dropped the Indiantown, Florida native in the race rundown.

Sheltra though was determined to crown his Jon Wolfe-led team with the ARCA Racing Series championship and held off the No. 81 of Goess over the final five circuits to claim his 12th top-five finish of the year and his 17th top-10 overall. Both were 2010 ARCA Racing Series highs.

“There are so many people to thank,” said a jubilant Sheltra. “I cannot begin to thank my mom and dad and everyone affiliated with the Sheltra Motorsports team for the great blessing we received today. The guys did an outstanding job and gave me a great racecar. I cannot thank them enough for all of their flawless efforts this season. We’ve been going for this for four years now and this is what it’s all about. I want to thank all of our marketing partners for their support this year; we could not have done it without them. We did it; we are the 2010 ARCA Racing Series champions!”

“Time to celebrate,” said Sheltra walking out of the Chris Economaki Media Center at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.

Unofficially, Goess finished second in the championship standings with Hessert third, nine-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel fourth and Justin Marks rounding out the top-five.

A full American 200 presented by Black’s Tire & Auto Service post-race report is forthcoming.

Exiting Rockingham, Sheltra has 87 ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards starts to his credit with three career victories at Salem (Ind.) Speedway (April 2009), the Illinois State Fairgrounds (August 2010) and Chicagoland Speedway (August 2010). During his ARCA tenure, Sheltra has accumulated 22 top-fives and posted 39 top-10 finishes. A second place qualifying effort at Chicagoland Speedway (August 2010) is Sheltra’s best time trials effort to date. He has controlled the ARCA field 11 times for 350 laps.