Latest ARCA Press Release

For Immediate Release:

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

 

ARCA Notes to Madison: Pre-Race Parties, Championship Points Battle, Elliott Entered, Story Lines Galore for Herr’s Live Life With Flavor 200 Sunday

 

Madison Race No. 17 of 20 in ARCA’s 60th Anniversary Season   

The Herr’s Live Life With Flavor 200 is the 17th of 20 events on the 2012 ARCA Racing Seriespresented by Menards tour. The race is sandwiched in between State Fair dirt track events at the Illinois State Fairgrounds last Sunday and the Labor Day (Sept. 3) running of the Southern Illinois 100 at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds mile dirt. The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards is celebrating its 60th Anniversary Season in 2012.

 

Menards Offering Discount Tickets for Madison ARCA Race   

Discounted tickets for Sunday’s Herr’s Live Life with Flavor 200 at Madison Int’l remain available at 19 Menards stores in Wisconsin. In addition to roles as the presenting sponsor of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards and as a co-primary sponsor on Frank Kimmel’s No. 44 Ansell/Menards Toyota, the Wisconsin-based company is participating heavily in promotion of the race. As the ARCA Racing Series continues through its 60th Anniversary Season, race fans in Wisconsin have the chance to “Save Big Money” on tickets to see the action live. Through Saturday, August 25, fans can buy tickets for Sunday’s race at $15 – a $10 discount off of the advertised at-track price – at two Menards stores in Madison, as well as stores in Baraboo, Beaver Dam, Beloit, Burlington, Franklin, Germantown, Janesville, Johnson Creek, Milwaukee, Monona, Oak Creek, Pewaukee, Platteville, Waukesha, West Allis, West Bend, and West Milwaukee.

 

Pre-Race Festivities Highlight Madison Race Event
Drivers, crew members and ARCA officials will come together with race fans alike on both Friday and Saturday nights to gear up for the second annual Herr’s Live Life With Flavor 200. It starts Friday night at Club LaMark in North Stoughton at 6:00 p.m. local, where race fans can mingle with ARCA drivers and crew. In addition, Spencer Gallagher’s No. 23 Allegiant Air Chevrolet and Race Hauler will be on display at Club LaMark. The party moves to 
Banushi’s Bar and Grill (BBG) in Stoughton on Saturday night, starting at 6:30. Frank Kimmel’s Ansell-Menards Toyota will be on display, and all of BBG’s big screens will be tuned into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race under the lights at Bristol. If you’re unable to make the Friday and/or Saturday night parties, don’t despair. Race fans coming to Sunday’s race will have the chance to meet all the ARCA drivers from 12-1:00 during the on-track autograph session, all part of pre-race festivities.

 

Championship Title Fight Tight at the Top to Madison
Chris Buescher (Prosper, Texas) leads the championship point standings headed to Madison for Sunday’s Herr’s Live Life With Flavor 200, but not by much. Veteran Frank Kimmel (Clarksville, Ind.), on the heels of his 76th career victory last Sunday on the Springfield mile dirt, has closed to within 15 points of Buescher. Buescher finished second at Madison in 2011, while Kimmel finished sixth. Brennan Poole (The Woodlands, Texas) trails in third, 95 points from first. Poole did not race at Madison last year. Alex Bowman (Tucson, Ariz.) is currently fourth in points, inching closer by virtue of his second place finish at Springfield Sunday. Bowman, last year’s Madison winner, is 195 from the leader. Chad Hackenbracht (New Philadelphia, Ohio) is fifth in ARCA points, 325 out.  

 

Chase Elliott Aims at Madison
Chase Elliott, the 16-year-old son of NASCAR champion Bill Elliott, is entered for the Herr’s Live Life With Flavor 200 at Madison. Elliott, in the No. 9 Aaron’s Dream Machine/HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, finished 10th in his ARCA Racing Series debut at Mobile Int’l Speedway after qualifying second. The second generation driver also finished fourth earlier this year at Salem Speedway, a career-best second at the New Jersey Motorsports Park in his road course debut, and seventh most recently at Berlin. Elliott’s 2012 plans also include one more ARCA start at Salem Speedway in September.

 

Jones and Elliott Chasing History at Madison

Both Erik Jones and Chase Elliott are 16 years old, the youngest drivers entered. However, Jones is a younger 16, and if he is able to win he would become the youngest ARCA winner in series history. Currently, James Buescher is the youngest ARCA winner with his victory at USA Int’l Speedway in March 2007, two days shy of his 17th birthday. Jones already made history earlier this year at Mobile Int’l Speedway when he, then 15, became the youngest driver to ever start an ARCA race. In just eight career starts in 2012, Jones has been knocking on the door with best finishes of third at Winchester, third at Berlin Raceway, and fifth at Salem.

 

Veteran Kimmel Back on the March; Chasing Record 10th Series Title   

Frank Kimmel turned 50 years young in late April, yet the nine-time ARCA champ is clearly still on his game. Kimmel finally snapped a winless streak that reached back to September of 2008 with his victory (75th career) at Lucas Oil Raceway back in late July. Kimmel went 75 races between victories. Building off the momentum of his win at Lucas Oil Raceway, the veteran racer has since finished fourth at Pocono, second at Berlin and first at Springfield last Sunday, recording his 76th career ARCA victory. With four races remaining in 2012, Kimmel can still surpass Iggy Katona’s all-time ARCA win mark of 79 wins.

 

Hessert Returns to Ken Schrader Racing for Madison Race
Tom Hessert (Cherry Hill, N.J.) is returning to the seat of the Ken Schrader Racing-prepared No. 52 Federated Auto Parts Chevrolet for the race at Madison. Hessert sat out at race events at Pocono and Springfield, but has announced that he would again drive Schrader’s No. 52 car at the next three ARCA races – Madison, DuQuoin State Fairgrounds and Salem Speedway. Hessert, a third generation racer, is the son of three-time 24 Hours of Daytona winner Tom Hessert II. Hessert, an ARCA winner at Iowa Speedway in 2010, finished a season-best second at Lucas Oil Raceway in July. Hessert finished fifth at Madison in 2011, driving for Ken Schrader Racing.

 

Happy Birthday Clint King and James Hylton
Clint King, who earned the Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell at Madison in 2011 in his ARCA debut, will turn 17 years old this Sunday, August 26, the day of the race. James Hylton, the 1966 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year, will turn 78 on the same day. The 61-year space in between the two drivers is more than any driver’s age in the starting field, with the exception of Darrell Basham, who is 62.

 

Madison Race With International Flavor
Two drivers, Nelson Canache and Milka Duno, are from below the Equator, and are entered in the Herr’s Live Life With Flavor 200 this weekend. Canache, who drives for Venturini Motorsports, is currently eighth in ARCA points. Duno, on a partial season, is 21st in ARCA points. Duno is also a veteran of the Indianapolis 500.

 

ARCA History at Madison Reaches Back to 1970
Although the ARCA Racing Series brand may be new to most in the greater Madison area, the ARCA Madison connection reaches way back to July 26, 1970 when two-time ARCA champion Ramo Stott went in the history books as ARCA’s first winner at Madison. ARCA returned to Madison in 1971 when Tom Bowsher, brother of three time ARCA champ Jack Bowsher, won on May 30. ARCA also came back in 1973 when Bruce Gould earned the ARCA victory on June 24. However, 38 years would elapse before ARCA would return to Madison in 2011 when rookie Alex Bowman, in his career-first ARCA start, won the race. All that said, the 2012 Herr’s Live Life With Flavor 200 at Madison will be ARCA’s fifth appearance on the historic half-mile oval, albeit the history of the two entities stretched out over six decades.

 

Grueling/Versatile Late Summer Stretch for ARCA Warriors

The event on the New Jersey Motorsports Park road course kicked off a grueling and very versatile stretch for the ARCA teams, depictive of the tour’s diversity. This particular stretch started July 1 on the New Jersey road course and will end on the Salem short track on September 15. In addition to the New Jersey road course and Salem short track, the tour will travel in between to superspeedways at Chicagoland, Pocono and Kansas, short tracks at Iowa, Lucas Oil Raceway, Berlin, Madison and Salem, and two late-season mile dirt tracks at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield and the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Ill. During the span, the ARCA tour will race at 10 different tracks over an 11 week period. Kansas will wrap the 2012 season on October 19.

 

CONTACT:

Griffin Hickman, ARCA

(419) 574-2685 (mobile)

ghickman@arcaracing.com

 

Don Radebaugh, ARCA

(419) 450-0611 (mobile)

dradebaugh@arcaracing.com