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 NASHVILLE,
TN (April 9) -- Blake Feese proved to be a solid replacement for Bobby
Gerhart in the #5 Chevrolet while Gerhart recovers from a high tear in
his hamstring. The 22-year-old driver won Friday night's ARCA
"PFG Lester 150" at Nashville Speedway in just his second
career series start. After finishing 6th at Daytona to start the
season, Gerhart underwent surgery to repair the injury the end of
February. In the interim, the sprint car veteran Feese was tapped to
replace the veteran ARCA driver at the next event--Nashville. Feese ,
from Illinois, started third and led three times including the final
four circuits en route to the win. Casey Atwood finished in second
place followed by Germany's Klaus Graf as the ARCA Series took on a
global look. The ARCA Series exclusively races on Hoosier tires.
Forty-one cars started Friday's race which was carried
live on Speed Channel. Ryan Hemphill , in the TrimSpa Dodge, was on
the pole for the 150-mile race after setting a new track record in
qualifying. Hemphill circled the 1.33-mile Nashville oval in a scant
29.738 seconds for an average speed of 161.369 mph. He was joined in
the front row by Casey Atwood who's car is co-owned by former Super
Bowl quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
The 113-lap race featured eight leaders among five
different drivers before the winner was determined. Race leaders
included; Ryan Hemphill 1-43, 75-104 (73 laps), Casey Atwood 44-47 (4
laps), Blake Feese 48-70, 73-74, 110-113 (29 laps), Frank Kimmel 71-72
(2 laps), Klaus Graf 105-109 (5 laps). The race was also slowed by
eight cautions for a total of 42 laps.
Feese was one of just a handful of drivers opting to
pit just once for fuel and four fresh Hoosiers and the strategy paid
off with the win. Eleven of the 41 starters finished the race on the
lead lap including Casey Atwood in second followed by Klaus Graf,
Frank Kimmel, Ken Schrader, Wayne Anderson, Tandy Marlin, Jeremy
Clements, Josh Clemons, AJ Fike and Brandon Knupp in fourth through
11th, respectively.
The race was the second on the 22-race ARCA RE/MAX
Series schedule. Next up, is a stop at Indiana's Salem Speedway on
April 25th.
Hoosier's ARCA Series Track Service Manager Doug
Barnes commented after the event, "This was a very exciting race
that many people got to enjoy thanks to the live TV coverage provided
by Speed Vision. As far as the tires were concerned, they performed
extremely well as the facts will show."
Barnes added, "Not only were the tires extremely
fast as evidenced by the new track record set in qualifying, but they
were also very durable as shown by the race winner opting to pit just
once and ultimately taking the win. This was a new combination
developed especially for Nashville Speedway. The entire Hoosier
engineering staff should get much of the credit for today's
success."
Barnes concluded, "The ARCA RE/MAX Series just
continues to get bigger and better and we (Hoosier) are proud to be
able to ride along."
Defending ARCA RE/MAX Series champion Frank Kimmel
currently sits atop the driver standings with 450 points followed by
Ryan Hemphill with 395. Billy Venturini, AJ Fike and Todd Bowsher
round out the top five.
For more race details and complete race results visit
the ARCA RE/MAX Series website at www.arcaracing.com.
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