 ROCKINGHAM,
NC (May 4, 2008) -- Sunday's Carolina 500 ARCA race brought back fond
memories of the days when racing was...well, racing. Fifty cars started the
312-lap marathon which was won by 17 year-old Joey Lagano (#25). The
youngster passed veteran Kenny Schrader (#52) with five laps to go to capture
the win in his first-ever series start. Logano is the series' fifth different
winner in the five races contested this year in the ARCA RE/MAX
Series.
The last time stock cars competed at Rockingham's 1-mile oval was 2004 when
the Sprint Cup Series made their final stop there, while the ARCA Series last
raced there back in the early 70's. But thanks to Andy Hillenburg, the new
owner of the refurbished facility, racing has returned to the
"Rock".
When it was announced last year the ARCA Series would be racing at
Rockingham, Hoosier began development of a radial tire that could sustain the
tire-eating surface at the famous facility. A tire test at the track was
conducted late last year in which a tire combination was selected. Then, early
this year, an open house was held which further confirmed the tire chosen was a
winner.
Sunday's race is the longest (312 laps) on the series' 21-race schedule and
teams were limited to six sets of (Hoosier) tires and pit strategy would be
paramount.
A phenomenal 50 cars started Sunday's race with Joey Logano capturing
the pole in a Venturini Motorsports Chevy. The Joe Gibbs Racing development
driver's time was 24.549 seconds, or 146.645 mph. The speed crushed the old
record (on bias tires) set in 1973 by Charlie Glotzbach of 134.947 mph.
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., driving a Roush Fenway Ford, was second in qualifying
with a time of 24.629 seconds (146.169 mph).
Despite making his first ARCA Series start, Joey Logano looked quite
comfortable racing on the Rockingham mile. In fact, at one point in the race,
Logano had lapped all but one car on the track.
Logano, who ran over 100 laps on one set of Hoosier tires, led an unbelievable 257 of 312 race laps. But the race wasn't really
decided until a late race caution in which he relinquished the lead with eight
laps to go to pit for tires. Logano returned to the track in fourth place with
Kenny Schrader in the lead.
When the race went green, Logano wasted no time in devouring the three cars
in front of him to take back the lead on lap 307. Logano went on to win
by 4.164 seconds over Schrader.
Logano, after he turns 18 in a few weeks, is currently slated to compete in
the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Dover.
After the race a disappointed (but smiling) Kenny Schrader commented,
"I would have loved to have won, but it's neat to see the fastest car win
the race."
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. finished in third followed by Matt Hawkins and Michael
Annett to round out the list of lead-lap finishers.
Chad McCumbee took sixth place followed by Austin Dillion, Matt Carter, Tom
Hessert III and Frank Kimmel in seventh through tenth, respectively.
The race featured 11 leaders among four different drivers. Those leading
during the event included; Joey Logano (257 laps), Matt Hawkins (25 laps),
Michael Annett (17 laps) and Kenny Schrader (13 laps).
The race took 3 hours and 16 minutes to complete. There were also 13
cautions for a total of 92 laps.
Sales and service for the event was provided by Hoosier Racing Tire's track
service team based in Lakeville, IN.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series will return to action this Saturday, May 10, at
Kentucky Speedway.
Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. would like to thank everyone who made the return
of racing to Rockingham such a wonderful success.
For more information about the ARCA RE/MAX Series visit their website www.arcaracing.com.
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