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 WINCHESTER,
IN (May 6, 2007) -- Under beautiful blue skies, it was a little old and a
little new in the Winchester ARCA 200 at Winchester Speedway on Sunday. Billy
Leslie, son of 1988 series champion Tracy Leslie, led the final 60 laps en
route to capturing his first career win over a hard charging Brian Keselowski.
Keselowski is the son of 1989 series champion, Bob Keselowski. The pair of
second generation drivers were followed to the stripe by defending series
champion Frank Kimmel.
After last year's record setting
number of winners in the ARCA RE/MAX Series, which resulted in 17 winners in 23
events, this season has picked up right where last year left off with six
different winners in the first six events of 2007. Thirty-six
cars were on hand at Winchester Speedway trying to gain entry into Sunday's
race. Michael McDowell earned the pole after setting a new track record in
qualifying. Amazingly, the Phoenix, AZ driver had never competed at the track
and yet set fast time around the around the 1/2-mile high banked oval.
McDowell's time was 16.319 seconds (110.301 mph) in the Z Line Make-A-Wish Beck
Dodge. McDowell was followed by Phillip McGilton, Dexter Bean, Justin Marks and
Josh Wise in qualifying. The 200-lap race featured six different
leaders among five different drivers. Drivers leading during the event
included; Michael McDowell 1-65 (65), Josh Wise 66-69, 127-138 (43), Brian Keselowski
97-126 (30), Frank Kimmel 139-140 (2) and Billy Leslie 141-200 (60). The race
was also slowed 10 times for cautions for a total of 51
laps. At the finish, Billy
Leslie took the win driving the #18 Titan Tire Ford. Leslie finished .314
seconds ahead of Brian Keselowski after starting eighth. Frank Kimmel fought
back after an earlier accident to finish in third place. Bobby Gerhart fought
his way to a fourth place finish after starting 16th. Justin Marks finished in
fifth place followed by Terry Jones to complete the list of lead-lap
finishers. Coming into the race, Justin Allgaier was
leading in the driver standings over Frank Kimmel. But Allgaier suffered
mechanical woes all day and finished a disappointing 29th. Kimmel, on the heels
of his third place finish, regains the lead in the driver standings. The 8-time
series champion, who celebrated his 45th birthday on Monday before the race,
takes a 40 point lead in the standings over 20-year-old Justin Allgaier. For
the past 13 seasons, Hoosier has been the official tire of the ARCA RE/MAX
Series. The competitors at Winchester all used Hoosier's bias-ply racing
tires. Bias tires are used at short track and dirt track
events, while radial tires are used at larger (paved) tracks. All Hoosier tires
are made for the series at our manufacturing facility in Plymouth,
IN. Service for the event was provided out of our
corporate headquarters in Lakeville, IN. The six-man service team was comprised
of David Wroblewski, Chad Wright, Fred Awald, Mike Haenes, Chad Nichols and
Rick Sisk. The ARCA RE/MAX Series is back in action this
Saturday, May 12, at Kentucky Speedway for the Buckle-Up Kentucky 150. Both the
ARCA trucks and stock cars will be in action this weekend at Kentucky Speedway. For
complete race details and more information about the ARCA RE/MAX Series visit www.arcaracing.com.
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