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 KANSAS
CITY, KS (June 5) -- Nearly two weeks ago, Ryan Hemphill became the
ARCA RE/MAX Series' first repeat winner of the season when he won at
Lowe's Motor Speedway. This past week, the
22-year-old rookie became the series' first three-time winner after he
captured the rain-shortened "Kansas Lottery $200 Grand" race
at Kansas Speedway on Saturday. In addition to those two wins, Hemphill
also captured his first victory of the season at Kentucky Speedway back in early May as the rookie driver's
success has caught the attention of the racing world. Driving the Todd
Braun TrimSpa Dodge, Hemphill has three wins and a fourth place
finish at Toledo in his last four races in the ARCA RE/MAX Series.
Hoosier tires are used exclusively in the ARCA Series.
Hemphill was the fastest qualifier among the 40+
drivers on hand at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway on Saturday. Hemphill's
time was more than two mph faster (169.226 mph) than defending series
champion Frank Kimmel (167.126 mph) with the veteran and rookie
starting the race on the front row.
The race began with Hemphill immediately taking
command with Kimmel in tow. Hemphill led the race's first 53 laps
before pitting. The move handed the lead to Boston Reid of
Indianapolis. Reid led for five laps before Jason Jarrett took a turn as
leader. Jarrett also led for five laps before Hemphill had again
worked his way back to the front of the field on the 64th race lap.
Soon after taking back the lead, the rain began to fall with ARCA
officials being forced to declare the race complete on lap 79 (of the
originally scheduled 134 laps) with Hemphill awarded the win--his
third in just six starts.
Frank Kimmel finished in second place followed by
Jason Jarrett, Jeff Kendall and Brent Sherman rounding out the top
five. The 4th place finish for Kendall was the Wisconsin driver's
career-best finish in the series. Billy Venturini, Mark Gibson, Boston
Reid, Jennifer Jo Cobb and Christi Passmore finished sixth through
tenth, respectively. The ninth place finish for Cobb was also a career
best. TJ Bell finished in 11th place--the last car on the lead lap when
the race was halted. In addition to the rain, the race was slowed by
six cautions for a total of 36 laps.
Brad Smith won the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award for
advancing the most positions. Smith finished in 14th after starting
25th.
With his runner-up finish, Frank Kimmel (1780) added
to his ARCA RE/MAX Series points lead over Billy Venturini (1580).
Jason Jarrett is in third place with 1455 points.
The teams used Hoosier 5090 radial tires on the left
side and Hoosier 5635 radial tires on the right side. It will be the
last event the 5090 tires will be used.
The event was serviced by Hoosier out of the corporate
headquarters in Lakeville, IN. Those in attendance were Hoosier's ARCA
Track Service Manager Doug Barnes, engineer Rick Tostevin, Dave
Wroblewski, Kevin Wroblewski, Larry "Toots" Merrill, Chris
Grossman and Mike "Moonpie" Haenes.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series is back in action this
Saturday, June12th, at Pennsylvania's Pocono Raceway.
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