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 SPARTA,
KY (July 10) -- For the second week in a row, the ARCA RE/MAX Series
fell victim to rain. The "Kentucky 150 on 700 WLW Pole
Night" at Kentucky Speedway was to have been contested on Friday
night, but rain pushed it back a day to Saturday afternoon. Still, the
scheduled 100-lap race on the 1.5-mile oval was only 65 laps complete
when the sky opened up once again forcing series officials to declare
the race complete after 67 laps with Ryan Hemphill capturing his 4th
win of the season. The 22-year-old rookie, who never pitted during the
race, led every lap en route to the win. Entering the event, both
Hemphill and defending ARCA RE/MAX Series champion Frank Kimmel had
three wins each this season. Not bad considering Hemphill has only
started nine of the 12 events contested thus far in the 2004
season.
With rain washing out qualifying, the starting grid
for the race was set by car owner points which placed Frank Kimmel on
the pole and Boston Reid in the Hendrick Motorsports dietech.com
Chevrolet alongside as 38 cars started the race.
Ryan Hemphill wasted no time charging to the front as
the green flag was waved. The Apollo, PA driver motored into the race
lead on the very first lap in his TRIMSPA Dodge after starting fourth.
Hemphill led through lap 65 and was just three laps away from his
scheduled pit stop when the rains came forcing officials to call the
race complete on lap 67 of the scheduled 100-lap race.
Following Hemphill to the finish line was David
Ragan--who also did not pit during the event. It was Ragan's
career-best finish. Tandy Marlin finished in third place also a
career-best finish. Marlin won the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award for
advancing the most positions. Marlin started 38th before finishing in
third.
Walt Brannen finished a career-best fourth followed by
Frank Kimmel who had pitted earlier in the race. Boston Reid was sixth
followed by Christi Passmore, Mark Gibson, Todd Bowsher and Bobby
Gerhart in seventh through tenth, respectively. Michael Simko and
Brent Sherman took 11th and 12th place and completed the list of
lead-lap finishers.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series competes exclusively on Hoosier
tires. For this event, all competitors rode on Hoosier 12.0/28.0-15
"5115" left side and "5635" right side radial
tires with one inch of stagger.
The event was serviced out of Hoosier's corporate
headquarters in Lakeville, IN. The service team included Track Service
Manager Doug Barnes, engineer Rick Tostevin, Dave Wroblewski, Mike
Haenes, Chris Grossman, Jake Hartle, Larry Merrill and Tom Carter.
Frank Kimmel continues to add to his lead in the
driver rankings over Brent Sherman. Kimmel has 3110 points, while
Sherman has 2720 points. Billy Venturini is in third place with 2660
points. Mark Gibson and T.J. Bell are in fourth and fifth place,
respectively, in the standings.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series will be back in action this
Friday, July 16th, at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, IL.
The race will be televised live on SPEED Channel beginning at 9:00 pm
(ET).
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