ROOKIE RYAN HEMPHILL WINS AGAIN!

MADISON, IL (July 16) -- After two consecutive rain-shortened events, the ARCA RE/MAX Series was able to complete an entire race Friday night without another visit from Mother Nature. Rookie Ryan Hemphill captured his fifth victory of the season winning the "Shop 'n Save 150" at Gateway International Raceway's 1.25-mile oval. Even more impressive is that the 22-year-old rookie has only competed in 10 of the 13 races contested in the ARCA RE/MAX Series this year. The driver of the #64 TRIMSPA Dodge led 53 of the 120 scheduled laps while finishing ahead of Frank Kimmel by nearly five seconds. 

Thirty-five cars took the green flag Friday night at Gateway with Ryan Hemphill on the pole after earning his fourth career Pork Pole Award as the race's fastest qualifier. The Apollo, PA driver circled the track in 34.396 seconds for an average speed of 130.829 mph. The rookie was joined in the front row by NASCAR Nextel Cup veteran Kenny Schrader. 

The race featured nine race leaders among five different drivers including; Ryan Hemphill 1-5, 42, 62-64, 77-120 (53 laps), Kenny Schrader 6-41, 52-61 (46 laps), Bobby Gerhart 43-51 (9 laps), Brent Sherman 65-73 (9 laps), and T.J. Bell 74-76 (3 laps). The race was slowed five times for cautions lasting 31 laps.
 

Following Hemphill to the finish line was current ARCA RE/MAX Series points leader Frank Kimmel in second place after starting fourth. A.J. Fike finished a career-best third after starting tenth. Also finishing with a career-best finish was Christi Passmore in fourth followed by Jason Jarrett in fifth.

Billy Venturini was sixth followed by Brent Sherman in seventh completing the list of lead-lap finishers. Venturini also won the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award for advancing the most positions. Venturini started 17th en route to his sixth place finish. T.J. Bell was looking for a career-best finish running in second place with less than two laps to go when he ran out of gas relegating him to an eighth place finish. Bobby Gerhart was ninth with Scott Kuhn rounding out the top ten. 

In other race notes, Kenny Schrader finished 23rd after his motor gave out, while Justin Allgaier finished 27th after qualifying sixth. Allgaier is the son of Mike and Dorothy Allgaier--owners of Hoosier Tire Midwest. 

The ARCA RE/MAX Series competes exclusively on Hoosier tires. At Gateway, all of the competitors rode on Hoosier 12.0/28.0-15 "5120" left side and "5580" 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, Crew Chief Mike Haenes, Chris Grossman, Jacob Hartle, Larry Merrill and Tom Carter.

Frank Kimmel continues to build on his already substantial lead in the ARCA Series driver standings with 3340 points followed by Brent Sherman with 2920 points. Billy Venturini is in third place with 2860 points. With his eighth place finish T.J. Bell moves into  fourth place with 2615 points followed by Mark Gibson in fifth with 2590 markers.

The ARCA RE/MAX Series will be off a week before returning to action July 31st, at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.    

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