 SPARTA,
KY (July 7, 2006) -- Eighteen-year-old Brad Coleman won his first career ARCA
RE/MAX Series race Friday night under the lights at Kentucky Speedway. Coleman
won the "WLWT Channel 5-150" leading 73 of the 110 race laps while
making only his sixth start in the popular series. In just six starts, the
young driver now has a first place finish, two second place finishes, a third
place and a fifth place finish to his credit. In fact, the only race he didn't
have a top five finish was at Salem where he won the pole, but was involved in
an accident and unable to complete the race. Coleman, who drives the No. 62
Federated Car Care Ford as a developmental driver for BREWCO Motorsports,
becomes the ninth different winner in the 10 races contested to date in the
ARCA RE/MAX Series.
Another huge 51-car field was on hand Friday afternoon for qualifying in an
attempt to gain entry into the 41-car starting grid. Erin Crocker won her third
career Pork Pole Award as the event's fastest qualifier. Driving the Hamburger
Helper Dodge she circled the 1.5-mile oval in 30.450 seconds (177.340 mph). The
Evernham Motorsports developmental driver was followed by Matt Hagans at 30.526
seconds (176.898 mph) and Brad Coleman at 30.573 seconds (176.626 mph).
The race featured nine leaders among six different drivers. Race leaders
included; Erin Crocker (1-5, 57), Brad Coleman (6-56, 89-110), Frank Kimmel
(58-67, 74-87), Damon Lusk (68), Matt Hagans (69-73), Chuck Weber (88). The
race was slowed nine times for 51 laps due to various cautions, while 10 of the
41 starters finished the race on the lead lap.
Despite several late race cautions which extended the scheduled 100-lap race
and additional 10 circuits, Coleman won by .391 seconds over previous race
winner and defending series champion Frank Kimmel. Jeremy Clements finished in
third place after starting 21st and Chuck Weber took fourth place after
starting 22nd, while Damon Lusk claimed the fifth spot.
Dawayne Bryan finished in sixth place followed by Ryan Foster, Bobby Gerhart,
Ryan Howard and Blake Bjorklund. Scott Legasse finished in 11th place--the
first car a lap down. Ryan Howard earned the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award
for advancing the most positions after starting 27th en route to a ninth place
finish. After leading twice during the event, pole-sitter Erin Crocker finished
27th after crashing hard into the outside wall on lap 94--she was not injured.
Bobby Gerhart continues to lead the driver standings with 2390 points, while
Frank Kimmel closes to within 55 points with 2335 points. Damon Lusk is in
third place (2150) followed by Ken weaver (2025) and Ryan Foster (1985).
All the competitors raced on Hoosier's 12.0/28.0-15 radial tires used on
superspeedway tracks. The cars used 5230 left side and 5788 right side tires
with one inch of stagger.
The service team from Hoosier headquarters in Lakeville, IN for
the Kentucky event included; Doug Barnes, Rick Tostevin, Dave Wroblewski, Larry
Merrill, Chad Wright, Jake Hartle, Derrik Duszynski and Jim Bartholomew.
After four consecutive
superspeedway races, the ARCA RE/MAX Series will return to its roots racing at
Michigan's .4-mile Berlin Raceway on Saturday, July 15th. The series will
contest this one short track race using bias-ply tires before returning to
radials tires for four more races on tracks over a mile in length.
For complete race results and more information about the ARCA
RE/MAX Series visit their website at www.arcaracing.com.
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