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 NASHVILLE,
TN (August 9) -- Frank Kimmel captured his series leading sixth win of
the ARCA RE/MAX Series season after winning the Waste management 200
at Nashville Superspeedway Friday. But it wasn't without controversy
as the defending series champion made contact with rookie Chad Blount
with less than 20 laps to go while Blount was in the race lead. The
two drivers have been locked in a season-long points battle which only
added more fuel to the fire. Coming into the event Kimmel held a
120-point margin over young Blount. But after crashing, Blount now
stands in second place 215 points out of first place.
A 40-car field took the green flag at the 1.33-mile
Nashville oval. Series point leader, Frank Kimmel, was on the pole
after capturing the Old Milwaukee Pole Award for his lap of 30.804
seconds (155.785 mph) during qualifying. Chad Blount was second in
qualifying and started alongside the series veteran.
Kimmel led the race's first 112 laps, before Blount
got underneath him exiting turn four. Blount made the pass to take
over the race lead. The Walkertown, Indiana rookie led through lap 134
when the controversy began.
Entering the first turn, Kimmel's nose made contact
with Blount's rear-end sending the rookie driving hard into the wall.
With no other driver on the lead lap, the crash not only ended
Blount's day, it secured the win for Kimmel.
Following Kimmel to the finish line was Robert
Burroughs, Chase Montgomery, Brent Sherman and John Metcalf in second
through fifth, respectively.
After the race, a dejected Chad Blount commented,
"I
don’t understand it, I raced
him (Kimmel) clean all day. I passed him clean; I never touched him.
The rest was pretty plain to see. It wasn’t an issue of hard racing;
we always do that. It’s about right and wrong. That was wrong. We
lost out on the win. We took a big hit in the points, and worst of
all, one of our best speedway cars is complete junk."
The controversial finish was met with boos from the
crowd. There was also a melee between the two pit crews after the
incident before order could be restored by ARCA and track officials.
Greg Sarff earned the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award
for advancing the most positions. Ironically, the owner/driver
accomplished this feat on borrowed used tires.
Hoosier ARCA Product Manager Jeff Speer commented, "This was the fourth ARCA
RE/MAX Series event at Nashville Superspeedway and the tire combination we had been running needed to be improved. With the cooler temperatures in the April event, the drivers were experiencing less grip and abnormal or increased tire wear, so we tested with the #27 Chase Montgomery team in June and solved both issues."
Speer added, "The tires we ran Friday night were put to the test with two long runs, from lap 6 to lap 46, and then from lap 56 to lap 110. Drivers said they could now race out of the groove and be more consistent with lap times. The teams were very happy with the outcome of the new tire
set-up."
Frank Kimmel extends his point lead in the series over
Chad Blount to 215 points after Blount's disappointing 22nd place
finish.
The series will resume action this Sunday when they
travel to the Illinois State Fairgrounds where the ARCA Series will
compete on the Springfield 1-mile clay
oval.
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