 JOLIET,
IL (September 8, 2007) -- Michael McDowell continued his battle with Frank
Kimmel for the ARCA RE/MAX championship over the weekend. The rookie dominated
the Chicagoland ARCA 200 on Saturday leading 98 of the 134 race laps.
With the win, McDowell is now just 150 points behind Kimmel in the driver
standings heading into the final three events of the season. Both drivers have
now notched three wins each this year.
Forty-seven cars were on hand for qualifying with Michael McDowell capturing
his eighth pole of the season. The Phoenix, AZ driver circled the 1.5-mile
track in 30.540 seconds with a speed of 176.817 mph.
The 200-mile race had seven leaders among four different drivers. Those
leading during the event included; Michael McDowell 1-28, 38-73, 101-134 (98),
Bryan Silas 29-35, 37 (8), Justin South 36 (1) and Jeremy Clements 74-100
(27).
McDowell finished 1.092 seconds ahead of Justin Marks who started eighth.
Colin Braun, making only his second series start, finished in third place.
Jeremy Clements finished fourth followed by Erin Crocker in fifth. Crocker
started 17th en route to the top five finish.
The 134-lap race was slowed 10 times for cautions for 47 laps. The race also
featured three female drivers among the 40 race starters including; Erin
Crocker (5th), Gabi DeCarlo (21st) and Michelle Theriault (34th).
Billy Venturini won the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award for advancing the
most positions. Venturini finished 10th after starting 31st. The award is a
combination of cash and credit on race tire purchases from Hoosier.
Hoosier has been the official tire of the ARCA RE/MAX Series since 1995.
Hoosier and the ARCA RE/MAX Series have also just recently announced the
extension of that contract which will have the series running on Hoosier tires
through the 2011 season.
All of the ARCA teams at Chicagoland Speedway competed on radial tires with
one inch of stagger.
Tire servicing at all ARCA events is provided by Hoosier. Members of the
Hoosier service team at Chicagoland included;
Rick
Tostevin, David Wroblewski, Chad Wright, Fred Awald, Chad Nichols, Clint
Williams, Arik Ott and Mike Haenes.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series next travels to Indiana's Salem Speedway this
Saturday, September 15th, for the Eddie Gilstrap Motors Fall Classic.
The .555-mile track at Salem will have the ARCA back on bias-ply tires. This
will be the last season the ARCA drivers race on bias-ply tires on paved
short-tracks. Next year, Hoosier will be introducing a new short-track radial
for the six short-tracks on the schedule.
For complete race results and more information about the ARCA RE/MAX Series
visit www.arcaracing.com.
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