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 TALLADEGA,
AL (September 27) -- Eau Claire, Wisconsin's Paul Menard won the
"Food World 300" in ARCA RE/MAX Series competition on
Saturday in just his third career start in the highly competitive
series. After posting the top time in qualifying, Menard's time was
disallowed after his car was found to have quarter panels not meeting
the minimum height in post-qualifying inspections. Despite the
setback, Menard made the 41-car field after gaining a spot in the
field after negotiating a number change with another competitor which
relegated him to a 38th place starting position. But by lap 62, young
Menard had steered his Andy Petree owned Turtle Wax Monaco Coach
Chevrolet into the lead--a lead he would not relinquish leading the
final 52 laps en route to the win.
Forty-one cars started Saturday's 113-lap "Food
World 300" at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway with rising
star Kyle Busch and Bobby Gerhart on the pole. Gerhart's experience
led him to take the opening-lap lead over the young racing hot shoe.
On lap 8, Chase Montgomery moved into the race lead after starting
seventh. Montgomery, who earlier in the season was the Daytona
season-opener winner, led the next 48 laps until he was passed by the
likeable David Stremme. The NASCAR Busch Series regular led the next
six laps before contact with Christi Passmore sent the driver of the
Chip Ganassi Coors Light Dodge to the pits for repairs and after being
ticketed for speeding on pit road, Streeme's day was over handing the
lead to Paul Menard who had battled from 38th place. From there,
Menard proved he was up to the challenge leading the next 52 circuits
to take the win by just inches over a hard-charging Billy Venturini.
Menard and Venturini were followed to the line by Tony Ave in third--a
career-best finish for the Indianapolis, IN native.
Series point leader Frank Kimmel took fourth place
followed by Christi Passmore who finished a career-best fifth. Eleven
of the 41 starters finished the race on the lead-lap. Rounding out the
list of lead-lap finishers were Mark Thompson in sixth who was making
his return to the ARCA RE/MAX Series, Bill Eversole, Keith Murt, C.W.
Smith, 32nd starting and Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award winner Greg
Sarff and Brent Sherman in seventh through eleventh, respectively.
The race, which took 2 hours and 34:04 seconds to
complete, had seven cautions for a total of 41 laps while averaging
126.059 mph.
Doug Barnes, Hoosier's ARCA Series Track Service
Manager commented after the race, "The Menard team was ecstatic
after their well deserved win and were extremely complementary to the
Hoosier staff regarding their race-winning Hoosier tires." Barnes
added, "We have brought the same compound code(s) to Talladega
for several events now and have had tremendous success with
them."
Frank Kimmel continues to hold a commanding lead in
the standings with 5515 points followed by Jason Jarrett with 4785
points and Mark Gibson with 4445 points. Billy Venturini (4415) and
Shelby Howard (4380) round out the top five in the rankings.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series season winds down now with just
two events remaining on the 2003 schedule. Next up, the series travels
to Lowes Motor Speedway in Concord, NC on October 9th before
concluding the season at South Boston Speedway for a rescheduled event
on October 18th.
Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. is the exclusive tire
provider to the ARCA RE/MAX Series through the 2006 season.
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