2014 ARCA Silly Season news and rumors.

Roger Carter, owner of Carter 2 Motorsports, which competes in the ARCA Racing Series, has been arrested and sentenced for attempting to obtain property by false pretenses. Carter, 44, was convicted on November 8th, and started serving an eight to ten month sentence on November 14th. Carter is currently scheduled to be released on July 6, 2014. Carter ran all but one race last season, earning a 12th place finish in points. The team is still planning to run full time in 2014, and currently they have 13 drivers scheduled to run an open test ARCA has scheduled for this weekend at Daytona.

Other major news items:

As mentioned above ARCA is holding an open test at Daytona this weekend. There are currently 68 drivers scheduled to test. The test session entry has also started some rumors about who is and is not on the entry list. The biggest name missing is defending champion Frank Kimmel. Not only is Kimmel not there, but the entire #44 ThorSport team is missing from the entry list. Rumor is that the reason for this is that Frank Kimmel and sponsor Menards have left, and Kimmel is looking for a new team. Win-Tron Racing, the team that finished second to Kimmel this year with driver Mason Mingus, is currently rumored to be picking up Kimmel, but it's all speculation.

UPDATE: Frank Kimmel will drive the #44 Ansell/Menards Toyota for Win-Tron Racing in 2014.

http://www.arcaracing.com/news.php?contentid=16930

Meanwhile, there's a few drivers still trying to pick up rides. Mason Mingus, who is looking for a ride whether or not Kimmel replaces him, isn't scheduled to test with anyone. Mingus is one of only three drivers in the top 10 in points in 2013 that isn't running the test, the other two being Kimmel and Milka Duno, whose sponsorship may have dried up due to the Venezuelan racing scandal. There's also some new drivers thinking about running some ARCA. USAC champion Dave Darland is running the test this weekend, and is working on sponsorship. With a ride open at Cunningham Motorsports, several drivers from different racing backgrounds have applied there. Guys like Thomas Praytor and Bobby Gerhart are expected to have an extra seat at some races, so they're testing some drivers out too. Win-Tron Racing might run an extra car part time, and have Terry Jones running the test session.

Meanwhile, there are a few drivers moving on from ARCA this, moving up to start their NASCAR careers. Spencer Gallagher and his team have bought some Truck Series equipment, and Gallagher may run part time. Chad Boat is currently planning on running as many as 15 Nationwide Series races. ARCA race winners like Corey LaJoie and Chase Elliott are also expected to run quite a few races in NASCAR's top three series.

I was looking for a place to put this...

ARCA Silly Season

- As mentioned above, Frank Kimmel is leaving ThorSport and joining Win-Tron. He will continue to drive the No. 44 Toyota, sponsored by Menards.
- Ken Schrader is driving for his own team with Federated Auto Parts sponsorship
- Austin Wayne Self is driving for Cunningham Motorsports.
- Justin Boston is returning to Venturini.
- Team Strange is going full time with Maryeve Dufault.
- Josh Williams was going to drive for Sharp Gallagher, but that team has apparently shut down according to Jayski. I'm not sure if that includes their ARCA operations.
- Crosley Sports Group is for sale.
- Venturini is entering Lelani Munter for Daytona and possibly the full schedule. They may run a forth car part time for someone with money. They've run Townley and Blakenship full time in the past.
LINEUP
MaxForce - 2 - Thomas Praytor or ???
Cunningham - 22 - Austin Wayne Self (R)
Venturini - 25 - Justin Boston
Venturini - 35 - Milka Duno or ???
Venturini - 55 - Lelani Munter
Win-Tron - 44 - Frank Kimmel
Team Strange - 46 - Maryeve Dufault
Schrader - 52 - Ken Schrader
Carter 2 - 97 - Mark Meunier (R)
Mason Mitchell - TBA - Mason Mitchell (R)
SUSPENDED OPERATIONS
Sharp/Gallagher - 23 - Josh Williams
PART TIME
Gerhardt - 5 - Bobby Gerhardt
Venturini - 15 - John Wes Townley or John Blakenship or ???
Cunningham - 77 - Shannon MacIntosh

Gallagher =/= Sharp-Gallaher

Changed the name of the thread because that's what it's turned into.

Here's what I've pieced together of the ARCA lineup in 2014.

- Thomas Praytor is going to run his #2 again in 2014, and will have a teammate with a few drivers splitting the #3.

- Venturini will have at least two or three full time cars next year, and are planning on five cars for Daytona. Justin Boston is currently the only full time driver. Milka Duno might not be back, mainly because of the Venezuelan racing scandal, but also because of poor performance. Leilani Munter's one race deal for Venturini is currently exactly what it is, a one race deal. Venturini his normally in the past kept the as full time car with multiple drivers, and I don't think this will be any different. As for the other cars in their fleet, the #15 could go full time, but expect them to use the #20 and #66 cars part time.

- Cunningham Motorsports, from what I understand, is going to run pretty much the same as last year. Tom Hessert will return to drive the #77, while the #22 while be a couple different drivers. Shannon McIntosh, who used to run Indy Lights, will run about half a dozen this year. She will share the car with a couple other drivers that are unconfirmed, but Austin Self is expected to run a few races for the team.

- Ken Schrader did announce plans for the #52, as well as a second car. Schrader is taking the biggest part of the schedule, running 10 of the 20 races. Matt Tifft, who ran a part time for Win-Tron Racing this past season, will run eight races, at least two of which will also be run by Schrader in a second car. The remaining two races on the schedule will be run by Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell, who is running both of the plate races.

- As for the confusion been the two Gallagher teams, I will explain that. The Gallagher team that Josh Williams was going to run for was Spencer Gallagher's team. Gallagher is possibly going to be moving up to the Truck Series since his team purchased equipment from RCR, but nothing has been confirmed yet. The other Gallagher is actually Bill Gallaher, who co-owned a team with Eddie Sharp. That team however, has had some turmoil, as has resulted in what appears to be a hostile takeover by Gallaher, resulting in Sharp's termination.

- There's a couple new team this year too. Mason Mitchell has said he will field his own cars, driving the #98. I really hope is able to make this happen, Mitchell has a lot of talent, and deserves a good ride. And then there's the other new team. Team Stange, owned by businessman John Stange. Stange has purchased the equipment previously run by Frank Kimmel during nine championships in ten years at Larry Clement Racing. The will remain #46 just like it did during Kimmel's run, but has hired Maryeve Dufault, who will most likely crash every car they purchased this year. Long story short, I don't expect a full time run by this team.

- Of course, how can we forget the biggest story of all. One year after joining ThorSport Motorsports, resulting in a dominating 2013 championship season, Frank Kimmel leaves the team, taking his sponsorship with him, and to Win-Tron Racing, presumably to replace Mason Mingus, who finished runner-up to Kimmel this year. Win-Tron however, is still thinking about a second car at least part time, but not with Mingus.

- Next, we have a rumor that has showed up out of nowhere, and that is that rumors are that Sean Corr's Empire Racing has merged with James Hylton's Hylton Motorsports. If this is true it appears that the team will run three cars in 2014. Hylton's #48, which will now be driven by Corr, Corr's #82, which is testing a few drivers, and a #89 currently listed to Hylton, which has Darin Matthews as the driver. Matthews ran some races in Roger Carter's #40 last year.

- Speaking of Carter, it appears that the team is still planning on running full time despite the fact that their leader is sitting in a correctional center until July 2014. They tested 14 drivers at Daytona this weekend, all of which could run races in one of their cars this year. The team might also expand to three full time cars, the #40, #70, and #97.

flyingturns89 wrote:- As for the confusion been the two Gallagher teams, I will explain that. The Gallagher team that Josh Williams was going to run for was Spencer Gallagher's team. Gallagher is possibly going to be moving up to the Truck Series since his team purchased equipment from RCR, but nothing has been confirmed yet. The other Gallagher is Bill Gallagher, who co-owned a team with Eddie Sharp. That team however, has had some turmoil, as has resulted in what appears to be a hostile takeover by Gallagher, resulting in Sharp's termination.

It's William GallaHER. There is no G.

Casey Lester wrote:

flyingturns89 wrote:- As for the confusion been the two Gallagher teams, I will explain that. The Gallagher team that Josh Williams was going to run for was Spencer Gallagher's team. Gallagher is possibly going to be moving up to the Truck Series since his team purchased equipment from RCR, but nothing has been confirmed yet. The other Gallagher is Bill Gallagher, who co-owned a team with Eddie Sharp. That team however, has had some turmoil, as has resulted in what appears to be a hostile takeover by Gallagher, resulting in Sharp's termination.

It's William GallaHER. There is no G.

Oh, I never noticed, I'll fix it.

No problem. It just gets irritating to see those small mistakes in driver names. I bet William Gallaher would get a headache for all the times he's seen his name spelled "Gallagher" by other people.

ARCA has completed a very successful test session this past weekend at Daytona. There were six sessions, three with single car runs, and three with some drafting. In total, there were 78 drivers on track at some point during the weekend. Overall results will be posted below in the spoiler.

ARCA Test Results: