Frank Kimmel scales back; will only run 10 ARCA races this year.

by flyingturns89 Thu Jan 15, 2015 10:28 am

After ten championships and 80 career victories, Frank Kimmel will be scaling due to sponsorship problems in 2015. Kimmel will run the #25 car for Venturini Motorsports for half of the 2015 ARCA schedule, with the other half being run by 18-year-old Brandon Jones. Kimmel, who turns 53 in April, has run every race in the last 18 years, and in that span has finished no worse than fourth in the championship standings. Jones ran three ARCA races in 2014 for the now defunct Turner Scott Motorsports, and won two of them. He also finished fourth in points in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for Turner Scott. The tentative schedule right now has Kimmel running at Daytona, Toledo, both races at Pocono, Michigan, Chicagoland, Berlin, Springfield, DuQuoin, and the second race at Salem. Kimmel's longtime sponsors, Ansell and Menards, will be joining him at Venturini, sponsoring the #25 car for 15 races.

This announcement also means that officially no driver in the top five in the ARCA championship standings in 2014 is scheduled to run a full season. Mason Mitchell is stepping into an ownership role, Grant Enfinger has no plans, Tom Hessert only has a handful of races, Kimmel is now running part-time, and Justin Boston is moving into the Truck Series.

by Backmarker Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:02 am

I've heard it was less sponsorship problems and more Frank not liking how things were being run at Win-Tron...

by RyanB06 Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:31 am

I think that this is less "sponsorship problems" than it is "the King getting ready to wind it down" myself.

by Mother of Invention Thu Jan 15, 2015 1:51 pm

NeverNeutral wrote:I've heard it was less sponsorship problems and more Frank not liking how things were being run at Win-Tron...

yeah I heard he had the same problems with Win-Tron he had with Thorsport. Neither team was putting the $$$ to run it successfully. I heard Frank had to put a lot of his own $$$ into the Thorsport car.

by Alta Thu Jan 15, 2015 4:10 pm

Enfinger i hear is jumping up to the Truck series with Gallagher.

At first i thought Kimmel was gonna destroy and then i find out it's 10 races.

by Backmarker Thu Jan 15, 2015 4:35 pm

Alta wrote:Enfinger i hear is jumping up to the Truck series with Gallagher.

That was the story back around December but it looks like he's not doing any driving now. He's still working in the shop, though, so maybe he might get a few in at some point.

by SpeedDemon37 Thu Jan 15, 2015 7:33 pm

Kimmel has run every single ARCA race that has been run in my life. An ARCA race without him, quite literally, is something that I have never seen before.

Regardless of why he won't be contesting the full schedule, I am personally disappointed. At least he'll still be running a good half of the races, though.

by BBoy Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:04 pm

The way things are falling into place, it looks like John Wes Townley will be the 2015 champion by a landslide margin.

by navycook75 Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:13 pm

BBoy wrote:The way things are falling into place, it looks like John Wes Townley will be the 2015 champion by a landslide margin.

Frank Kimmel scales back; will only run 10 ARCA races this year. QdxmOli

by flyingturns89 Fri Jan 16, 2015 2:54 am

BBoy wrote:The way things are falling into place, it looks like John Wes Townley will be the 2015 champion by a landslide margin.

Townley has said he will not be running any more ARCA races. Right now, the only drivers running full time are Austin Wayne Self, Thomas Praytor, and Josh Reeves.

by BBoy Fri Jan 16, 2015 4:36 am

flyingturns89 wrote:
BBoy wrote:The way things are falling into place, it looks like John Wes Townley will be the 2015 champion by a landslide margin.

Townley has said he will not be running any more ARCA races. Right now, the only drivers running full time are Austin Wayne Self, Thomas Praytor, and Josh Reeves.

I wasn't aware of that, thanks for the correction.

by Mother of Invention Fri Jan 16, 2015 9:11 am

flyingturns89 wrote:
BBoy wrote:The way things are falling into place, it looks like John Wes Townley will be the 2015 champion by a landslide margin.

Townley has said he will not be running any more ARCA races. Right now, the only drivers running full time are Austin Wayne Self, Thomas Praytor, and Josh Reeves.

Except Reeves deal with Rodger Carter fell through.

by **crl** Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:44 am

Mother of Invention wrote:
flyingturns89 wrote:
BBoy wrote:The way things are falling into place, it looks like John Wes Townley will be the 2015 champion by a landslide margin.

Townley has said he will not be running any more ARCA races. Right now, the only drivers running full time are Austin Wayne Self, Thomas Praytor, and Josh Reeves.

Except Reeves deal with Rodger Carter fell through.

So, we have two drivers running the full ARCA season at the moment. Wonder how many cars there'll be when they get to Nashville?

by flyingturns89 Fri Jan 16, 2015 11:19 am

crl wrote:
Mother of Invention wrote:
flyingturns89 wrote:
BBoy wrote:The way things are falling into place, it looks like John Wes Townley will be the 2015 champion by a landslide margin.

Townley has said he will not be running any more ARCA races. Right now, the only drivers running full time are Austin Wayne Self, Thomas Praytor, and Josh Reeves.

Except Reeves deal with Rodger Carter fell through.

So, we have two drivers running the full ARCA season at the moment. Wonder how many cars there'll be when they get to Nashville?

Actually, there's one more driver to add to the full time list. David Levine, who has four career ARCA starts with a best finish of 9th at Road America in 2013, is scheduled to run a full time car for Lira Motorsports. The team is run by ARCA competitor Michael Lira, who had some starts for Will Kimmel last year.

by Backmarker Fri Jan 16, 2015 1:20 pm

I'm sure there will be a few more people who end up running full-time. Enfinger was only supposed to run the first five races last year...

by BWard Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:24 pm

Regardless of everything that's being going on, it's gonna be rather sad not seeing Kimmel most of the races let-alone being in a bright yellow #44 car.

by BBoy Sat Jan 17, 2015 8:16 pm

BWardboy88 wrote:Regardless of everything that's being going on, it's gonna be rather sad not seeing Kimmel most of the races let-alone being in a bright yellow #44 car.

I still find it a bit difficult to see him in anything besides the Advanced Auto Parts #46 that he won so many championships with.

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