ARCA News Thread

[SpeedDemon37]

Although the first race of the 2016 ARCA Racing Series Presented by Menards season is only one week away, I figured that there could be a thread for miscellaneous news regarding ARCA and it's divisions for the future.

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Frank Kimmel is back to fight for his eleventh championship in 2016, and he will be doing so in a #46 Ford! Kimmel, of course, won 9 of his 10 championships behind the wheel of a car numbered 46, six of which were Fords. He won his most recent title with a #44 Toyota.

The car will be fielded by Team Stange. Kelly Bires will be Kimmel's crew chief, and the car will receive primary sponsorship from JUICE Replay; a new brand of batteries that will become available to the public this April.

http://www.arcaracing.com/articles/1999628-team-stange-announces-frank-kimmel-in-the-46-juice-batteries-to-sponsor

[RyanB06]

I'm happy to see King Kimmel back in a Blue Oval.

[bsoyuz]

Apparently Kyle Weatherman will go to the Lira Motorsports #58 in a full-time bid, this could mean that he will not run the NASCAR Truck Series full-time.

[flyingturns89]

I don't know if we should just make this the thread for all the entry lists instead of making a thread for every race, but since this is here, I'll put the entry list for Daytona here.

The ARCA Racing Series begins its 63rd season this week in Daytona for the Lucas Oil 200 Driven By General Tire. A new season provides annual changes to the series, the most notable of which is the new tire manufacturer in General Tire. One year ago, Grant Enfinger won Daytona for a second straight season, the first of his six wins which would lead him to the ARCA championship. This year, however, Enfinger has moved on to NASCAR, opening the door for another driver to take the title. One man who could do that is ten time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel, who will drive the #46 car for Team Stange Racing for his final season in ARCA. Kimmel will have to face fierce competition this year from many drivers, including long time ARCA driver Tom Hessert, who this finds himself with Venturini Motorsports. As for Daytona, the clear seems to be eight time Daytona winner Bobby Gerhart, who will seek his ninth win at the event, and his first since 2012.

The entry list for this year's race currently sits at 50 cars. However, only 40 will make the race. This will also be the second year ARCA uses group qualifying for Daytona, with cars set in groups of five or six cars based off of practice speeds. Each group will get a set amount of time to run a fast lap before they return to pit road and the next group is released. After all groups have gone, the top 30 in speed are locked in, with the remaining ten spots set by provisionals.

Entry List Notes
The #18 and #40 cars are TBA.
Bobby Hamilton Jr. formed his own team, Hamilton-Hughes Racing, and is running three cars this weekend. Hamilton Jr. and Eric Caudell will pilot the team's two full time cars.
John Wes Townley returns to ARCA with his own team, Athenian Motorsports. The team acquired owners points from Wayne Peterson Racing.
Thomas Praytor returns for another full time season for his own team.
Jent Motorsports, a new team started in the offseason, is currently planning on running a full schedule with Joey Gattina running the #14 car.
Cunningham Motorsports rebuilds their team with two new rookie drivers in Kevin Thomas Jr. and Chase Briscoe.
GMS Racing, the team that won the ARCA championship with Grant Enfinger in 2015, sold the assets of the #23 team to Bret Holmes Racing. Brad Smith will drive the #23 for the team in his first race back since his wreck at Talladega last year.
Tom Hessert will drive the #25 for Venturini Motorsports for the full schedule.
Lira Motorsports will run two full time drivers with Brandon Lynn and Kyle Weatherman. As of right now, Weatherman is running both full time ARCA and full time Trucks.
Bo LeMastus will return to his drive for his own team this year.
Frank Kimmel returns to full time competition with Team Stange Racing, driving the #46 car. Team Stange purchased their equipment from Clement Racing, which was the team that Kimmel won most of his championships with.
Hylton Motorsports will run the full season again this year. Sean Corr will run Daytona, then the car will be driven by Brad Smith for the rest of the year.
Matt Kurzejewski merged his family team with Ken Schrader Racing and will run Schrader's #52 car full time in 2016. Menards has also joined the team as a sponsor.
UPDATES: The #18 car, the #40 car, the #76 car of Andy Seuss, and the #97 car of Alx Danielsson have all withdrawn. There are now only 46 cars on the entry list.

Entry List:

[flyingturns89]

Another clean run for ARCA's group qualifying today as all nine groups ran without major issues. In the end, it was Cole Custer, who reached the age requirements for this race just three weeks ago, who won the pole for the first race of the season.

Full Lineup with DNQ's
1st #54 Cole Custer
2nd #55 William Byron
3rd #77 Chase Briscoe
4th #25 Tom Hessert
5th #05 John Wes Townley
6th #78 Cole Powell
7th #52 Matt Kurzejewski
8th #83 Derrick Lancaster
9th #69 Will Kimmel
10th #48 Sean Corr
11th #38 Gray Gaulding
12th #2 Sarah Cornett-Ching
13th #6 Josh Williams
14th #5 Bobby Gerhart
15th #98 Gus Dean
16th #22 Kevin Thomas Jr.
17th #82 Dylan Lupton
18th #66 Mark Thompson
19th #33 Austin Wayne Self
20th #9 Thomas Praytor
21st #30 Terry Jones
22nd #32 Shane Lee
23rd #42 Bo LeMastus
24th #59 Jairo Avila
25th #46 Frank Kimmel
26th #34 Willie Mullins
27th #15 Brett Hudson
28th #43 John Ferrier
29th #57 Bryan Dauzat
30th #12 Tyler Audie
31st #23 Brad Smith
32nd #58 Kyle Weatherman
33rd #36 Brandon Lynn
34th #10 Ed Pompa
35th #68 Dale Shearer
36th #06 Tim Viens
37th #0 Corey Howard
38th #3 Steve Fox
39th #27 Dick Doheny
40th #17 Gene Paul

DNQ
#4 Bobby Hamilton Jr.
#14 Joey Gattina
#80 Russ Dugger
#13 J.J. Pack
#64 Eric Caudell
#63 Ray Ciccarelli

[Alta]

Aight Daytona race, petered off at the end tho.

[SpeedDemon37]

I would agree that that was rather uninteresting for an ARCA race. At least it didn't come down to fuel mileage this year (for most of the leaders, at least). It was also disappointing to see so many fast cars taken out after only the first few laps.

I know that we're only one race in, but at this point I'm expecting the title fight to come down to Weatherman, Hessert, and Kimmel. I'm excited to see what they can do with their new rides throughout the rest of the year!

[flyingturns89]

Some pretty big news was announced today as it was reported that ARCA team owner Roger Carter, who has been running in ARCA for the past few seasons, has been suspended indefinitely from ARCA competition. Carter's team, Carter 2 Motorsports, has also been suspended according to a report by the father of one of the team's drivers. Carter had been previously warned by ARCA officials to stay out of trouble off the track or his entries would be pulled. Carter has been accused by multiple drivers and sponsors of accepting sponsorship money to run a race but not bringing the proper equipment for the race. Carter was also arrested three times in 2015 for various offenses and there is currently a warrant out for his arrest in the state of North Carolina. In addition, a former employee of the team has said that the Carter 2 Motorsports shop and all of the team's equipment have been repossessed. Carter 2 Motorsports was planning on running two cars at Daytona, the #40 of Justin Lloyd and the #97 of Alx Danielsson, but both deals fell through just days before the race. ARCA has not made a statement on the report yet.

[Alta]

Some pretty big news was announced today as it was reported that Carter 2 Motorsports, which has been running in ARCA for the past few seasons, has been suspended indefinitely from ARCA competition. The team's owner, Roger Carter, has also been suspended according to a report by the father of one of the team's drivers. Carter had been previously warned by ARCA officials to stay out of trouble off the track or his entries would be pulled. Carter has been accused by multiple drivers and sponsors of accepting sponsorship money to run a race but not bringing the proper equipment for the race. Carter was also arrested three times in 2015 for various offenses and there is currently a warrant out for his arrest in the state of North Carolina. In addition, a former employee of the team has said that the Carter 2 Motorsports shop and all of the team's equipment have been repossessed. Carter 2 Motorsports was planning on running two cars at Daytona, the #40 of Justin Lloyd and the #97 of Alx Danielsson, but both deals fell through just days before the race.

Once again Danielsson flew all the way from his home country of Sweden to America just to get screwed over by Carter, His twitter post of him watching Sharknado 3 in a Flordia hotel is pretty depressing.

[SpeedDemon37]

Here are some headlines regarding the upcoming 2017 season of ARCA racing that have been developing over the winter.

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Unfortunately, after 18 seasons of competition, the ARCA Truck Series has been discontinued. While official reasons for its shutdown have not been released, it was evident last year that the series was experiencing problems with low car counts and a number of race cancellations.

http://www.arcatruckracing.com/2017/01/06/pmg-of-ohio-will-not-continue-the-arca-truck-series-in-2017/

However, it appears that some of the series' team owners are planning to form a new short track pickup truck racing series. No word on exactly who is behind this or how likely that it is to come to fruition, but something similar happened after 2009 when Phoenix Management Group of Ohio, LLC stepped in and picked up the series when ARCA attempted to close it. However, neither ARCA nor PMG has anything to do with this group, which appears to have some big plans that include incorporating trucks and competitors from a number of other regional truck series.

http://www.arcatruckracing.com/2017/01/08/truck-owners-to-form-new-short-track-truck-series/

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Official plans call for the Five Star composite bodies (which closely resemble those of the Generation 6 stock car) that the series currently permits for all speedway, short track, dirt track, and road course races to finally be approved for use in superspeedway competition in 2018. In fact, the composite bodies will be the only ones allowed to race at Daytona and Talladega. This means that this year's event at Talladega is likely the final time that we will see steel-bodied cars on a restrictor-plate track.

http://www.arcaracing.com/articles/2004982-composite-cars-back-back-on-track-at-daytona

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After seemingly closing down in June of 2016, Lira Motorsports is back in business, and they will be bringing two cars to Daytona for the Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire! Clint King will drive the #58 Ford in his first attempt at an ARCA race since 2013, while Michael Lira will attempt to make his first start on the superspeedway at Daytona in car #6. No word yet as to whether or not the team plans to bring either car to Nashville or to any other races this year.

http://www.arcaracing.com/articles/2004906-clint-king-lira-motorsports-return
https://liramotorsports.com/2017/01/10/3793/

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Some other miscellaneous notes regarding the developing team and driver lineup:

- Athenian Motorsports shut down and sold its equipment to Joe Gibbs Racing. JGB will be fielding a full-time car #18 for rookie Riley Herbst.
- Austin Theriault joins Ken Schrader racing for the full season in car #52.
- It appears as if Venturini Motorsports may not be bringing back what was its only full-time car in 2016; the #25. Tom Hessert, who drove the car to a second-place finish in the points standings last year, has unfortunately been nowhere to be seen.

At this point, seven drivers are confirmed to be attempting every race; Riley Herbst (Gibbs #18), Shane Lee (Cunningham #22), Dalton Sargeant (Cunningham #77), Bret Holmes (Bret Holmes Racing #23), Gus Dean (Win-Tron #32), Austin Theriault (Schrader #52), and Chris Bailey, Jr. (Jent Motorsports #TBA).

[flyingturns89]

ARCA's television coverage on Fox Sports was announced. Fox Sports will cover ten of the twenty races in the 2017 ARCA season. At least nine will be featured on Fox Sports 1.

February 18 Daytona FS1
May 5 Talladega FS1
May 21 Toledo FS1
June 9 Pocono FS1
June 16 Michigan FS1
July 21 Lucas Oil FS1
July 28 Pocono FS1
September 14 Chicagoland FS1
September 22 Kentucky FS1
October 20 Kansas FS2*

*May switch to FS1 depending on MLB Playoff flexibility.

[PRAWBLEMS]

ARCA's television coverage on Fox Sports was announced. Fox Sports will cover ten of the twenty races in the 2017 ARCA season. At least nine will be featured on Fox Sports 1.

February 18 Daytona FS1
May 5 Talladega FS1
May 21 Toledo FS1
June 9 Pocono FS1
June 16 Michigan FS1
July 21 Lucas Oil FS1
July 28 Pocono FS1
September 14 Chicagoland FS1
September 22 Kentucky FS1
October 20 Kansas FS2*

*May switch to FS1 depending on MLB Playoff flexibility.

And with the drop of NJMP, AFAIK anyone who gets American Sports Network on their TV or can stream it on their website can now see all ARCA races, live. This must be a first for that...

[Mother of Invention]

James Hylton Bought a Composite body recently. Good news for the small team.

[bsoyuz]

James Hylton Bought a Composite body recently. Good news for the small team.

And I'm still waiting for Wayne Peterson to get one, but he is still painting his cars with house paint. You can't make this up. He really does paint his cars with house paint.

[SpeedDemon37]

Sheldon Creed, who drove six times in 2016 for Lira Motorsports, is joining MDM Motorsports this year for a total of nine-races (car number and further details have yet to be confirmed).

Creed will also be racing alongside a rookie teammate in five of those races; Vinnie Miller (19) of Ortonville, Michigan. Never have I been more excited to see a driver enter the national stock car scene and earn an opportunity to work his way through the ranks.

That's partially because, as it just so happens, Vinnie is a personal friend of mine, one whom I've known since we were ten years old.

We were in 5th grade when we first met, and at the time he was racing midgets at the track on the grounds of Waterford Hills Road Raceway. Over the years I've made mentions of him here on the forums, mostly regarding me watching him race at the 3/8-mile Owosso Speedway (he has raced with Erik Jones on multiple occasions), where he has won a number of races and earned the support of the local crowd. He's even given me a tour of his team's pit area at the track during one of his race weekends.

I haven't heard much from him since graduation in summer of 2015. Shortly afterwards he moved to North Carolina to race late models there in the hopes of landing an opportunity to race in ARCA or the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. This year, he achieved both goals. In addition to his six ARCA starts, he will also be making six Pro Series starts for the same team in the East division (the first of which is this Sunday at New Smyrna Speedway)! Me and the rest of his friends and family are all extremely proud for what he's accomplished. Below is a photograph of his K&N Pro Series car, which will carry sponsorship from Master Manufacturing, Inc. (which also sponsored his car at Owosso).

Spoiler:

For anyone who needs someone to root for when you tune in to these races, Vinnie is your man. In addition to the fact that he will always push the car to the limit (he's won the Edge of Your Seat Award at Owosso), he's one of the most respectable people whom I know. He doesn't lose his temper when things don't go his way on the track, he always makes sure that those who work with him know that he appreciates them, and he interacts with the fans a lot more than he's obligated to. The guy is a true class act.

Keep an eye out for Vinnie this season and in the future; he may very well be following the path of Erik Jones from Owosso Speedway to the grandest stage in stock car racing.

http://vinniemillerracing.com/2017/02/08/vinnie-miller-added-to-mdm-motorsports-2017-driver-development-program/

[Electric Wolf]

That's awesome! I had a feeling I'd be getting behind him even before I read this, but I'm sure to be rooting for him,

[Mother of Invention]

James Hylton Bought a Composite body recently. Good news for the small team.

And I'm still waiting for Wayne Peterson to get one, but he is still painting his cars with house paint. You can't make this up. He really does paint his cars with house paint.

MY favorite bit is that his cars are so slow, that ARCA forces his cars to Start and Park most races.

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