Even though the top three NASCAR series were off on Sunday, there was no shortage of racing going on. At Iowa Speedway, the annual East/West showdown between the two K&N Pro Series took place, and the ARCA cars descended on Toledo Speedway for the first of two events this season. At Iowa, Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Max Gresham won his second straight race, beating Richard Childress’ grandson Ty Dillon to the line by .039 seconds. In Toledo, Roush Fenway Racing development driver Chris Buescher outlasted Joey Coulter, and veterans Frank Kimmel, Ken Schrader and Matt Crafton to win his first ever ARCA race.
By winning at Iowa, Gresham added his name to a pretty impressive list of past winners of the dual series event. Kyle Busch, Brian Ickler, and Joey Logano are all past winners. Gresham is a rookie running for the championship this season in the K&N Pro Series East and he is also scheduled to make select starts in the ARCA Series.
Gresham, a 17 year old from Griffin, GA, was running Legends cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway only 4 years ago, and is already a decorated racer. After graduating to latemodels in 2007 , he finished fifth in the Georgia Asphalt Series points in 2008, and won two races last year in the ASA Southeast Tour. With two K&N wins already this season, the future looks very bright.
Buescher took no time this weekend showing his competition that he was at Toledo to win. His #17 Ford was fastest in practice on Saturday, and he followed that up by sitting on the pole before he led 126 of 200 laps in route to his first ARCA win. The 17 year old driver from Prosper, TX won in just his ninth ARCA start, and had help from Cup Series driver David Ragan. After running the Sprint Showdown on Saturday night in Charlotte, Ragan boarded a plane and flew to Toledo to spot for Buescher.
Also a graduate of Legends cars, Buescher ran a part time ARCA schedule last season for the Roulo Bros. Racing team. In seven starts, he had one pole, three top five, and six top ten finishes. He is running another partial ARCA schedule this season. And if his last name looks familiar, it should. Buescher is the cousin of current Truck Series driver James Buescher.
From time to time here at TNI we like to point out a few young drivers to keep your eye on. Driver development is certainly in inexact science, but Buescher and Gresham might be two names you will be hearing for many years to come. They are both showing right now that they have the talent to compete with the best.
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As the Danica Patrick bandwagon steams toward the Daytona Nationwide Series race next weekend, don’t worry about saving me a seat just yet. Finishing sixth in her first ever stock car event is commendable, but I think it’s a bit early to crown her the next big thing.
In case you missed it, Patrick recovered from a late race spin through the tri-oval grass at Daytona to finish sixth in her debut race in the ARCA Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200. She kept her nose clean, didn’t give up, and brought home a car with all the fenders still on it. Which in itself is quite an achievement in the ARCA Series. But lets try and remember what she was up against.
Stop by Jayski’s story links page for February 7th and you will find no less then 15 articles about Danica’s debut. Most of which contain quite a bit of praise for the 27 year old driver, some of which she deserves, and some she doesn’t.
Danica took on the ARCA Series at Daytona in an ARCA car powered by Hendrick and put together by JR Motorsports. She had a veteran crew chief on the box (Tony Eury Jr.) and had a combination of JR Motorsports Nationwide Series guys and Hendrick Motorsports Cup guys working on and pitting her race car. Not a bad way to start off a stock car career.
And not to knock the ARCA Series, as it’s a great place to gain valuable experience on bigger tracks, but this is the same series that David Stremme once won a race at Michigan by lapping the entire field once, and up to ninth place twice.
So before we crown her and heap a ton of ridiculous expectations on her, let’s allow her to run a few races and gain some experience against some tougher competition. I think it’s only fair.
And just as a side note, I know there is a certain motorsports writer (ahem Jeff Gluck) who, before the season started, posed an interesting question and bet to his readers and Twitter followers. He wanted to know who would outperform the other this season, John Wes Townley or Danica Patrick. Give round one to Townley, who followed up a fourth place run in last year’s ARCA opener with a third place run this year.
Filed under: Daytona Int'l Speedway, Danica Patrick
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The 2010 racing season is officially upon us! The Rolex 24 at Daytona kicked it off Saturday, and haulers carrying stock cars will roll into DIS this week. Daytona 500 qualifying and the Budweiser Shootout headline a busy upcoming weekend. Along with the NASCAR events, the ARCA Series will open it’s season with the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 on Saturday afternoon. And with the names that are on the entry list for the ARCA race, SPEED may be in for record breaking ratings.
The most notable of those names on the entry list for the ARCA opener is of course, Danica Patrick. She will be making her much anticipated stock car debut under the watchful eye of Tony Eury Jr. and her new JR Motorsports team. A lot will be riding on her performance in the race, as a successful outing could lead to her being approved for the Nationwide Series race at Daytona in two weeks. NASCAR won’t be the only one watching her on Saturday though, as I’d imagine many race fans will tune in to see if the hype is really justified.
Besides Patrick, this may be one of the more interesting entry lists we’ve ever seen for a Daytona ARCA race. There are no less then six women drivers attempting the race including Patrick, Milka Duno, Alli Owens, Leilani Munter, Amber Cope, and Jennifer Jo Cobb. There is also a former Formula One driver attempting his first stock car race in the person of Nelson Piquet Jr.
The race will also feature the usual bevy of young, up and coming development drivers like Dakoda Armstrong and James Buescher, along with a mix of series veterans including Frank Kimmel and Bill Baird.
In the past, the ARCA race at Daytona has proven to be wildly unpredictable because of the inexperience of many of those competing. There are very few opportunities to run at tracks like Daytona, and many drivers log their first ever restrictor plate track time during this event.
Besides the problems with inexperience, drivers in this race sometimes have a tendency to drive over their heads in the hopes they can run well and impress the NASCAR team brass that will be in attendance. A solid performance here could lead to an opportunity to move up, or attract new sponsorship.
This combination of inexperience and over-driving has often led to dramatic wrecks, crazy finishes, and angry drivers. Something tells me this edition will be no different.
The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona gets underway on Saturday afternoon at 4:30PM EST on SPEED. My only question for you is, will you be watching?