Scott Speed Earns SIM Factory Pole Award
LONG POND PA (6-6-08)—Charter planes, helicopters and rental cars have become familiar territory for Scott Speed, especially this weekend as the ARCA RE/MAX Series rookie plans to pull double duty by competing in both the Pocono 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Pocono Raceway and the Sam’s Town 400k NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. He’s off to a pretty good start.
Speed qualified Eddie Sharp Racing’s No. 2 Red Bull Toyota on the pole during Friday afternoon’s ARCA RE/MAX Series SIM Factory qualifying session at Pocono, posting a 167.094 mph (53.862 seconds) lap around the 2.5-mile triangle. He will start alongside Justin Allgaier for Saturday’s Pocono 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race, which is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and airs on SPEED at 10 p.m. Eastern Saturday.
"I'm really happy with the pole," said Speed. "We knew we were bringing a good car. We were tight throughout most of practice today but Patty Patrick Donahue, crew chief]and the team made a bunch of adjustments that put us on the top of the practice chart for our mock run. We knew we had a good car for qualifying. When I went out for the qualifying lap the track was definitely slick with the sun out. Honestly, I just held on and hoped it wouldn't get away from me. We have a busy day. We're leaving from here (Pocono Media Center) to go catch a plane to Texas."
"The switch from trucks to cars where we doubled up last time (Kansas Speedway) was challenging because it was the same track on the same day. And to get out of the ARCA car that was not flat around the corner and to get in the truck that you need to run flat. This shouldn't be a problem tonight. Two totaly different tracks. The car should be really good tomorrow for the race. Tonight we'll go start at the back of the pack (for the truck race) and we'll see what we can do there."
Speed and Allgaier will lead off an ARCA RE/MAX Series starting grid that includes Shelby Township, Michigan’s Robb Brent in the No. 00 Orchard Chrysler Dodge Jeep Chevrolet and current ARCA RE/MAX Series point leader Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in the No. 99 Con-Way Freight Ford, who start third and fourth, respectively. Justin Lofton starts fifth, followed by John Wes Townley, Tayler Malsam, Matt Carter and Jesse Smith.
18-year old Chase Mattioli of Long Pondbecame thefirst memebr of his famous family to start a race on the 2.5-mile tri oval. He will start his Liquid Fence/WHUR-Haines & Kibblehouse Chevy from postion 21 in the Pocono ARCA 200. The grandson of Pocono CEO Dr. Joe Mattioli qualified with arespectable speed of 159.866.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series heads into Saturday’s Pocono 200 on the strength of a competitive season in which there have been no repeat winners and five first time series winners in eight of 21 races. The race will mark the ARCA RE/MAX Series’ 47th appearance to the 2.5-mile triangle since 1983.
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