Blount, ML Motorsports Win Again
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
SALEM - It was a gamble, a roll of the dice, but in the end, Chad Blount and his ML Motorsports team hit the jackpot Sunday at Salem Speedway.
With 30 laps remaining and Blount leading the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race, veteran crew chief Tom Sokoloski decided to give up track position for four fresh tires.
Six-time series champion Frank Kimmel had fresher tires after pitting to fix some minor front-end damage and was charging hard to the front. With Blount driving around the high-banked, half-mile speedway on 75-lap old tires, Sokoloski didn't think Blount could hold off Kimmel.
Sokoloski's late-race decision, as well as some luck and hard driving by 25-year-old Blount, put the Warsaw-based stock car team in victory lane for the second time in just the third ARCA race of the 2005 season.
"There may have been some doubt, but I knew we could at least get back up to second," said Sokoloski. "It was the only chance we were gonna have to win. We needed some luck to get another caution so we could get close to Frank and maybe get around him."
Blount pitted under caution for his tires on lap 170 of 200. He came off pit road in eighth place. In eight laps, passing cars high and low and driving like a man on a mission, he had the No. 67 Mary Louise Miller-owned Monte Carlo in second place.
The ML Motorsports team members then got the break they were looking for with 10 laps remaining as a caution came out.
The end result was a five-lap shootout between Kimmel and Blount, with Blount getting underneath the six-time series champion in turn three when the two cars made contact on lap 199.
Kimmel's No. 46 Ford made contact with the wall before he finally got the wheels straight and limped home to a seventh-place finish, while Blount came around to take the white flag and then the checkered flag as he finished two seconds ahead of second-place driver T.J. Bell.
"It's definitely not the way we wanted to win," said Blount, who now has six career ARCA wins in just 32 starts. "I have the utmost respect for Frank. We got into him some in turn three and then tried to give him room to get him straightened out. We were both racing hard, it happens. It's happened to me before."
While driving for Braun Racing as rookie in the ARCA RE/MAX Series in 2002, Blount was leading with 30 laps to go at Nashville Superspeedway. Kimmel's car made contact with Blount's, putting the young driver's car into the wall hard and leaving him with a fractured wrist.
Following Sunday's race there were no injuries, but plenty of post-race activities.
Upset about the way the race turned out, Kimmel slammed into the right side of Blount's car as the cars came to a rest on the front stretch. Kimmel's crew then had to be restrained by ARCA officials and police officers as they stormed into the makeshift victory lane in front of the flag stand.
"They were both racing hard," said Sokoloski, who has won three ARCA championships and 44 races now as a crew chief. "Frank drove down in there hard and Chad had a good run on him. It was not intentional, that's just hard racing."
Following Blount and Bell in the top five were David Ragan, Justin South and Todd Bowsher.
Former ML Motorsports driver Jason Jarrett finished in 18th place and was 10 laps down. NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Ken Schrader had problems with his car overheating and finished 22nd.
Counting their win at Salem in September with Jarrett driving, ML Motorsports has won three of the last five ARCA races.
After winning earlier this season at Nashville Superspeedway, Blount, in a live television interview from victory lane, announced "Chad Blount is back."
He and his No. 67 team certainly made that known Sunday, leading a race-high 92 laps en route to the win.
"We're going to continue to do that," Sokoloski said when asked if he thought the team had made a statement about how strong it is going to be this year. "It's going to take a lot of hard work and testing, but we're here to win races."
Kimmel led 91 laps, while Ron Hornaday III led 14 laps and Ragan led three.
Next on the ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule is a May 14 race at Kentucky Speedway. In two previous starts at the 1.5-mile track, Blount has a win and a second-place finish. [[In-content Ad]]
SALEM - It was a gamble, a roll of the dice, but in the end, Chad Blount and his ML Motorsports team hit the jackpot Sunday at Salem Speedway.
With 30 laps remaining and Blount leading the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race, veteran crew chief Tom Sokoloski decided to give up track position for four fresh tires.
Six-time series champion Frank Kimmel had fresher tires after pitting to fix some minor front-end damage and was charging hard to the front. With Blount driving around the high-banked, half-mile speedway on 75-lap old tires, Sokoloski didn't think Blount could hold off Kimmel.
Sokoloski's late-race decision, as well as some luck and hard driving by 25-year-old Blount, put the Warsaw-based stock car team in victory lane for the second time in just the third ARCA race of the 2005 season.
"There may have been some doubt, but I knew we could at least get back up to second," said Sokoloski. "It was the only chance we were gonna have to win. We needed some luck to get another caution so we could get close to Frank and maybe get around him."
Blount pitted under caution for his tires on lap 170 of 200. He came off pit road in eighth place. In eight laps, passing cars high and low and driving like a man on a mission, he had the No. 67 Mary Louise Miller-owned Monte Carlo in second place.
The ML Motorsports team members then got the break they were looking for with 10 laps remaining as a caution came out.
The end result was a five-lap shootout between Kimmel and Blount, with Blount getting underneath the six-time series champion in turn three when the two cars made contact on lap 199.
Kimmel's No. 46 Ford made contact with the wall before he finally got the wheels straight and limped home to a seventh-place finish, while Blount came around to take the white flag and then the checkered flag as he finished two seconds ahead of second-place driver T.J. Bell.
"It's definitely not the way we wanted to win," said Blount, who now has six career ARCA wins in just 32 starts. "I have the utmost respect for Frank. We got into him some in turn three and then tried to give him room to get him straightened out. We were both racing hard, it happens. It's happened to me before."
While driving for Braun Racing as rookie in the ARCA RE/MAX Series in 2002, Blount was leading with 30 laps to go at Nashville Superspeedway. Kimmel's car made contact with Blount's, putting the young driver's car into the wall hard and leaving him with a fractured wrist.
Following Sunday's race there were no injuries, but plenty of post-race activities.
Upset about the way the race turned out, Kimmel slammed into the right side of Blount's car as the cars came to a rest on the front stretch. Kimmel's crew then had to be restrained by ARCA officials and police officers as they stormed into the makeshift victory lane in front of the flag stand.
"They were both racing hard," said Sokoloski, who has won three ARCA championships and 44 races now as a crew chief. "Frank drove down in there hard and Chad had a good run on him. It was not intentional, that's just hard racing."
Following Blount and Bell in the top five were David Ragan, Justin South and Todd Bowsher.
Former ML Motorsports driver Jason Jarrett finished in 18th place and was 10 laps down. NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Ken Schrader had problems with his car overheating and finished 22nd.
Counting their win at Salem in September with Jarrett driving, ML Motorsports has won three of the last five ARCA races.
After winning earlier this season at Nashville Superspeedway, Blount, in a live television interview from victory lane, announced "Chad Blount is back."
He and his No. 67 team certainly made that known Sunday, leading a race-high 92 laps en route to the win.
"We're going to continue to do that," Sokoloski said when asked if he thought the team had made a statement about how strong it is going to be this year. "It's going to take a lot of hard work and testing, but we're here to win races."
Kimmel led 91 laps, while Ron Hornaday III led 14 laps and Ragan led three.
Next on the ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule is a May 14 race at Kentucky Speedway. In two previous starts at the 1.5-mile track, Blount has a win and a second-place finish. [[In-content Ad]]