ML Motorsports Moving To Busch Series
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
MARNE, Mich. - Chad Blount's win steak came to an end Saturday night at Berlin Raceway, as did his Warsaw-based stock car team's stay in the ARCA RE/MAX Series.
After five full seasons of ARCA competition, ML Motorsports is leaving the ARCA RE/MAX Series and will focus its efforts on fielding a NASCAR Busch Series team.
Blount and Team 67, which entered Saturday's Request/Sara Lee 200 presented by GFS Marketplace steering for their third straight win, finished seventh, and after what team management called a series of "unfair and unreasonable rulings" will make the move to the bigger-market and more recognizable series.
Blount and Team 67, fresh off of back-to-back wins at Kansas Speedway and Kentucky Speedway, will not finish the remaining ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule.
"We're going to regroup and everything, and go shopping for some Busch cars," said crew chief Tom Sokoloski. "We're going to try and get hooked up with a Nextel Cup team and do this right. We're going to spend some time looking for some good stuff and do this right."
Neither team owner Mary Louise Miller or Sokoloski could give a timetable as to how soon they would be ready to run their first NASCAR Busch Series race, just that it would be this year and they would possibly run full-time in the 2006 season.
Blount, who ran 19 Busch Series races in 2003 for Braun Racing, will remain the driver.
The team plans to sell its fleet of ARCA cars, buy cars for the Busch Series and then do some testing before attempting their first race. The team will not move its shop to the Charlotte-area, where the vast majority of full-time NASCAR teams operate. ML Motorsports will remain in Warsaw.
The "unfair and unreasonable rulings" that Dane Miller, husband of Mary Louise Miller, talked about continued Saturday night at Berlin.
With approximately 25 laps to go, Blount was in fifth and running the fastest lap times of anyone on the track.
As Blount drove underneath rookie Brett Hudson for fourth position, the younger driver came down into the groove Blount was running and made contact and spun out, while Blount continued to race his way to the front.
Hudson's team called it a racing incident, things that happen on a short track like Berlin, however, during the caution period ARCA officials issued Blount a stop-and-go penalty, forcing him to come down pit road, and sent him to the rear of the field.
During Saturday's race, which included a two-lap shootout to the end that made the actual race distance 202 laps, there were a total of 14 cautions for 70 laps.
Multiple times during the race cars made contact with each other the same way Hudson and Blount did, yet Blount was the only penalized driver the entire race.
This is what Blount, Sokoloski and team management were upset about.
"I'm frustrated," said Blount. "We were the fastest car on the track and ARCA knows that. I'm sick and tired of this stuff happening to us. These guys work their tails off on these cars, and for ARCA to keep doing this stuff to us is ridiculous."
Blount was in a similar situation at Salem Speedway in the third race of the season. On lap 199 of 200, Blount drove to the inside of six-time ARCA champ Frank Kimmel for the lead. It appeared Kimmel drove down into Blount, much the way Hudson did Saturday night at Berlin, and the two made contact.
Kimmel lost control and hit the wall, while Blount won the race.
Blount was put on probation for the remainder of the year after the incident.
In a conversation with Dane Miller Saturday at Berlin, Kimmel admitted he drove down into Blount at Salem.
At Kentucky Speedway last week, a race that was televised, Blount came down pit road as the leader and beat second-place driver Erin Crocker of Evernham Motorsports off pit road, yet ARCA officials scored Crocker in first place.
Blount, who led 95 of 100 laps in that 150-mile race, passed Crocker on the restart.
After the race, ARCA officials apologized to Blount and his team, yet didn't score Blount as the leader of those five laps under caution.
Whichever driver leads the most laps over the course of the season gets a $10,000 bonus at the awards banquet. Blount, who entered Saturday as the season's lap leader after 11 events, had been shorted five laps.
It was all of these incidents that added up and culminated in the decision to leave the ARCA RE/MAX Series.
"This decision was not based solely on one race, it was based on a whole season of gregarious biased calls towards our team in races throughout the season," said Mary Louise Miller. "It is unfortunate that we will not be able to complete the season, however, my interest is in protecting my team from the continuous unfair judgements and penalties that have been placed on our driver, Chad Blount, and our entire team."
Through 12 of 23 races on the ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule, Blount, who was third in the season point standings, led the series with four wins. He also had eight top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
Blount led 13 laps Saturday night after his team qualified 12th and changed a rear end gear for the race, forcing Blount to start at the rear of the field.
Joey Miller led 162 laps and won the race, his first victory of the season and second of his ARCA career.
Following Miller in the top five were Brian Tyler, Tim Steele, Kimmel and Gary Sherman. [[In-content Ad]]
MARNE, Mich. - Chad Blount's win steak came to an end Saturday night at Berlin Raceway, as did his Warsaw-based stock car team's stay in the ARCA RE/MAX Series.
After five full seasons of ARCA competition, ML Motorsports is leaving the ARCA RE/MAX Series and will focus its efforts on fielding a NASCAR Busch Series team.
Blount and Team 67, which entered Saturday's Request/Sara Lee 200 presented by GFS Marketplace steering for their third straight win, finished seventh, and after what team management called a series of "unfair and unreasonable rulings" will make the move to the bigger-market and more recognizable series.
Blount and Team 67, fresh off of back-to-back wins at Kansas Speedway and Kentucky Speedway, will not finish the remaining ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule.
"We're going to regroup and everything, and go shopping for some Busch cars," said crew chief Tom Sokoloski. "We're going to try and get hooked up with a Nextel Cup team and do this right. We're going to spend some time looking for some good stuff and do this right."
Neither team owner Mary Louise Miller or Sokoloski could give a timetable as to how soon they would be ready to run their first NASCAR Busch Series race, just that it would be this year and they would possibly run full-time in the 2006 season.
Blount, who ran 19 Busch Series races in 2003 for Braun Racing, will remain the driver.
The team plans to sell its fleet of ARCA cars, buy cars for the Busch Series and then do some testing before attempting their first race. The team will not move its shop to the Charlotte-area, where the vast majority of full-time NASCAR teams operate. ML Motorsports will remain in Warsaw.
The "unfair and unreasonable rulings" that Dane Miller, husband of Mary Louise Miller, talked about continued Saturday night at Berlin.
With approximately 25 laps to go, Blount was in fifth and running the fastest lap times of anyone on the track.
As Blount drove underneath rookie Brett Hudson for fourth position, the younger driver came down into the groove Blount was running and made contact and spun out, while Blount continued to race his way to the front.
Hudson's team called it a racing incident, things that happen on a short track like Berlin, however, during the caution period ARCA officials issued Blount a stop-and-go penalty, forcing him to come down pit road, and sent him to the rear of the field.
During Saturday's race, which included a two-lap shootout to the end that made the actual race distance 202 laps, there were a total of 14 cautions for 70 laps.
Multiple times during the race cars made contact with each other the same way Hudson and Blount did, yet Blount was the only penalized driver the entire race.
This is what Blount, Sokoloski and team management were upset about.
"I'm frustrated," said Blount. "We were the fastest car on the track and ARCA knows that. I'm sick and tired of this stuff happening to us. These guys work their tails off on these cars, and for ARCA to keep doing this stuff to us is ridiculous."
Blount was in a similar situation at Salem Speedway in the third race of the season. On lap 199 of 200, Blount drove to the inside of six-time ARCA champ Frank Kimmel for the lead. It appeared Kimmel drove down into Blount, much the way Hudson did Saturday night at Berlin, and the two made contact.
Kimmel lost control and hit the wall, while Blount won the race.
Blount was put on probation for the remainder of the year after the incident.
In a conversation with Dane Miller Saturday at Berlin, Kimmel admitted he drove down into Blount at Salem.
At Kentucky Speedway last week, a race that was televised, Blount came down pit road as the leader and beat second-place driver Erin Crocker of Evernham Motorsports off pit road, yet ARCA officials scored Crocker in first place.
Blount, who led 95 of 100 laps in that 150-mile race, passed Crocker on the restart.
After the race, ARCA officials apologized to Blount and his team, yet didn't score Blount as the leader of those five laps under caution.
Whichever driver leads the most laps over the course of the season gets a $10,000 bonus at the awards banquet. Blount, who entered Saturday as the season's lap leader after 11 events, had been shorted five laps.
It was all of these incidents that added up and culminated in the decision to leave the ARCA RE/MAX Series.
"This decision was not based solely on one race, it was based on a whole season of gregarious biased calls towards our team in races throughout the season," said Mary Louise Miller. "It is unfortunate that we will not be able to complete the season, however, my interest is in protecting my team from the continuous unfair judgements and penalties that have been placed on our driver, Chad Blount, and our entire team."
Through 12 of 23 races on the ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule, Blount, who was third in the season point standings, led the series with four wins. He also had eight top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
Blount led 13 laps Saturday night after his team qualified 12th and changed a rear end gear for the race, forcing Blount to start at the rear of the field.
Joey Miller led 162 laps and won the race, his first victory of the season and second of his ARCA career.
Following Miller in the top five were Brian Tyler, Tim Steele, Kimmel and Gary Sherman. [[In-content Ad]]