Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SALEM - ML Motorsports crew chief Scott Eldridge had little to complain about after Sunday's Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 at Salem Speedway.
His two biggest complaints were that there was no bottled water in the cooler when he went to get something to drink after loading the car into the hauler, and of one bad set of tires late in the race.
The short-track venues - namely Winchester and Salem - of the ARCA RE/MAX Series have been good to the ML Motorsports team, and Sunday was no different.
On a hot, sunny day, one day prior to team owner Mary Louise Miller's birthday, 25-year-old driver Jason Jarrett qualified fourth and finished fourth.
"We had a good day," Eldridge said. "There was a lot of green-flag racing today. We just had a bad set of tires. When you're only allowed to have two sets of tires in the pits at the small tracks, there's not much you can do. We were a top-three car, but when your tire goes down, it's kind of tough."
With 2000 Rookie of the Year Brian Ross behind the wheel, the ML Motorsports team sat on the pole and finished eighth in last year's race.
Jeffersonville driver Frank Kimmel, a two-time series champion and the hometown favorite, qualified on the pole and took the checkered flag Sunday in his No. 46 Monte Carlo. Michigan driver Tim Steele, a three-time series champion, qualified second and finished second, while Jeff Finley, Jarrett and Todd Bowsher rounded out the top five. Defending race champion Tracy Leslie qualified sixth but finished 19th in the 29-car field, completing just 121 of 200 laps due to a rear-end problem.
Kimmel, Steele and Jarrett spent much of the afternoon right where they qualified, first, second and fourth, respectively.
Kimmel, the current season points leader, dominated the race, leading 146 of 200 laps. Steele and Leslie were the only other two to lead a lap.
"They weren't always right there in sight, but we ran on the lead lap of with the 46 (Kimmel) and 16 (Steele) for a long, long time," Jarrett said. "Scott made really good calls as to when to change the tires."
Jarrett was running fifth when the caution flag came out on lap 58 for a four-car pileup on the backstretch. Rookie Michael Melton, five laps down at the time, careened off the wall and into the path of lead-lap cars Billy Venturini, Vern Slagh and Joe Cooksey. All four machines sustained severe damage.
Cooksey entered Sunday's race fifth in the season-point standings. Pennsylvania driver Andy Belmont entered second in the point standings but finished the race 13th, 18 laps down. Jarrett, who entered fourth in the point standings, was again the highest-finishing rookie.
A week ago at Winchester, Jarrett was involved in an early-race crash that took him out of contention. Sunday the No. 67 Mary Louise Miller-owned Monte Carlo went home with little damage.
"Going into last week I wasn't sure what was going to happen," Jarrett said. "This week I was more mentally prepared, I knew what I had to do to stay in there."
Jarrett ran as high as third on lap 122 when Leslie's Chevy sustained a flat tire. Jarrett pitted three laps later, entering and exiting the pits in third place.
With a bad set of tires on Jarrett's car, Finley passed the No. 67 machine on lap 165. Jarrett drove the remaining 35 laps in fourth place.
"We got some bonus points today (for qualifying fourth)," Eldridge said. "It was a good points race. We wanted to get back to our goal, which is to be in the top three in points."
The ARCA RE/MAX Series will run Saturday at Gateway International Speedway.
ARCA RE/MAX SERIES
Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200
April 29, Salem (IN) Speedway
200 Laps (.555-mile)
Top 10
1. Frank Kimmel (Jeffersonville, IN) Chevy
2. Tim Steele (Coopersville, MI) Ford
3. Jeff Finley (Lansing, MI) Chevy
4. Jason Jarrett (Hickory, NC) Chevy
5. Todd Bowsher (South Vienna, OH) Ford
6. Blaise Alexander (Montoursville, PA) Pontiac
7. Ron Cox (Soddy Daisy, TN) Chevy
8. Rick Markle (Mooresville, NC) Chevy
9. Ryan Vos (Jackson, MI) Ford
10. Karla Lampe (Carroll, IA) Chevy
Lap Leaders - Kimmel 1-92, 137-160, 171-200 (146); Tracy Leslie 93-121 (29); Steele 122-136 (25)
