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Rain Washes Away Qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway: Kimmel to Start Third in Friday's Rattlesnake 150
FORT WORTH, Texas (April 16, 2010) - After only three cars made qualifying attempts for Friday's Rattlesnake 150, rain began to fall, forcing ARCA officials to cancel Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). The ARCA Racing Series Presented by RE/MAX and Menards field will line up for the Rattlesnake 150 according to 2009 car owner points, placing Frank Kimmel and his No. 44 Ansell/Menards Ford Fusion in third place at the drop of the green flag.
Several teams were able to hit the track for an ARCA Racing Series test session on March 5, however the Ansell/Menards team was not one of them, making Thursday's 90-minute practice session important for not only the Ansell/Menards team but also for nine-time champion Frank Kimmel.
"We are really good," said Bill Kimmel Jr., crew chief of the No. 44 Ansell/Menards Ford Fusion. "We almost had to use this practice as a test session because it is a new car, and Frank hasn't been here in a while. With all that, we ended up eighth fastest and we didn't get a chance to do a full qualifying run, so we are very excited for qualifying and the race."
While the No. 44 Ford Fusion showed a lot of speed during practice, getting the car ready for Friday's 100-lap event was no easy task for the Ansell/Menards team.
"We actually used this as a test session, unfortunately, because we didn't get to test here," explained Kimmel. "We had to change springs four times, change the gear once and fix the seat, so we worked on this car pretty hard. To come out of here eighth fastest after practice, I'm pretty happy with that. We'll see, the car feels real solid, real steady. Texas Motor Speedway is a fast race track; it's just a neat place."
The ARCA Racing Series will have a new face leading the field to green for the Rattlesnake 150 after rain forced officials to cancel qualifying. Formula One veteran Nelson Piquet Jr. will start on the pole in only his second ARCA Racing Series start. Chad McCumbee will line up alongside Piquet with Kimmel, Justin Marks and Joey Coulter rounding out the top-five.
The Rattlesnake 150 is scheduled to take the green flag Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. CDT with live flag to flag coverage on SPEED. ARCAracing.com will also feature live streaming audio coverage along with timing and scoring.
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