DAYTONA BEACH, FL :: Frank Kimmel is to ARCA what Babe Ruth is to baseball. Kimmel has won 76 races, nine championships and has an average finish of 7.4 after 17 seasons of competing in the Ohio-based ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. There is only one thing missing from Kimmel’s ARCA resume. That’s one thing the nine-time champion is hoping to change during Saturday’s running of the Lucas Oil 200 presented by MavTV.
While Frank Kimmel has been the dominator for a generation of ARCA competition, ARCA’s biggest race has been dominated by Lebanon, PA’s Bobby Gerhart. Gerhart has won the race an unprecedented eight times dating back to 1999. Kimmel intends to keep Gerhart at eight Daytona victories during the 50th running of ARCA’s biggest race.
“I’ve never won at Daytona,” Kimmel said. “There’s a lot of interest in trying to win that. The main thing is, it’s Daytona. That’s our biggest race of the year. This is my 22nd or 23rd year coming down. We’ve come close but never got it done. Were in our second year (with ThorSport Racing) so these guys have a full year and know what the deal is in ARCA with tires and stuff. It’d be a big deal for us to win and a good start to go after our tenth title.”
Kimmel, who had been racing for his own family-based team since 2008, moved over to ThorSport for the 2012 season. Entering the 2012 season, he hadn’t recorded a win since September 2008 at the high banked Salem short track. Once the season got underway, it was clear things were different. Kimmel was a contender every week and was knocking on the door of a victory – seeking to snap a winless drought dating almost four years. In July, Kimmel finally snapped that winless streak with a win in a barnburner at the Indianapolis Raceway Park short track.
It was a hard fought win for Kimmel. He staged a classic duel with Mason Mitchell, Chad Hackenbracht, Kevin Swindell, Brennan Poole and Chad Boat for much of the race. The drivers spent the better portion of the last half of the race three-wide. In the closing laps, it was Kimmel’s experience that paid off and the veteran finally returned to victory lane in the ARCA Racing Series.
“That was big to win IRP,” Kimmel stated. “You leave your family owned team to do something on your own. There’s a lot of pressure there. You talk to them and feel like you can still win. The wins were great. We were competitive almost every single race. There wasn’t a race I didn’t feel like we couldn’t win given the right circumstances. It was big for me to win IRP and Springfield. We were good at other tracks as well. It was a good season for me and the entire team.”
With the pressure of winning once more off his shoulders after wins at Indianapolis and the Springfield dirt track, Kimmel now has his sights set on winning a remarkable 10th series championship and capturing the one win that has eluded him. In order to win at Daytona, Kimmel will have to find a way to beat Gerhart.
“Bobby and his brother, Billy, have done a phenomenal job at these superspeedways,” Kimmel explained. “When you race at an ARCA superspeedway, you know they’ll be the guys to beat and, obviously, I haven’t done it. We’re on a budget though. Some of these guys put their entire budget in these superspeedways. It takes a lot of time and testing. We look at our entire season and see what our budget is and focus on the big picture. Without a doubt, this is the nicest racecar I’ve ever brought to Daytona. These guys have done their homework and done everything to make it faster than it was last year.”
The ARCA race at Daytona has historically been known for spectacular and, sometimes frightening, crashes. However, the last two ARCA races at the World Center of Speed have not been the carnival of chaos that the race is famous for being.
“I think, ten years ago, you watched the ARCA race and knew there’d be several wrecks.” Kimmel added. “I don’t think it’s been that way the last few years. It’s different now. We do have the potential to have a big wreck because we’re running in big packs, but the last few races, we’ve had green flag stops. To have green flag stops in a 200 mile race tells you we’re doing a good job.”
Kimmel explained that drivers who come to Daytona to get their approval to run superspeedway races in NASCAR or to move up the ranks often don’t place themselves in a position to trigger a big wreck.
“There are some guys that don’t want to do anything dumb… guys like Darrell Wallace Jr,” Kimmel continued. “Darrell’s a good racer. These guys who come in with NASCAR support are good racers and don’t get themselves in that situation. I don’t worry about racing with a lot of those guys, they do a nice job.”
However, this year’s race could lean heavier on the pack racing side of things. In an attempt to slow the cars down, ARCA will use a smaller restrictor plate on the intake manifold which reduces more airflow, robbing the car of horsepower. The impact of that could change the style of racing in the race and lump everyone in one large pack instead of several smaller packs.
“We’ve lost some horsepower this year,” Kimmel remarked. “ARCA’s changed the intake manifolds and restrictor plates and it’s taken about 20-30 horsepower away from us. When you take away power and the cars move as much air as they always have, it creates for bigger pack racing. We just don’t know what’s going to happen until we get there and do it.”
One thing that is known entering the 50th running of the Lucas Oil 200 presented by MavTV is that Frank Kimmel will be a factor as he tries to capture the one win in ARCA stock car racing that has eluded him.
Kimmel’s yellow no. 44 Toyota will be sponsored by Ansell and Menards. The 50th running of the Lucas Oil 200 can be seen Saturday, February 16th at 4:30pm EST live on SPEED.
