Brian Rose Returns To Daytona With Unfinished ARCA Business

Brian Rose Returns To Daytona With Unfinished ARCA Business

Topics: Brian Rose, Lucas Oil 200

Brian Rose Returns To Daytona With Unfinished ARCA Business

Chris Knight
Knight Motorsports Management
February 11, 2014

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (February 11, 2014) - - Louisville, Kentucky native Brian Rose hasn’t competed in an ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards race since 2011, but that doesn’t mean that the 34-year old has forgotten what it takes.

In an 11th hour decision, Rose will attempt to make his third career Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) start in Saturday’s Lucas Oil 200 presented by MATV American Real. More importantly though, the avid racer will look for redemption at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, where overheating issues took him from contention three years ago.

Fast forward to race week, Rose and his team are geared up, ready to compete and of course, win.

“It’s been way too long since I’ve been in a racecar, but I’m looking forward to getting back to racing, especially at one of my all-time favorite places, Daytona,” said Rose. “Everyone around me knows that it’s a special place for me. I just need to bring back some of that success that I had back in 2002. That would be a good liftoff.

12 years ago, Rose made his impression in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) driving the No. 4 Perry Connection Dodge for Bobby Hamilton Racing (BHR). After qualifying a stout fourth, Rose led several laps and found himself in contention for his first career NASCAR victory. However, with less than 10 laps remaining, Rose found himself shuffled out of contention and had to settle for third.

“A lot has changed in the sport since then, even in ARCA,” Rose continued. “In 2011, we had a good piece for the (ARCA) race. We qualified inside the top-15 and ran near the front. Some of the guys stacked up in front of me and I had nowhere to go and it knocked us out of the race. We bounced back at Talladega a few months later with a top-10, but this is Daytona. You want to run better there than anywhere else on the schedule.”

Just like in his old NCWTS days and a repeat of 2011, Rose has again teamed up with Danny Rollins, who will serve as crew chief on the No. 19 Battomi-Lawton Insurance / Xstand Dodge Charger. Rollins, a Tennessee native is a three-time NCWTS Daytona winning crew chief. He also led BHR and flagship driver Bobby Hamilton Sr. to his 2004 championship. Additionally, Rollins is responsible for over a dozen victories on the tour with a variety of drivers.

Together, they hope to fly under the radar, but execute perfectly when it’s time to strike.

“Danny and I have always had a strong friendship, but equally as good work relationship,” Rose added. “His experience credited to our success in 2011 and he’s just as hungry, if not more (than me) to get back to victory lane. We know what we have to do to get there, we just have to make it happen.”

Following Daytona, Rose plans to be racing more, but their overall season layout is still being ironed out.

“Our overall plans are still coming together, but we plan to run a mixture of ARCA and NASCAR races this season,” he sounded. “We know what we’d like to do, but we need to grow our team in order to make that happen. We’ll do that over the next couple months or so. We hope to run the first couple of ARCA races to get my rhythm back and then if it makes sense, we’ll continue that climb into NASCAR. It’s a good plan, but we’re going to try and do it right or not at all.”

Entering Daytona, Rose has two ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards starts to his credit with one top-10 (seventh; Talladega 2011) finish. He has a career-best qualifying position of 15th at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway respectively, both occurring in 2011.

The Lucas Oil 200 presented by MAVTV American Real (80 laps / 200 miles) is the first of 20 events on the 2014 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. The 51st ARCA race held at Daytona is a three-day show. Practice begins Thursday, February 13 with a four hour practice session planned from 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Menards pole qualifying presented by Ansell is set for Friday, February 14 slated to begin at 2:00 p.m. A forty-five minute final practice session is etched in on Saturday, February 15 from 9:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. The event will take the green flag later that day shortly after 4:15 p.m. The race will be televised live on Fox Sports 1 with additional race coverage including live timing and scoring online at arcaracing.com. All times are local. ARCA, celebrating its 62nd season in 2014 is the preamble for the highly anticipated Sprint Unlimited for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) set to ignite under the lights later that night.

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