Mikey Kile and Andy Belmont Racing Show Championship Potential at Daytona

Mikey Kile and Andy Belmont Racing Show Championship Potential at Daytona

Topics: Mikey Kile, Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200

Mikey Kile and Andy Belmont Racing Show Championship Potential at Daytona

Chris Knight
Knight Motorsports Management
Andy Belmont Racing
February 20, 2012

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (February 20, 2012) - - Mikey Kile and the Andy Belmont Racing (ABR) team came to Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway to set the foundation for a championship run in 2012. If Saturday’s performance in the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 was any indication, Kile solidified himself as a title contender. Even though a 16th place finish was not the goal, the performance of running in the top-five and top-10 is what might propel Kile to championship contention.

While the vast majority of the 83 lap affair was a chess match played out on the yellow line, Kile strategically placed his No. 1 ModSpace Ford in contention and in the top five during the closing stages. The Andy Belmont Racing team actively pursued drafting partners and had a plan in place to get to the front, but was foiled by fuel mileage and took away a chance at Daytona victory.

“It definitely wasn’t the result that we came down here looking to get,” Kile said. “There’s always positives you can build on when you leave Daytona. We had an agenda in practice and stuck to it, and put ourselves in a position to make some noise late in the race.”

Kile and the ABR ModSpace team tackled the two practice sessions with a conservative approach. Focusing on qualifying runs for the majority of Thursday’s practice, Kile was able to dabble into the draft during happy hour on Saturday morning. Combined with an off-season of focused work on Daytona and starting the year off right, ABR’s hard work paid off.

While many of the top qualifiers dropped back in the early part of the event, Kile’s ModSpace Ford stayed with the lead group and well within the top-15 after rolling off from the 10th position.

Under the first caution, the team topped off Kile’s Ford Fusion with fuel and restarted from the 19th position. Following another quick caution, the field would settle into a long green flag run, which saw most of the lead group run single file. The snake line towards the front resulted in track position being a coveted commodity.

Kile ran in the top-six for most of the green flag run, which lasted until lap 69. Due to the long green flag runs, and placement of early caution flags, fuel mileage concerns plagued many of the front runners, including Kile. While running fourth, under caution, Kile’s ModSpace Ford ran on fumes and had to pit and ultimately took the ABR team out of contention. Lining up at the back of the pack, Kile managed to earn a 16th place after the green-white-checkered finish.

“The car was fast, and everyone on the ModSpace team did a great job and this is something certainly to build on heading to Talladega in a few months,” said Kile. “It’s going to be fun working with Andy and the whole team, especially if we run around the top five like we did. We definitely have the capability and potential to be consistent frontrunners this year and I think we showed some of that this weekend.”

Next up for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards in their 60th Anniversary season will be the first of two stops in the state of Alabama with the sanctions first ever visit to Mobile (Ala.) International Speedway for the running of the Mobile ARCA 200 on Saturday, March 10. The 29-year old will look to improve on his best career ARCA short track finish, which came at Salem (Ind.) Speedway in 2010 when he finished fourth in the fall classic.

About ModSpace:

Modular Space Corporation (ModSpace), based in Berwyn, Pa., is a leading provider of modular buildings, portable storage and services for temporary and permanent space needs. With more than 40 years of experience, ModSpace serves a diverse set of customers and markets through a network of 80 branches throughout the United States and Canada. Further information is available by visiting http://www.modspace.com.

About Andy Belmont Racing (ABR):

Andy Belmont Racing (AndyBelmont.com) is a competitive and respected motorsports operation who fields race cars in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. ABR has been serving the motorsports community and winning for nearly 25 years. Currently, the team fields a full-time ARCA Racing Series program for series winner Mikey Kile in the No. 1 ModSpace Ford Fusion.