Brent Brevak Boasts Top-10 Run In Chicagoland Speedway Debut

Brent Brevak Boasts Top-10 Run In Chicagoland Speedway Debut

Topics: Brent Brevak, Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 150

Brent Brevak Boasts Top-10 Run In Chicagoland Speedway Debut

Chris Knight
Knight Motorsports Management
Brevak Racing
June 7, 2011

JOLIET, Illinois (June 7, 2011) - - A mixture of hard work, strategy and luck propelled Brent Brevak to his first career top-10 finish in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Saturday night in the delayed Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 150.

After running the first two races of the season at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway which yielded frustrating results, the Brevak Racing team headed to Chicagoland Speedway with the simple goal of finishing the race.

The first intermediate track of the weekend was a welcomed one for Ashland, Wisconsin native Brevak. The cookie-cutter mile and a half tracks are a favorite of his despite limited experience on its sister tracks.

In the lone practice on Friday, Brevak in the No. 3 Red’s Auto / Brevak Racing Dodge Charger with the guidance of crew chief Mark Gibson negotiated the 19th fastest lap overall with a time of 32.557 seconds at 165.863 miles per hour.

After consulting with Gibson, a veteran in the ARCA garage, the decision was made to free up the car even more as the 23-year old mentally prepared himself for Menards Pole by Ansell qualifying Saturday afternoon. It proved to be a bit too free as the No. 3 Red’s Auto / Brevak Racing Dodge Charger was coming to take the green flag in time trials, the car broke loose and Brevak took a ride through the grass. Luckily, he did not hit anything and ultimately decided to bring his automobile down pit road and officially abort his initial qualifying run.

Being put on the five-minute clock, Gibson and the No. 3 crew checked the tires over carefully to be sure they were not flat spotted and sent his driver back into the grind. Brevak completed two laps around the 1.5-mile speed plant with a best time of 32.716 seconds or 165.057 miles per hour landing the family-owned team 19th on the starting grid. Following the run, ARCA found the right front to have a slight chunk of rubber out so having to replace it for safety issues he would be forced to start at the rear of the field.

An hour before the green flag was to wave; Mother Nature invaded Chicagoland Speedway and completely drenched the facility, ultimately forcing officials from ARCA and Chicagoland Speedway to postpone the start of the event until the conclusion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ STP 300.

Several hours later and nearly 20 degrees cooler, the ARCA Racing Series would be given the command to start the engines.

After being delegated to the rear for the changed tire, Brevak managed to regain all those positions on the first lap. By the time the caution flag waved on lap two, he was back to the 20th position just trying to find his comfort zone.

On the restart, Brevak carefully began threading the needle and had moved into the 17th position when the second caution flag of the night waved on lap 17.

Racing resumed a few laps later with the No. 3 Red’s Auto / Brevak Racing Dodge Charger on the move climbing into the top-15 by lap 28.

The caution flag waived just nine laps later for an incident in turn four with Brevak hoisting the 14th position. When pit lane opened up two laps later, Brevak relinquished his now 13th place spot on the track to refuel but save his only set of tires in the pits for later in the race.

Restarting the race in the 13th spot, Brevak would hope to utilize the second half of the Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 150 to inch his way through the running order.

By lap 55, Brevak in a neutral-balanced Dodge Charger hovered comfortably in the top-15 after what would be his final stop for fuel and tires. Lap 70 showed Brevak in the 12th position aiming towards the top-10.

15 laps from the conclusion of the event, leader Chad Hackenbracht blew a tire bringing out the caution flag. A few laps before the leader’s misfortune his torrid pace had put much of the field a lap down including Brevak Racing’s Brent.

When Hackenbracht endured his issues, Brevak was able to beat the second place competitor back to the line and return to the lead lap.

With much of the field electing to come to pit road, Gibson decided to keep his driver out on the track which shot the No. 3 to fifth on the scoring pylon. A hungry group of competitors behind Brevak would fight tooth and nail with the No. 3 Red’s Auto / Brevak Racing Dodge Charger.

Cars on fresher tires would slide Brevak to the 11th position on lap 92 but when the No. 96 and No. 97 machines made contact on the backstretch, the yellow flag waved again moving Brevak back into the top-10 in ninth.

Coming to a green-white-checkered finish, Brevak was able to fend off 10th place competitor Maryeve Dufault to finish ninth, completing all 100 laps.

“We worked hard for this one,” explained Brevak, who made just his seventh career ARCA start Saturday night. “We’re a low budget team trying to race with some of the more funded teams in the series and we proved we were able to do that tonight. Our motor was definitely under power compared to the stout engines at RCR and Roush. Where most teams had 2 sets of fresh tires in the pits, all we had to work with were our 25 lap practice tires so our strategy had to be a little different. I knew the cars with the fresher tires would be coming hard so I told my spotter to let them know I wouldn’t do anything crazy to try to hold them off and jeopardize a good run, but they would also have to work for it and pass me clean on the outside when they could. We didn’t quite have enough for a top-five but to hang on for a top-10 overall, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Brevak continued, “Mark (Gibson, crew chief) is really great to work with. He is a smart guy who can definitely keep you calm behind the wheel. With his guidance and the hard work of our team, we were able to put together a finish that we’re all proud of. I’m hoping that we can build on this to go to Michigan in a couple weeks if we can find some support.”

Before posting his ninth place finish on Saturday, Brevak wheeled a previous best effort of 26th in April at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

The team would like to thank Johnny Davis and his JD Motorsports NASCAR Nationwide Series team who pitted the No. 3 Red’s Auto / Brevak Racing Dodge Charger in the Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 150.

Brevak Racing encourages their fans and supporters to check out their official Brevak Racing Group Facebook page where you can find more about the team and the “Ride Along With Brent” fan participation program.

Sponsorship dollars will ultimately determine Brevak’s remaining ARCA Racing Series schedule but the team is hopeful to continue the season at Michigan International Speedway on Friday June 17.

For more on Brevak Racing, please visit brevakracing.com.

For additional input on Red’s Auto, please logon to redsautosales.com.

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TEAM COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:

NAME: Shelly Brevak, Brevak Racing
PHONE: 704.907.2135
EMAIL: sbrevak@brevakracing.com

MEDIA CONTACT:

NAME: Chris Knight, Knight Motorsports Management
PHONE: 239.834.9797
EMAIL: chris@chrisknightpr.com