Sean Corr; Empire Racing Overcome Adversity For Solid Chicagoland Finish

Sean Corr; Empire Racing Overcome Adversity For Solid Chicagoland Finish

Topics: Sean Corr, Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 150

Sean Corr; Empire Racing Overcome Adversity For Solid Chicagoland Finish

Chris Knight
Knight Motorsports Management
Empire Racing
June 5, 2011

JOLIET, Illinois (June 5, 2011) - - Despite two innocent spins during Saturday’s delayed Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 150 at Chicagoland Speedway, ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards championship contender Sean Corr fought hard to bring home a commendable 13th place finish in the No. 82 Roush Yates Performance / Roush Yates Engines / Empire Racing Ford Fusion.

Returning to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2009, Corr and his Empire Racing team led by ARCA guru Howard Bixman showed early in practice that the team had all the potential to be a sleeper in the sixth race of the season.

After mounting the sixth fastest time in the lone practice session on Friday, the freshman full-time team headed into Menards Pole by Ansell qualifying extremely optimistic. Despite turning the 14th fastest lap overall, the team was frustrated as rain drops began to drop over the 1.5-mile speedway forcing Corr to thread the needle and not risk losing his race car before the start of the event.

“It was raining pretty good on the backstretch,” offered Corr. “I probably could have stayed hard in the throttle and we would have been okay, but I didn’t want to risk losing a race car. The Empire Racing team has prepared me a really good piece, so I’m looking forward to the race.”

An hour before the green flag was to waive; 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.

Immediately from the waive of the green flag, the Goshen, New York native began patiently but methodically maneuvering his way to the front. The yellow flag quickly was drawn upon the field on lap two when Tim George Jr. crashed in turn two.

Securing the 12th position when racing resumed Corr once again began his march towards the top-10. On lap 16 while battling for that entrance into the top-10 Corr’s machine broke loose coming out of turn two beside the No. 96 of Stefan Rzesnowiecky. The avid dirt racer did a superb job staying off the wall and was able to gain control of his automobile where he would come to pit road for four tires and fuel.

“She just broke loose,” offered Corr as an explanation to the team. Despite the spin, Corr remained on the lead lap but had to start at the tail end of the longest line for pitting too soon.

On the restart, Corr once again patiently began maneuvering his way through the field including make a daring three-wide pass going into turn one. Moving back into the top-15 by lap 35, Bixman brought his driver to pit road for a routine pit stop just four laps later setting up for the second tier of the event.

Halfway through the race, Corr remained comfortably inside the top-15 but on lap 54, the No. 82 Roush Yates Performance / Roush Yates Engines / Empire Racing Ford Fusion broke loose again coming off of turn four and went sliding through the grass. Corr, once again brilliantly maintained control of his automobile and brought his blue oval to the attention of his team where four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment to tighten the car were in order.

The team would lose a lap on pit road because of the leader’s torrid pace and position on the race track at the time of the yellow. Despite losing a lap, Corr kept his composure and focus on awarding his team with the best finish possible.

While the chassis change was a temporary fix to the car’s handling, Corr would report to Bixman that his car was again “twitchy” loose speculating that the team had more that just a potential handling hiccup.

Through devotion and coaching from his team, Corr would take the checkered flag in the 13th position, rallying the team’s sixth consecutive top-20 finish of the season.

Upon further review by the team in the garage area, it was deemed a problem in the drive line stalled Corr’s bid towards his first ARCA Racing Series top-10 finish.

“I’m frustrated with the finish but so dang proud of this race team,” offered Corr. “We had a good car with awesome Roush Yates power this weekend. The car was good at the start of the race and then all of a sudden the car really turned it’s head. Everything I tried to do from inside the car and the guys on pit road could not put the car in a position to be as competitive as we wanted to be. We still were able to salvage a decent finish. We think we found the problem in the garage at the end of the race, so we’ll do some more investigating to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

With their consistency in 2011, Corr remains locked in the top-10 in the championship standings occupying ninth and sitting 10 markers behind eighth place competitor Tim George Jr.

Next up for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards is the first of two trips to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway for the running of the Pocono ARCA 200, round seven of 19 on the 2011 schedule. Corr will make his fifth start at the 2.5-mile triangle and look for his fifth consecutive top-16 finish in Pennsylvania.

For more on Sean Corr, Empire Racing and marketing partnership opportunities for the 2011 racing season, please visit empireracingllc.com.

Are you FORD tough? Connect with Roush Yates Performance Products and Roush Yates Engines through their official web site at roushyatesparts.com.

Connect with Sean Corr and Empire Racing through Facebook by clicking here.

Tweet with Sean Corr through Twitter @EmpireRacingLLC.

About Empire Racing:

Established in 2009, Empire Racing LLC. (empireracingllc.com) is a two-tier professional Motorsports organization consisting of dirt and asphalt competition. Sean Corr, a 26-year old hailing from Goshen, New York pilots the team’s automobiles in the DIRTcar Series and Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). In 2011, the team will attempt to run for a championship in the ARCA Racing Series with aspirations of moving into the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The team is headquartered in Goshen, New York with an additional operation in Mooresville, North Carolina.

TEAM COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:

NAME: Chris Knight, Knight Motorsports Management
PHONE: 239.834.9797
EMAIL: chris@chrisknightpr.com / knight849@aol.com