Venturini Motorsports, Hoosier, Test at Texas Motor Speedway in Anticipation of 2010 ARCA Race Date

Topics:  Steve Arpin

Emily Teeter
Venturini Motorsports
November 12, 2009

TOLEDO, Ohio (November 12, 2009)-The process of bringing ARCA Racing to Fort Worth's Texas Motor Speedway is in full swing, as exhibited by a private Hoosier Tire Test at the 1.5-mile Speedway Motorsports, Inc.-owned facility on Thursday.

Led by Hoosier Tire Engineers and ARCA Officials, veteran team Venturini Motorsports and driver Steve Arpin tested various Hoosier Tire Codes at Texas Motor Speedway on Thursday in preparation for the April 16, 2010 ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX race date at the track. The full day test marked the first official ARCA-sanctioned racing activity at the track in more than 11 years.

"My first impression? Texas Motor Speedway is an awesome, incredible, wicked track," said Arpin. "It's a lot of fun to race on this track. It's fast but real comfortable to drive on so I think we are going to have an awesome race here. There are a few good, fast lines around here that should make for an exciting race."

Arpin concluded his rookie season of ARCA competition in 2009 with four top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes. Season highlights included a career-best fourth-place finish at Pocono Raceway in August and fifth-place finishes at Mansfield Motorsports Park on June 20, the Illinois State Fairgrounds on August 23 and Salem Speedway on September 19. While Arpin was the first fulltime series competitor to make laps at Texas in an ARCA RE/MAX Series stock car in anticipation for 2010, additional series competitors will have the opportunity to log laps at the track in the coming months via an ARCA Open Test prior to the April 16, 2010 race date.

"The Venturinis and Steve Arpin are doing a great job of providing feedback," said Doug Barnes, ARCA track services manager for Hoosier, the official tire supplier of ARCA since 1995. "We're focusing on short runs and long runs with various tire codes to determine what will be the right combination under race conditions. This track is very fast and has abrupt changes so it's challenging to come out with the right combination."

When the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX makes its April 16, 2010 appearance to Texas Motor Speedway it will mark just the second time that the versatile touring series has competed at the track and the first race date at the track since a companion event with the IndyCar Series on September 19, 1998. The 167-lap/250-mile 1998 race was won by Winder, Georgia's Mark Gibson, who has since gone on to become a winning car owner in ARCA. The ARCA pole sitter at Texas in 1998 was Frank Kimmel (31.143 seconds/173.393 mph) who went on to win the ARCA Driving Championship in 1998-his first of nine series titles.

The ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX joins both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the NASCAR Nationwide Series for the Samsung 500 race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway on April 15-18, 2010. The week opens on Thursday, April 15, with practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will practice and qualify on Friday, April 16, followed by the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX race. A final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice and the NASCAR Nationwide Series race is on Saturday, April 17. The race week culminates Sunday, April 18, with the 14th edition of the Samsung 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Tickets to Texas Motor Speedway are available by calling (817) 215-8500 or by visiting www.texasmotorspeedway.com.

The 2010 ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX kicks off at Daytona Int'l Speedway on Saturday, February 6 with the 47th running of the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200. The entire 2010 ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX schedule will be released on arcaracing.com in the coming days.

For more information on Venturini Motorsports, visit www.venturinimotorsports.com

For more information on Hoosier Racing Tire Corp., visit www.hoosiertire.com.

For more information on ARCA, visit www.arcaracing.com.