Leading The Pack: Venturini Motorsports

Topics:  Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200

Emily Teeter
Venturini Motorsports
February 10, 2011

Daytona Beach, FL (02-10-11) Venturini Motorsports’ Hal Martin led the first official practice of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards season in preparation for Saturday afternoon’s Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona International Speedway.

Martin led the four-hour session with a lap of 187.141 mph. Teammate Kyle Fowler was third-fastest with at 186.035 mph, while Steve Arpin followed in fourth at 185.893 mph.

"What a successful day, all in all," Martin said. "We've spent a lot of long hours at the shop, and I've put in a lot of long hours of mental prep for this day. There were some things in practice we wanted to try, and the car just ran fast. That's all I can say. It's driving really well, and dicing in and out of traffic. We did a lot of drafting this afternoon and ran well in every situation."

Rain threatened to damper the opening of SpeedWeeks, but skies cleared in the afternoon, allowing a lot of drafting and some single car runs. There were no incidents.

Fowler was fastest early in the session. The Georgia native ran only 23 laps in practice, which suggests the No. 15 Venturini Motorsports Chevrolet team is pretty happy about what they have set up for Friday’s qualifying.

“We have been fast the whole time,” Fowler said. “I do not think we are going to have much trouble with qualifying. I just have to hold a smooth wheel, and I think the car is going to do the rest. These guys have put a lot of hard work into this, and I think we will be good.”

Among the other drivers in the Venturini Motorsports stable, runner-up in last year’s event Mark Thompson was 25th-fastest, followed by Miguel Paludo (26th).

The cars return to the track at 2:00 p.m. EST for Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell (2 laps).