The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards (ARCA) season will visit Kentucky Speedway Friday, September 19th for the second to last event of the 2014 season.
With plenty of pre-race headlines to note, Justin Boston will not only carry his sponsor colors for the ARCA title race sponsored ZLOOP 150 but will also be making his first career NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) start with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in Saturday’s VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 at Kentucky Speedway. Boston will drive his familiar white ARCA No.25 ZLOOP backed car Friday night before fading to black under the lights the following day in his No.20 ZLOOP NNS Toyota Camry.
“This is a big weekend for me and my sponsor ZLOOP,” said Boston. “In addition to this being our (ZLOOP’s) second year sponsoring the ZLOOP 150 (ARCA) race at Kentucky we’re also making our NASCAR Nationwide debut. WOW, so pumped for the weekend and excited for all our fans and supporters.”
Announced yesterday, Boston will also race next weekend’s NNS event with JGR at Dover.
Boston also has realistic expectations on his opportunity to step up to NASCAR’s second-tier series. “Our goals are to compete and run all the laps in both of our Nationwide Series starts, plain and simple,” he said. “As far as being anxious, it hasn’t really hit me yet. If anything, knowing that I get to work with everyone on the No. 20 team is reassuring since they’re such a strong team and I’m excited to see what we can do together.”
The 25-year old Baltimore native is in his sophomore season with VMS in the ARCA Racing Series. Boston won Rookie of the Year honors in 2013 and has two victories this season to go along with (7) Top-5 and (11) top-10 finishes.
Brennan Poole will once again be subbing for driver John Wes Townley due to a scheduling conflict surrounding Friday’s ARCA Kentucky event and Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series New Hampshire event.
“I can’t thank Zaxby’s enough for the opportunities they’ve given me this year. I can’t wait to wheel it Friday night and hopefully bring home another strong finish for Venturini and Zaxby’s,” said Poole.
Friday’s ZLOOP 150 from Kentucky will mark the third time this season Poole will sub for Townley. During his time driving the No.15 Zaxby’s Toyota for Townley, Poole has earned a third place finish at Berlin Raceway and sixth place finish at Salem Speedway.
Townley who has been juggling a hectic schedule this year has split time behind the wheel between ARCA, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series. He has missed five ARCA races (August-Pocono, Berlin, Springfield, Salem and now Kentucky) due to injuries sustained following a mid-summer incident at Pocono and as of late, conflicting ARCA and NASCAR schedules. BJ McLoud was a late substitution for Townley at Pocono and Kevin Swindell filled in for Townley last month, winning at Springfield.
Last month in a highly publicized announcement, JGR revealed the 22-year old Daniel Suarez would join the organization in 2015 to compete full time in the NASCAR Nationwide (XFINITY) Series with ARRIS as the primary sponsor. As part of that deal JGR has tapped VMS to field Suarez in Friday’s ZLOOP 150 as part of the process to prepare him for his next step in his career.
“I’m excited to race with Venturini Motorsports at Kentucky in the ARCA Series as I continue to prepare for next season and running full time with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series, said Suarez. “I’m looking forward to representing my new sponsor ARRIS and I’m thankful to ARRIS and everyone involved for giving me this opportunity as I make the next step in my career.”
Suarez will drive the No.66 VMS-ARRIS Toyota in his debut ARCA event.
A native of Monterrey, Mexico, Suarez is currently competing full time for Escuderia TELMEX in the NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series, where he leads that series, and competes in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Rev Racing Team in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.
Continuing with the theme, JGR development driver Cody Coughlin will be making his 10th start of the season with VMS this weekend driving his No.55 JEGS Toyota. Coughlin who’s starting to hit his stride as of late has earned (1) top-5 and (6) top-10 finishes in limited ARCA action.
“This is my first time at Kentucky Speedway and we got used to the track very fast in the test session on Wednesday,” Coughlin said. “I am really looking forward to Friday’s race. I’m becoming more and more comfortable on these 1.5-mile ovals, which is good because you mostly race these sorts of tracks as you move up the ranks.”
Earlier this month Coughlin claimed his first career Super Late Model win by leading the ARCA/CRA Super Series Winchester 100 wire-to-wire. Just days after winning his CRA event the 18-year old Coughlin also topped the speed charts during an official ARCA testing session held on Kansas Speedway’s 1.5 mile oval in preparation for the series finale on October 3rd.
Practice for the ZLOOP 150 race event at Kentucky is Friday afternoon, September 19 from 1:00 p.m. – 2:30, followed by Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell at 5:00. The ZLOOP 150 is scheduled to get the green flag just after 8.
In addition to Live Timing and Scoring at ARCAracing.com, the race is live on FOX Sports 1 at 8pm eastern.
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