Cunningham Motorsports drivers Shane Lee and Dalton Sargeant have been championship contenders in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards since the green flag flew at Daytona. Now going into the Shore Lunch 250 at Elko Speedway, the two sit just 35 points away from each other in championship standings with Sargeant in second and Lee in third.
“I think coming into the season we wanted and we knew this 77 team could repeat the success they had last year and I think we’re on the way to doing that,” said Sargeant. “We’ve been strong on short tracks and it’s been a lot of fun so far. Running second in points is great this early on in the season, especially running side-by-side with my teammate Shane, and hopefully at Elko we can get the No. 77 Big Tine Ford Fusion another win and keep moving up.”
Sargeant is coming off a strong second-place finish at Toledo Speedway which helped propel him back into second position in ARCA series standings, while Lee moved down to third after a mid-race incident at Toledo ended his day early. Lee not only hopes to rebound from Toledo and move back up in points, but also get that first ARCA series win.
“Every week I keep saying we’re getting closer and closer to that first win,” said Lee. “We always have a fast car and I think we always go into the race as one of the contenders to win. We’ve run well so far this year and the guys at the shop have put together a solid No. 22 Big Tine Ford Fusion for Elko so hopefully we can finally get that first win of 2017.”
Neither Lee nor Sargeant has seen Elko Speedway, a track that hasn’t been on the ARCA schedule since 2014, but both have a team behind them that should be able to help with that. Sargeant will rely on knowledge from crew chief Chad Bryant and 10-time ARCA Series Champion Frank Kimmel as spotter, while Lee will get his help from veteran crew chief Paul Andrews.
“Paul has been a huge help so far this year,” said Lee. “There are a lot of tracks that I’ve never been to but working with Paul is like working with the best of the best…he knows what he’s doing and this week I’ll definitely need to rely on him since I’ve never been to Elko. Hopefully I’ll pick up on how the track runs early on in practice and we can go into the race with a strong, fast car.”
On the other side, Sargeant has built a strong relationship with Bryant throughout the season and was also able to work with Kimmel during the last race at Toledo where both helped bring Sargeant his third top-five finish of the season.
“Going into a place I’ve never been like Elko will definitely be easier having experience from Chad and Frank,” Sargeant said. “They both know the tracks on the ARCA circuit pretty well and it gives me more confidence going into the race having them behind me.””
The Shore Lunch 250 will kick off with practice from 1:30-3:00 PM CT followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 5. The 250 lap feature is slated to start at 8 PM CT and will air live on MAVTV. There will also be live timing and scoring throughout the day online at www.arcaracing.com.
Keep up with Cunningham Motorsports on Facebook and Instagram (@CunninghamRace) and on Twitter (@Cunningham_Race). Head to www.cunninghamrace.com for more news. You can follow Shane and Dalton on social media as well. Follow Shane on Facebook and Twitter (@ShaneLeeRacing) and on Instagram (@Shane_Lee00). Follow Dalton on Facebook (@DaltonSargeantRacing) and Twitter and Instagram (@DaltonSargeant).
Big Tine is manufactured in Rockville, IN and was introduced to the market in 2010. Big Tine is the only feed supplement on the market that utilizes the power of Whitetail InstitutesTM 30-06 mineral and vitamin supplement for year-round support management of a healthy, flourishing herd. For more information on Big Tine, products or where to buy visit us at www.bigtine.com on Facebook @BigTine and on Instagram @BigTineOfficial.
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