Full Throttle

Red Bull Racing driver Scott Speed earned his second ARCA RE/MAX Series win of the season and first at Kentucky Speedway by 0.561 of a second over Sean Caisse tonight in the “Kentucky 150.”

The converted Formula One star drove to the pits on Lap 19 to take on fuel in his No. 2 Red Bull machine during the third caution period of the race and proceeded to masterfully manage his fuel mileage through a maze of seven caution periods that followed.

The Manteca, Calif., driver placed a punctuation mark on the win by holding off Caisse and his No. 01 Aisin AW ride during a last-lap restart that began on Lap 104 of the event originally scheduled for 100 circuits.

Speed, who lost the series’ May 10 Kentucky race on the final restart after a gear failed in his car, earns a bit Kentucky poetic justice with tonight’s victory.

“It was the second time we won this race on the proper lap and almost lost it. It was cool to win a race like that. Me and the 01 had a great battle the last 30 laps or so and I’m glad I could pull this off for my guys.

“We went back-and-forth on each other a lot on the restarts. It was two good drivers racing really hard and really clean. It was definitely real exciting for me,” Speed said.

Caisse earned his first top-five series finish of the season in his third start.

“We had issues with 20 to go with the throttle sticking. It would get stuck when I’d go full throttle and pull out. It would get stuck at half throttle. So, trying to shift and not being able to come out of the gas all the way, it was getting jammed up in the gearbox. That kind of was making my restarts slow. He (Speed) got a good jump on me. He went to the outside and the 16 followed. I was able to get the 16 back.

“It took me about five or six laps to run the same kind of speed. Then, five laps later it would be a tenth or two better. We were just a better long-run car and this just wasn’t a long-run race,” Caisse said of the event which matched the series track record for caution periods at 10.

Justin Allgaier placed third in the No. 16 AG Tech / Hoosier Tire Chevrolet; four-time Kentucky Speedway series race winner Frank Kimmel closed out the race fourth in the No. 44 Comfort Systems USA/Ford Drive One Ford; and race pole sitter Brian Scott delivered a fifth-place finish in his No. 25 Albertsons Chevrolet.

For me the race boiled down to three “A’s” and a “G.”

The race was the first time to my knowledge four females were in an ARCA RE/MAX starting field, Alli Owens (see interview on preceding entry), Angela Cope, Amber Cope and Gabi DiCarlo.

Owens and DiCarlo finished 15th and 17th respectively on the lead lap. Angela Cope finished 29th from her 8th starting position 4 laps down to the leader and twin sister Amber crashed out on lap 21 finished 38th.

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