LEWIS REBOUNDS FROM TROUBLE TO CAPTURE ARCA WIN

EAST WENATCHEE, Washington–A famous baseball player once said “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over” And that phrase best describes Gary Lewis and his day at the Washington 125 at Wenatchee Valley’s Super Oval for the running of the ARCA West Circle K Late Model Challenge Series third event of the season.

The defending series champion found himself down and possibly out of the event less than six laps into the afternoon’s first practice session after an oil leak pumped fluid out onto the tires and caused the Snohomish, WA native to spin hard into the turn No. 1 retaining wall. An ensuing fire caused damage to the bodywork and it appeared that Lewis’ day would be over before it really ever got started.

After nearly three hours of work Lewis’ crew determined that the Nutter Racing Engines Chevrolet had not suffered permanent damage and feverishly fabricated the race car back together for a qualifying attempt.

Entering the track as the last of 18 cars to time in, Lewis posted a time of 12.788-seconds that placed him eighth on the grid. An eight-car invert put the team on the inside of the front row and it appeared that fortunes would be changing for the 38-year old.

While running the final 10-minute practice session prior to the main event, gremlins again reached out and found Lewis.

A motor mount from the car just in front of Lewis came out and went through the three-time late model champion’s radiator. Unable to repair the damaged cooling device it appeared again that the day might be over.

Current ARCA West Circle K Late Model Challenge Series points leader, Jared Vorse, had the only radiator in the pits that would fit and quickly offered it to Lewis. As the swap was being completed Lewis’ pit crew found a broken power steering hose mount. With time running out prior to the start of the main event, Lewis and his race team replaced the steering unit and rolled out just in time for the start of the evening’s festivities.

Once the racing action began the Leary Racing Products Impala jumped to a five-car length lead as Lewis began to feel out if the race car would hold together through the evening.

Held together it did as Lewis was never touched and led wire-to-wire in route to his third victory of 2008 and second on the ARCA West Circle K Late Model Challenge Series.

Despite what appeared to be a dominating performance a pair of drivers gave their all to catch the defending series champion.

Lewis may have a solid car for 125 laps but the best drive of the night belong to Wes Rhodes and Shelby Thompson.

Each took turns trying to run down the bright orange machine of Lewis with Rhodes cutting nearly a second off the leaders pace with the laps winding down. With five laps to go Rhodes had gone from over 2 seconds behind to just five car-lengths but was unable to get any closer.

Thompson had taken his turn behind Lewis for over 50 laps as he patiently weaved his way through traffic from his seventh starting position. With 15 laps to go in the race Rhodes moved by Thompson for second and gave chase to Lewis with Thompson in tow.

The ARCA West Circle K Late Model Challenge Series takes one weekend off before returning to action on July 5 at Montana Raceway Park. For more information log onto www.latemodelchallenge.com

NEWS/NOTES/QUOTES

No. 73 Gary Lewis, Leary Racing Products/The Sign Factory USA Chevrolet Impala: “We had an unbelievable day with the crash there in turn one just five laps into practice after oil got onto the tires, then the radiator getting a hole in it in the 10-minute run just before the main and there’s only one (radiator) in the pits that fits our car and we had to make it work and then to fire the car up and find that the power steering pump was leaking. All that made this a tough day but we never gave up. My pit crew won this race for me today. Those guys worked so hard to get us back out there. Thanks to Jared Vorse for the radiator and to the Hargraves for all their help. This was an awesome win for the team.”

No. 6 Wes Rhodes, Knight Fire Protection/Larry’s Shock Shop Chevrolet Impala: “I learned from last week that I needed to go quicker (to get to the front) and this time at lap 62 (halfway) I figured I had better get going but oh man there were a lot of good cars in front of me including Shelby (Thompson). He raced me hard but if I had gotten by him just a bit sooner we might have had something for (Gary) Lewis. That team (Lewis) had a great day with all they went through but I need to start winning some of these races. It’s been a long time.”

No. 3 Shelby Thompson, Bill Thompson’s Auto Sales/Valley Bowl Chevrolet Impala: “We had a set back there last week where we weren’t able to run up in Canada but we definitely will be running the rest of the year for the points on this series. We’ve got to beat (Gary) Lewis. I mean he’s the best right now there is here in the Northwest. We’ve been close and luckily I have a good crew chief in Kevin Richards that has been the key to my success.”

–Brent Harris and Shelby Thompson broke the series qualifying record at Wenatchee Valley. Harris bested Jay Saul’s old mark by .015-seconds (12.639-sec.) while Thompson broke out with a .003-second run (12.643-sec.) better than the old mark of 12.646.

–With the win Lewis has now won three consecutive races over his last three starts including a road course victory in early June.

–In his three season starts including a non-ARCA West event, Lewis has led nearly three-quarters of the laps run. Due to weather and this week’s practice incident, Lewis has yet to complete all of the scheduled practice time in those three events.

–Garrett Evans made his 2008 series debut a modest success as his Leonard Evans Used Car Superstore Chevrolet picked up the most positions in the running order over the course of the evening. Starting a sub-par 13th on his home track, Evans and his teammate, Jason Jefferson (who had started 12th) carefully worked their way through traffic for a pair of top-10 finishes, sixth and seventh respectively.

–Many of the ARCA West Circle K Late Model Challenge Series teams will be using the July 5 race at Montana’s Raceway Park as preparation for the Northwest largest paying non-points event, the Montana 200, which takes place July 19. With the winner’s check of over $12,000 the Montana 200 typically draws over 40 cars for 24 starting positions. Lewis is the defending Montana 200 winner with Hargraves running second one-year ago.