| Patrick Sheltra Delivers 10th Top-Five
Finish Of The Season At Toledo Speedway
"Patience Yields Sheltra Sole Control Of Point
Standings With Three Races Left"
TOLEDO, Ohio (September 12, 2010) - - Patrick Sheltra left
Toledo (Oh.) Speedway Sunday the same way he did on May
23, in sole possession of the ARCA Racing Series presented
by RE/MAX and Menards point standings after the Indiantown,
Florida native wheeled to a third place finish in the Northwest
Ohio Ford Dealers 200.
Sheltra who was tied with Cunningham Motorsports pilot
Tom Hessert for the top spot entering the 17th race of the
season had hopes of improving on his Sheltra Motorsports'
eighth place finish at the Northern Ohio race track nearly
four months ago. Armed this weekend with a former Richard
Childress Racing (RCR) Chevrolet now turned Dodge; Sheltra
was banking on the past performances of one of his favorite
short track pieces to aid him in his quest for his first
stock car series championship.
After posting the 12th fastest lap in a rain-shortened
practice session on Saturday afternoon, Sheltra and crew
chief Jon Wolfe quickly went to work making adjustments
that would further improve the handling of their No. 60
PatrickSheltra.com / Ferguson Pipe Dodge Charger. Unfortunately,
Mother Nature's dark side would set in and drench the half-mile
oval leading to a premature ending to practice and eventually
force ARCA Racing Series officials to cancel Menards pole
qualifying presented by Ansell later that day.
Sheltra would be credited with starting on the pole thanks
to his average finishing position this season of 7.5 compared
to Hessert's 7.6875. Starting up front at Toledo has been
known to be a pivotal element to having a good finish. Sheltra
boldly lived up to that fact during the 200-lap contest.
The green and orange No. 60 of Sheltra would lead the event's
first three laps before being overtaken by Hessert's No.
77 Dodge Charger on lap four with Sheltra being trapped
on the outside and passed by a gaggle of race cars. Finally,
Sheltra was able to find a hole in the seventh position
where he maintained his Sheltra Motorsports automobile until
the first caution flag waived approaching lap 40.
During the caution, Wolfe reminded his driver that his
lap times were good and to keep the big picture in mind.
When racing resumed, Sheltra kept himself solidly in the
top-10 before being passed on lap 50 and slipping back to
eighth.
While reeling in the cars in front of him, the caution
flag waived on lap 75 which allowed the first round of pit
stops to take place for the lead-lap machines. On lap 76,
Sheltra brought his Chrysler nameplate to pit road for four
tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.
A great pit stop by the Sheltra Motorsports clan put the
team back in contention to move into the top-five. On the
restart, Sheltra maintained a healthy spot inside the top-10
fluctuating between sixth and eighth before finally find
himself back in the top-five just after halfway.
Oddly enough, some of Sheltra's championship challengers
including nine-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel, Hessert
and Mikey Kile would fall victim to bad racing luck virtually
taking them out of contention for the win and allow the
NASCAR-bound driver the opportunity to try and take advantage
of their misfortune.
Sheltra would keep his nose clean and despite reporting
a tight racecar from the center off, the 24-year old was
still hovering in the top-five and ready to pounce on the
competition during the final 50 circuits of the event. Moving
into third with 40 laps remaining, Sheltra was praying for
a yellow flag to allow the opportunity to duck onto pit
lane for two more tires and a shot at his first Toledo win.
The caution Sheltra had been hoping four would waive on
lap 177 of the 1,310 race held for the 57-year tour allowing
that final trip to pit road for two right side tires and
a prime opportunity for Sheltra to possibly collect his
third win of the season.
Restarting behind second-place competitor Craig Goess Jr.,
Sheltra's machine took a few laps to come in. Even after
several attempts to pass the No. 81 of Goess, Sheltra's
worn left-side tires would prove to be too much to overcome
with Sheltra hunkering down, playing it safe and taking
the checkered flag in the third position.
The result awarded the Mooresville, North Carolina-based
team with their 10th top-five effort of the year and their
14th top-10 in 17 races. It was also Sheltra's third top-five
and fifth top-10 at Toledo in eight overall starts.
"This is a brand new car we brought here," said
Sheltra. "The guys put it together last week in about
four days. We came here and really didn't have enough practice
- it got rained out. We started on the pole and I was a
little worried about it. We just had to hang in there all
day and work on it as we went. We finally got good enough
to run in the top-five, and we came in there in the end
and took two right side tires. That helped us come and get
the third place finish. I wish we would have had a little
bit better run but the left rear (tire) just gave up on
us."
He added, "I'm really proud of my guys. They never
give up week in and week out. They've put me in the position
to win this championship and I'm going to do everything
I can to win it not only for them, my mom, dad and everyone
else that has supported us this year!"
With his performance on Sunday, Sheltra re-inherits sole
possession of the point's lead over five (4065 -to- 4060)
to Craig Goess Jr. Hessert slipped to third but is only
15 markers behind Sheltra for the most wanted point's position
in ARCA. Kimmel remains in fourth now 140 tallies behind
the fourth year ARCA driver. Justin Marks jumps up to the
fifth spot trailing Sheltra by 185 points.
Next up for the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX
and Menards is their second trip to Salem (Ind.) Speedway
this season. The Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA Fall Classic
is set for Saturday night, September 18. Sheltra will make
his eighth career start at the Southern Indiana bullring.
Salem (Ind.) Speedway is the site of Sheltra's first career
ARCA victory in April 2009 (second race) after recovering
from injuries sustained in the season opener at Daytona
(Fla.) International Speedway last February. Sheltra has
an additional top-five finish of fourth this past April
(Spring) after starting 15th. The 18th race of the season
will not be televised but race coverage including live timing
and scoring throughout the weekend will be available through
the ARCA Racing Network (ARN) online at arcaracing.com presented
by ARCANation.com. All times are local.
Multiple cost-effective marketing partnership packages
are still available for Toledo Speedway and the remainder
of the 2010 ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR seasons for Patrick
Sheltra. Let Sheltra Motorsports show you how to find victory
lane in more ways than one! For additional information on
how to be apart of our winning organization, please contact
Brandon Hinson (brandon@patricksheltra.com) or email marketing@patricksheltra.com.
Exiting Toledo, Sheltra has 83 ARCA Racing Series presented
by RE/MAX and Menards starts to his credit with three career
victories at Salem (Ind.) Speedway (April 2009), the Illinois
State Fairgrounds (August 2010) and Chicagoland Speedway
(August 2010). During his ARCA tenure, Sheltra has accumulated
20 top-fives and posted 36 top-10 finishes. A second place
qualifying effort at Chicagoland Speedway (August 2010)
is Sheltra's best time trials effort to date. He has controlled
the ARCA field 10 times for 276 laps.
For the latest on Patrick Sheltra, Sheltra Motorsports
and marketing partnership opportunities please visit PatrickSheltra.com.
Join the official Patrick Sheltra fan page on Facebook (Official
Patrick Sheltra Fan Page) by clicking here. Tweet with Patrick
Sheltra on Twitter (@patricksheltra) at twitter.com/patricksheltra.com.
About Sheltra Motorsports:
Sheltra Motorsports (sheltramotorsports.com) is a three-tier
professional Motorsports organization consisting of dirt
and asphalt competition. Patrick Sheltra, a 24-year old
native of Indiantown, Florida competes in the UMP and WoO
(Dirt) Series; while also running a full schedule in the
Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) Racing Series presented
by RE/MAX and Menards (No. 60) and a limited schedule in
the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR).
The team is headquartered in Indiantown, Florida with additional
operations in Richmond, Indiana and Mooresville, North Carolina.
TEAM COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:
Chris Knight, Sheltra Motorsports
P: 239.834.9797
E: chris@patricksheltra.com
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