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[/media-credit](SALEM, Ind. – April 29, 2012) – Alex Bowman led by as many as 11 seconds after the halfway point of the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 at Salem Speedway, but still had to keep nine-time Salem winner Frank Kimmel at bay to score his third ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards win in five career starts.
Bowman, driving the No. 22 St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Dodge for Cunningham Motorsports, led 146 of 200 laps and won by a final margin of 1.276 seconds over ThorSport Racing’s Kimmel (No. 44 Ansell/Menards Toyota), who was in contention for his first ARCA win since September 13, 2008.
Standing in Victory Lane, Bowman’s focus extended beyond his short track victory and into the full 20-race ARCA schedule.
“I don’t know what to say,” Bowman said. “The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital/Cunningham Motorsports/Penske Dodge was awesome all day. I’m just really hoping we get to put together a full season for these guys. I’ve never met a group of guys that works as hard and close together as these guys. We’re one big family. We hang out off the race track and at the race track, and we have a ton of fun. I just can’t thank everybody at the shop enough.”
Bowman’s previous two ARCA victories came in his first two career starts, at Madison International Speedway and Kansas Speedway last year.
Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell winner Chris Buescher (No. 17 Roulo Brothers Racing Ford) and Bowman drove away to start the race, but Tom Hessert (No. 52 Federated Auto Parts Chevrolet) moved past Bowman and into second place on Lap 22.
Bowman took back second place five laps later, and tracked Buescher down for the race lead on Lap 40, just before a caution period. Buescher drove to the pits and gave up his track position, and Bowman led out of the Lap 52 green flag.
After falling back to 17th on pit road, Buescher started to charge through the field on fresh tires. After leading the final practice and earning the pole Saturday, Buescher had talked about the race-worn Salem Speedway’s added “character” this spring, explaining that tire preservation would be exceptionally important.
He moved to 13th by Lap 54, to eighth by Lap 58, and to seventh two laps later, using Turns 1 and 2 to coast by cars in front of him. Still, Bowman controlled the top of the leaderboard, moving to a 1.494-second advantage as Hessert, Chase Elliott (No. 9 Aaron’s Dream Machine/HendrickCars.com Chevrolet), and Kimmel battled behind him.
Buescher drove to third by Lap 69, at which point Bowman led Hessert by 3.672 seconds. Bowman’s lead had nearly doubled 10 laps later, when Will Kimmel (No. 68 Kentuckiana Ford Dealers Ford) and Charles Evans Jr. (No. 09 RoushYates.com Ford) crashed to force another caution flag. Bowman pitted, handing the Lap 81 lead to Clint King (No. 66 Warehouse Design Chevrolet).
Bowman did not wait long to take back the lead, moving past King in the second turn on Lap 91. With King, Hessert, and Elliott battling for second, Bowman started to drive away. Another caution slowed Bowman’s progress, but he truly started to dominate after the Lap 102 green flag. Buescher, who seemed like Bowman’s top competition given the way he had charged through the field so quickly, had pitted again, and struggled to stay in the top 10.
Bowman led Ryan Reed (No. 15 RaceHard.com/JDRF Chevrolet) by 1.291 seconds at Lap 104, and improved that lead by three seconds just six laps later. Ten laps after that, he led by more than seven seconds. At Lap 129, Bowman’s lead was 11.302 seconds and seemed safer than ever, considering the tight pack for second through fifth that seemed to be losing ground. That group, featuring Mason Mingus (No. 32 811 Call Before You Dig Toyota), Reed, Erik Jones (No. 55 C.J. Solar Band Chevrolet), and defending Salem spring winner Brennan Poole (No. 25 Adcetera Chevrolet), started to make a move, and another caution flag at Lap 133 erased Bowman’s advantage totally.
Mingus took a brief lead when Bowman drove to the pits to close Lap 135 under caution, but Bowman easily took it back shortly after the Lap 140 restart. Not only did Bowman pass Mingus, but Kimmel followed to set up a 1-2 battle between rising racing star and home track legend.
Bowman could not escape Kimmel as easily as he had other contenders in the previous laps, at most extending his lead to approximately two seconds. Though Kimmel closed Bowman’s advantage to under a half-second with just under 40 laps to go and again with 10 laps remaining, Bowman held his lead. In the end, Bowman had led the final 61 laps and 105 of the last 110 to deny Kimmel his 75th ARCA victory – despite feeling like everything could go wrong at any moment.
“We were just up there cruising,” Bowman said. “That was the best race car I’ve ever had in my life and there toward the end, something started breaking or going wrong in the right front. I was actually worried we were going to cut our right front down. Frank started catching us, and I was like, ‘Man, you’re going to lose this in the last 10 laps.’ Those last five laps were an eternity, but the car held up and we brought it home.”
Poole finished third to take the ARCA Racing Series points lead. Elliott, making just his second ARCA start in a car owned by his father Bill, earned his second top-10 by finishing fourth. Jones, just 15 years old, edged his 16-year-old teammate King for fifth, giving Venturini Motorsports three of the top six positions in the finishing order.
Buescher finished seventh after leading the race’s first 39 laps. Tyler Reddick, another 16-year-old competitor new to ARCA, finished eighth. Josh Williams was ninth and Mingus finished 10th, having led five laps.
Six caution periods slowed the race for a total of 45 laps. The race ended in one hour, 38 minutes, and 57 seconds, at an average pace of 67.312 mph.
