Long Pond, Pennsylvania (June 5, 2013) – Year after year Pocono Raceway has been a welcome sight on the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule for Venturini Motorsports (VMS).
In the last six events at the “Tricky Triangle” VMS drivers have captured five pole positions and one victory. Last year’s spring race at Pocono saw Brennan Poole set a new track record (173.554 mph) and dominate the Pocono ARCA 200 leading 77 of 80 earning his third career victory.
Saturday’s running of the Pocono ARCA 200 will be ARCA’s 56th event at Pocono Raceway since 1983.
Returning with another strong driver line-up, VMS is hoping to duplicate their recent success with drivers Justin Boston, AJ Henriksen, Milka Duno and the return of young Erik Jones.
17-year old Erik Jones will be making his 2013 VMS – ARCA series debut behind the wheel of his Toyota Car Care No.15. Jones, one of the top development drivers in the country, is currently splitting time in ARCA and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Jones is one of the young drivers benefitting from ARCA’s new age requirements allowing approved 17-year old drivers to compete on intermediate race tracks.
“I’m really looking forward to getting on a bigger race track like Pocono,” stated Jones. “The ARCA cars are fun to drive and I’m excited to be teamed up with Kevin Reed (Crew Chief) in the Venturini Motorsports car. I’ve talked to a few people about Pocono and it’s a track that is like no other. From what I have heard it’s like running three different race tracks in one, which from a driver standpoint means a lot of fun!”
In ten career ARCA starts Jones has led 103 laps and finished a career best of third at both Winchester and Berlin.
Baltimore, Maryland native Justin Boston will make his first career start at Pocono this weekend behind the wheel of his No.25 ZLOOP Computer and Electronics Recycling Toyota Camry. Boston, coming off back-to-back fourth place finishes, is looking to break out this weekend and continue to ride his recent momentum.
Boston, who participated with his sponsor (ZLOOP) earlier this year during Pocono’s Earth Day Recycling Challenge, will feature winners of the promotion on the side skin of his race car. The Pocono River Otters and the Freedom through Water Foundation were the two top grossing organizations that participated in Pocono’s Earth Day e-Waste collection drive.
To honor both organizations for their impactful contributions, ZLOOP Racing will replace their familiar colors on the side of Boston’s No.25 car and provide in-car camera exposure featuring the logos of each respective group.
On April 20, 2013, Pocono Raceway, Venturini Motorsports and ZLOOP Computer and Electronic Recycling teamed for the annual Pocono Earth Day Recycling Challenge and collected over 100,000 pounds of unwanted e-Waste from entering and contaminating our landfills across the nation.
Chicago area native AJ Henriksen will be making his first start of the 2013 ARCA season with VMS in his No.55 Engineered Components Company Toyota. Last year at the Pocono spring race Henriksen drove his car to an eighth place finish. No stranger to the ARCA circuit, Henriksen has 86 series starts since 1995 including 10 top-5 and 29 top-10 finishes including a career best 2nd at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2003.
Milka Duno, who currently sits in the seventh spot in the national point standings, will be looking to improve her career stats at Pocono. Milka competed in last year’s August race driving for Dave Leiner Racing and finished 19th. This year she is behind the No.35 Cantv-Milka Way Toyota for VMS. In six events so far in 2013 Duno has one top-10 finish and earned her first career ARCA Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell at Talladega Superspeedway.
This year’s Pocono ARCA 200 is the 56th ARCA race held on Pocono’s 2.5-mile triangle since the series debut in 1983. The event will precede the next-day Party in the Poconos 400 Presented by Walmart NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. The Pocono ARCA 200 will air live on SPEED Channel Saturday, June 8th at 1:00 p.m. ET.
About Venturini Motorsports
Venturini Motorsports (VMS), fielding cars for over 30-years in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, is one of the premier NASCAR driver development programs in the country. Multiple team championships and consistent on-track success, VMS has evolved into one of the most recognizable names in motorsports. Since 2007, VMS has assisted in the career development of notable NASCAR drivers such as Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Brian Scott, Kevin Swindell, Miguel Paludo, John Wes Townley, Josh Richards and Johanna Long.
In 2012, VMS and the Venturini family was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame and now find themselves enshrined with such sports icons as Joe DiMaggio, Mario Andretti, Vince Lombardi, Tommy Lasorda and Rocky Marciano, among others.
After nearly two decades away from NASCAR, 2013 marks VMS’s modern day return to the series with John Wes Townley driving the team’s familiar No.25 in selective NASCAR Nationwide Series events.
Official: www.VenturiniMotorsports.com | Twitter: @VenturiniMotor | Facebook: Venturini Motorsports
