Nelles Corner, ON – Justin Lofton earned his first career ARCA SIM Factory Pole Award at Cayuga Motor Speedway with a stellar lap around the 0.625-mile track in only 20.424 seconds. This follows Lofton’s first ARCA RE/MAX Series win two weekends ago at Michigan International Speedway. Lofton’s pole makes four for the Eddie Sharp Racing organization in the 2008 season. Teammate Scott Speed has earned two pole awards (Pocono, Michigan) and Ken Butler, III has one (Kansas).
“I am just really happy to continue the momentum from our win at MIS,” said Lofton with a huge grin. “The weight is off my shoulders and I am just having so much fun racing. This is my first weekend with my “new” team [former No. 22 Crew Chief Wayne Carroll and his crew have moved to the No. 20 Lofton Cattle team] and things are gelling very well. I think we are going to continue to be a strong team and definitely contend for a repeat win tomorrow!”
Despite early morning thunderstorms that left lakes of standing water around the race haulers, the ARCA RE/MAX Series practiced and qualified at the Cayuga Motor Speedway in Nelles Corner, Ontario, Canada. Under threatening skies that were at times interrupted by the sun, the Eddie Sharp Racing team of Justin Lofton, Ken Butler, III, and Scott Speed turned their first laps on the Canadian short track and sat sixth, ninth, and 13th on the speed chart, respectively.
As the time to qualify for the Cayuga ARCA RE/MAX 250 neared, the skies again looked like they were going to dump rain on teams and spectators. However, qualifying started on time and completed without a drop of precipitation!
Speed was the first of the ESR cars to qualify and turned in a 20.624 second lap that would put the No. 2 Red Bull Toyota eighth in the starting lineup for Sunday’s race. Butler followed in the No. 22 Aaron’s Lucky Dog Toyota and turned in a 20.770 second lap to put him in the 11th starting position. Lofton rounded out the group with his 110.165 mph pole position lap.
“We struggled in practice today and just could not get the car to do what we needed it to do,” said Speed following qualifying. “It’s frustrating because we tested at Jennerstown to prepare for this race and we were really fast there. We’ll keep working on things, but tomorrow might be a long day. I know my guys will work really hard and I’ll do everything I can do to get us to the front.”
“Today was a pretty good day,” said Butler. “I really liked working with my new Crew Chief, Jonathan Davis. This is our first race together. He definitely brings a lot of experience to the table. We have a great group of guys and I think we will become a strong team very quickly. I had hoped we would have qualified higher, but we found in practice that the car doesn’t fall off as quickly as other cars are, so that will help us a lot in tomorrow’s race. We had a good run at Toledo, so I’m excited to give this short track a try!”
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