Scott Speed

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (May 4, 2008) – Scott Speed’s first race at the high-banked Rockingham Speedway was short and not-so-sweet. Speed’s No. 2 Red Bull Toyota was collected in a multi-car incident on lap 10 of the inaugural Carolina 500. Eddie Sharp Racing’s Red Bull crew worked feverishly on the car for over 100 laps, returning to the track and finishing the day in the 35th position.

“Today just wasn’t what we had hoped it would be,” said Speed. “We certainly hoped that we would carry the success from last week here. Unfortunately, we were caught up in the first big mess of the day and just did what we could to lose as few points as possible. I just want to thank the team for all their hard work today. We’ll put this behind us and look forward to Kentucky next weekend.”

No. 2 Car Crew Chief Patrick Donahue will be featured each week on INSIDE ARCA Tuesday nights from 7-8:30 pm ET. The show is broadcast LIVE on local radio in the NW Ohio/SE Michigan market and on arcaracing.com . Patrick appears in the second segment (approximately 7:30 p.m. ET)

Following a conservative qualifying lap, Speed took the green flag for the Carolina 500 in the 25th position. By lap 10, Speed climbed into the top-15. Poised for what was anticipated to be a very good afternoon, Speed was collected in the lap-10 melee resulting from a spinning lapped car on the backstretch.

Ken Butler III

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (May 4, 2008) – Ken Butler, III had high hopes of a happy birthday weekend. KBII celebrated his 26th birthday on Friday with his family and teammates. The weekend started positive with a strong qualifying run on Saturday for KBIII, putting the No. 22 Aaron’s Lucky Dog Dream Machine in the ninth position for Sunday’s Carolina 500. Initially damaged in Sunday’s multi-car wreck on lap 10, Butler, III continued to struggle for the remainder of the race. Hard contact on lap 120 ended the day for the Aaron’s Dream Machine team and resulted in a 39th-place finish at Rockingham Speedway.

“What a disappointing way to finish such an exciting weekend,” said Butler, III. “It was thrilling to race the ‘Rock’. After our strong qualifying run yesterday, we were looking forward to a good finish today. It’s such a shame because my team works so hard and Aaron’s helps us out so much. I wanted to run well for them today so I just hate the way things turned out.”

Butler, III turned a 143.954 mph lap on Saturday in the first round of qualifying, landing a ninth starting position for Sunday’s return of stock car racing at Rockingham Speedway. Unfortunately, shortly after the green flag dropped for the Carolina 500, the streak of bad luck began for the No. 22 Aaron’s Lucky Dog Dream Machine team.

Butler, III received front-end damage to the No. 22 Toyota in the day’s first caution at lap 10. KBIII reported on the radio that the “nose is a bit crushed up.” The team worked to fix the damage during the caution laps and keep their driver on the lead lap. The front-end damage caused a subsequent tire rub which required the No. 22 to come back to pit road for new tires and additional work. Miscommunication cost the team laps as the No. 22 failed to get back on the track ahead of the pace car during the caution laps.

Unable to secure the fender off of the front tires, the team quickly went to work in the pits to construct a new nose piece for the Toyota Camry while KBIII remained on the high-banked track turning laps. The car’s handling continued to deteriorate and Butler, III reported that the car was “tight, tight, tight,” and that the brakes were declining with each lap.

During the caution at lap 112, Crew Chief Wayne Carroll continued to tell his driver that “no we are not pitting. We’re still building this nose down here. We’ll get you in under the next caution, KB, just try to hold on.”

Team owner Eddie Sharp keyed the radio and worked to encourage his driver and give him his priorities by stating, “KB, Superman couldn’t keep that thing down on the line right now. Your job now is to keep the car in one piece and finish the race. Run laps, be patient, and just finish the race.”

Unfortunately, the next caution on lap 120 involved the No. 22. This week the Aaron’s Lucky Dog Dream Machine was not-so-lucky. KB reported to his team after the contact that “we’re done.” Butler, III limped the car back to the garage having completed 114 of the 312 laps and finishing in the 39th position. The finish placed KBIII in the tenth position in ARCA RE/MAX Series Championship points, 275 points behind the leader.

“I hate it for my guys,” stated Butler, III following the race. “It is so heartbreaking to watch the car loading on the truck before the checkered flag has dropped. But we will put this behind us and focus on Kentucky. I like Kentucky a lot and am really looking forward to getting back there. The ESR cars are strong on the mile and a half tracks so we should have a very positive weekend.”

Justin Lofton

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. (May 4, 2008) – The temperature wasn’t the only thing that was hot this weekend at Rockingham Speedway. Justin Lofton solidly landed the No. 20 Lofton Cattle Dodge landed in the third starting position for the Carolina 500 at Rockingham Speedway. He moved quickly into second and looked to be one of the dominating factors in Sunday’s race. High hopes came to a crashing halt when lapped cars spinning on the backstretch collected Lofton and other front-running cars. The Lofton Cattle team worked to keep the Lofton on track, but succumbed to the damage and retired in the 43rd position.

“It was just a very frustrating day,” stated Lofton. “To have such a great qualifying lap and to start on the second row shows the caliber of the team we truly are. It is just so unfortunate that we were caught up in a mess caused by lapped traffic on lap 10. We had a very strong car that was more than capable of contending for the win if we had been there at the end.”

Justin Lofton was the second-to-last car to go out for qualifying. The No. 20 Lofton Cattle Dodge ripped off a 24.693 second lap to put him 3rd on the starting grid. Lofton was all smiles as he climbed into the car and buckled in for the grueling 312 lap race. Only ten laps later, Lofton was limping the No. 20 back to the garage for repairs, a victim of the melee caused by already lapped cars.

The Lofton Cattle team worked feverishly to put the No. 20 back on the track in order to retain as many positions as possible. Knowing they were running at a far slower speed than the leaders, Dan Fusaro, spotter for the No. 20, worked to communicate with other teams as to avoid further conflict. Fusaro received word that one particular team wanted the high side when they came past the Lofton Cattle Dodge. Lofton complied and when the car approached him, he moved to the low side. Unfortunately, the driver dove to the inside, despite the hand gestures of Lofton, directing him to the high side as the spotter had requested. Hard contact between the two ended the day for the Lofton Cattle team.

“It was a very unfortunate day for the Lofton Cattle Dodge and Eddie Sharp Racing,” said Lofton. “We had very fast car today. But, there is nothing we can do now. We will pack up, hold our heads high, and head to Kentucky next weekend. As a team we are getting better and better each week. I think we will be very strong at Kentucky and I am really looking forward to racing there.”