LONG POND PA – He spent the entire race working his way back to the front, but in the end the battle was well worth it for ARCA RE/MAX Series veteran Chad McCumbee, who came from one lap down to win the Pocono 200 Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway.

 

McCumbee, after an unscheduled pitstop, earned his lap back inside of 15 laps from the finish and passed Dexter Bean with four laps to go to earn the hard-fought victory in the Victory Junction Gang Petty Enterprises Dodge. The race served as a warm-up for McCumbee’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Series debut in the next-day Pocono 500.

 

“I can’t thank everybody enough from Petty enterprises,” said McCumbee. “These guys are unbelievable. It’s pretty awesome to be here in victory lane. This was easy on my part; this was all these guys. Now tomorrow, that’s where I’m going to have to work a little bit harder. The confidence is up but the goals aren’t changing. I just want to learn as much as I can. I just want to run the whole race and try to finish on the lead lap.”

 

McCumbee started fifth and quickly worked his way up to the lead before cutting a left front tire on lap 18, which caused him to fall one lap down.

 

Bean, who led the most laps with 19 laps-led, settled for second in the No. 6 Five Star Telecom Chevrolet despite late-race pressure from SIM Factory Pole Award winner Tim Andrews.

 

“We brought a good piece here this weekend,” said Bean. “We showed up a little late to come here but it was definitely worth the wait. We had a little bit of bad luck here last year. We blew six motors including the first race here last year while we were leading.”

 

Andrews finished third in the No. 4 Dodge Motorsports-Cunningham Motorsports Dodge.

 

“That was a really cool race,” said Andrews, whose father, NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series veteran crew chief Paul Andrews, served as his crew chief for the race. “I want to apologize to Mario again. I didn’t mean to get into him there. Mario is a great racecar driver and I just went down in the corner he gave me a bunch of room and I slid into him. I feel horrible about doing that to him. I always love working with my father; he’s a valuable asset there on the box.”

 

Jeremy Clements finished fourth in the One Stop Convenience Chevrolet ahead of Mario Gosselin, who finished fifth in his own DGM Racing Chevrolet.

 

The race was action-packed throughout with continual side-be-side racing including 11 lead changes among nine drivers.

 

Other lap leaders included Bryan Silas, who led twice for 15 laps and Michael McDowell, who was next on the lap-leader board with 13 laps-led. Additional lap leaders included Justin Marks (11), Andrews (8), Frank Kimmel (3), Phillip McGilton (3) and Gosselin (2).

 

Jason Hedlesky earned the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award for his 11th place finish from the 28th starting position. McDowell finished sixth and was the highest finishing rookie. SCR

 

Pocono 200 Results

 

Pos	No	DRIVER
1	62	Chad McCumbee
2	6	Dexter Bean
3	4	Tim Andrews
4	3	Jeremy Clements
5	12	Mario Gosselin
6	2	Michael McDowell
7	46	Frank Kimmel
8	16	Justin Allgaier
9	22	Josh Wise
10	5	Bobby Gerhart
11	08	Jason Hedlesky
12	39	Kory Rabenold
13	25	Tom Berte
14	1	Dominick Casola
15	94	Dale Schweikart
16	38	Mike Harmon
17	23	Josh Krug
18	11	Bryan Silas
19	47	Phillip McGilton
20	98	Erin Crocker
21	32	Johnny Sauter
22	84	Norm Benning
23	7	Brent Cross
24	60	Patrick Sheltra
25	21	Rob Bunker
26	06	Tim Mitchell
27	07	Billy Tanner
28	09	Billy Pauch Jr.
29	65	Justin Marks
30	48	Art Seeger
31	26	Brad Smith
32	90	Gabi DiCarlo
33	34	Darrell Basham
34	59	Justin South
35	15	Paul Menard
36	79	Mike Koch
37	30	Terry Jones
38	50	AJ Henriksen
39	71	Ted Olswfski
40	93	Marc Mitchell
41	8	Adam Edwards

 

LONG POND PA - Tim Andrews, son of 19-year veteran NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series crew chief Paul Andrews, earned his career first SIM Factory Pole Award Friday afternoon at Pocono Raceway, posting a 54.602 second lap around the 2.5-mile paved triangle. He starts on the pole for Saturday’s Pocono 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race.

 

“It was a pretty stressful day today,” said Andrews, who is part of the Dodge Development Program for Cunningham Motorsports. “The Cunningham Motorsports guys really worked their tales off in practice. We didn’t get a chance to make a mock qualifying run so we were kind of flying in here blind. It’s special to be here at Pocono Raceway. I haven’t been here since I was a little kid and I haven’t done any of the racing simulators or any thing else here so it’s pretty special. The Petty’s have really helped out in getting me paired up with the Dodge Development Program and Cunningham Motorsports. These guys are a pretty small race team out of Georgia, Mark Gibson and Kerry Scherer. They’ve got a limited budget and it’s amazing what they’ve been able to do.”

 

Saturday’s Pocono 200 marks Andrews’ second career ARCA RE/MAX Series start (he finished sixth at Nashville Superspeedway in his ARCA debut on April 7th). David Reutimann qualified second in the No. 22 ESR Development Team-NAPA Toyota. The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series regular was filling in for fellow Michael Waltrip Racing driver Josh Wise, who was unable to participate in ARCA RE/MAX Series practice or qualifying due to his commitments in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

 

“[Eddie] Sharp brings a great car every week and I’m actually just filling in for Josh Wise who is scheduled to race the Truck Series race at Texas,” said Reutimann. “Our main goal today was just to fill in for Josh, getting notes and stuff for him.”

 

Following NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series qualifying, Reutimann plans to fly to Nashville, Tennessee for the NASCAR Busch Series event.

 

Jeremy Clements qualified third in the No. 3 One-Stop Convenience Stores Chevrolet, followed by Bryan Silas in the No. 11 Nortrax-Shell Rotella Chevrolet. Chad McCumbee, who plans to compete in both the ARCA RE/MAX Series and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series events this weekend, qualified fifth in the No. 62 Victory Junction Gang Dodge.

 

The Pocono 200 marks the ARCA RE/MAX Series’ 44th appearance to Pocono Raceway since 1983. The race is the tenth of 23 events on the 2007 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule and will be aired on SPEED beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. So far in 2007, nine different drivers have earned ARCA RE/MAX Series victories in as many events.

 

The Pocono 200 rolls off at 1 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. The race will be aired on SPEED beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. SCR

 

Pocono 200 Starting Grid

 

Pos	No	Driver	SPEED
1	4	Tim Andrews	164.829
2	22	David Reutimann	164.330
3	3	Jeremy Clements	164.276
4	11	Bryan Silas	164.054