Catchfence

HUNTERSVILLE, NC (9/26/10) – Ask any great sports team, and they will tell you that preparation is always the number one key to success. That same mentality, is what drove 20-year old ARCA racer Joey Coulter to lead his Coulter Motorsports team to Kansas Speedway Tuesday, September 21st.

Coulter, knowing the scope of the competition every week in the ARCA Racing Series, wanted to participate in the open test session, where he could work with Crew Chief Harold Holly to further improve on his car. The test proved to be a crucial tool in preparing for Thursday night’s (9/30/10) Kansas Lottery 150, where Coulter will pilot his No.16 Darrell Gwynn Foundation, Rip It Energy Fuel Chevrolet.

“Whenever there is an opportunity to go test, especially at the aero sensitive mile and a half speedways, I like to make sure we don’t pass up a great opportunity to collect data,” commented Coulter. “Kansas Speedway is an, on your toes, fast paced kind of track, that requires you to pay attention to detail. I really enjoy running at this amazing facility and look forward to this weeks race.”

Coulter Motorsports made the 1,000-mile, 16-hour trek, to the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway a week early (9/21/10), for the ARCA sanctioned open test session. Knowing several of the teams were going to employ driver coaches for the day, Holly and Coulter sat down to discuss their need for one. Not wanting to give the competition an upper hand, Holly decided to bring NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series veteran David Stremme, to make sure nothing was overlooked out on the track.

Coulter, piloting car No. 16A spent the majority of the morning session going over race runs, while studying all of the collected data with Stremme and Holly. At the end of the morning session, Coulter was fifth fastest at 32.399 seconds with a speed of 166.672 MPH. Stremme, shaking down car No. 16B, was eighth fastest at 32.753 seconds at 164.870 MPH.

With the afternoon sun shining brightly over the track for the second session, Holly focused more on qualifying runs, due to the changing track conditions. After several runs throughout the session, Coulter finished the day with the second fastest time at 32.480 seconds at 166.256 MPH. Stremme, who spent most of the session working with Holly and Coulter Motorsports engineer Michael Chapman, posted the ninth fastest time with a 33.081 second lap at 163.236 MPH.

“I want to thank Coulter Motorsports for bringing me out to Kansas Speedway as their driver coach,” said Stremme. “There are a lot of choices for coaches these days and I appreciate them picking me. Getting the chance to work with Harold (Holly) and Joey (Coulter) was great. Joey is a talented young racer.”

After a very positive test day at Kansas, Coulter and Holly decided to bring chassis No. 011 back for the race. The car last ran at Chicagaoland, where Coulter piloted it to a eighth place finish, en route to winning the Bill France Four Crown Championship. In only one previous start at the Kansas City, KS track (10/1/09), Coulter qualified an impressive fifth and brought his No. 16 Chevy home seventh after an extended race, due to a green-white-checkered finish.

“First off I want to thank David Stremme for coming all the way out to Kansas to help with the test,” said Coulter. “Harold (Holly) really got my car dialed in during the race runs and I feel very confident heading into this weekends race. Kansas (Speedway) is a fun track to race at and I am looking forward to the race.”

The ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards visits Kansas Speedway on Thursday, September 30 for the 19th of 20 races this season. The 100-lap, 150-mile Kansas Lottery 150 airs live on SPEED at 4 p.m. Central (5 p.m. Eastern), with live timing and scoring and live audio coverage presented by ARCA Nation and the ARCA Racing Network at ARCARacing.com. Make sure to tune in to catch Coulter and his No. 16 Darrell Gwynn Foundation, Rip It Energy Fuel Chevrolet make another bid for victory lane.

- Coulter Motorsports Press Release