Catchfence

Concord, North Carolina (August 28, 2011) – Venturini Motorsports continued their on-track success Friday night during the ARCA Racing Herr’s Live Life with Flavor! 200 with a dominating performance turned in by first time rookie drivers, Alex Bowman and Clint King.

Bowman, a former USAC Champion and a regular on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East circuit used a balance of skill and horsepower to claim victory in his ARCA debut at Madison International Speedway.

“I can’t believe it, to be honest with you,” Bowman said. “I knew we were going to have a shot here with Venturini Motorsports. They put a really good car together. To bring home the win is pretty special. I want to thank the entire team for putting together such a great effort”

Bowman, who led the final 59 laps of the race, was challenged after a late race caution spawned a thrilling 3-lap shootout between Bowman, Chris Buescher and Venturini teammate, Clint King. Bowman, driving the No.55 St Jude Children’s Cancer Research Hospital / Lauren Briant.com Toyota took the restart and led the train of pursuing cars around the ½ mile track, ultimately holding off the hard charging Buescher and King en-route to his first major stock car series victory of his career. Alex dedicated this special victory to his childhood friend, Scott Impellizeri, who died tragically a few weeks ago in an automobile accident.

Bowman’s win is the second of the season for Venturini crew chief, Kevin Caldwell.

Not to be overshadowed by Bowman’s winning performance was the amazing effort given by 16-year Clint King from Denton, North Carolina. Not only did King make history on his 16th birthday by becoming the youngest driver to compete in the series, but he also cemented his name into the history books as the youngest competitor to earn the Menards Pole Award presented by Menards with a new track qualifying record of 18.205 seconds.

“After practice, we mocked up the engine,” King said. “We had a really good lap in practice but I didn’t know it was that good. The first lap, we pulled up the track a little bit and I didn’t think it was good enough for the pole, but the second lap I really gained a ton of grip and we were really good.”

King, driving the famed No.25 Venturini machine proved his qualifying effort was no fluke as he kept his Design Warehouse sponsored Chevrolet securely in the Top-5 before he finally took the lead on lap 104. Unfortunately for King his lead was short lived as the No.31 car driven by Tim George showed little patience pursuing the leader and drove aggressively down into turn 2, spinning out the rookie and taking over the top spot.

Keeping his composure, King brought his car down pit lane where his awaiting pit crew cut away the damaged sheet metal and slapped on new tires. Although this misfortune put King to the end of the lead lap cars it did nothing to raddle his composure. If anything the incident brought out the best of him, showcasing his character, no quit attitude and determination to win.

King would waste little time getting himself back into the mix. As his teammate climbed to the front on lap 142, King was flying back up through the field, picking off car-after-car until pulling up to the bumper of Chris Buescher in the No.17 car, crossing the finish line in the third position.

“What an amazing day,” added King. “We came here focused on gaining experience and finishing all 200 laps – winning the pole and finishing 3rd in my first ARCA race, that’s incredible.”

King’s 3rd place finish is also the highest finish on record for a 16-year old making their ARCA racing debut.

So far during the 2011 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards season Venturini Motorsports has utilized an unprecedented (19) unique drivers during the first 16-series events, capturing 2 victories (Brennan Poole/Alex Bowman), 5 pole position awards (Josh Richards/Brennan Poole/Ryan Blaney/Max Gresham/Clint King), 9 Top-5’s and 16 Top-10 finishes. Collectively the drivers coming out of the Venturini stables have led an impressive 486 laps and have led laps in 14 out of 16 races.

- Venturini Motorsports Press Release