Wednesday

Robb Brent Looks To Keep Performance Streak Alive At Salem

Filed under ARCA, Press Releases

SALEM, Indiana (September 17, 2009) – - Fresh off his career best finish and first top-five effort of the season last Sunday at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP), Robb Brent heads back to Salem Speedway this weekend looking to keep his recent late season surge alive in Saturday night’s Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA Fall Classic.

Since changing crew chiefs at Springfield, Brent has yet to finish outside the top-15 and accelerated from a trio of those top-15 runs to a career best fourth in his inaugural ARCA road course debut.

With the twists and turns done for the year, Brent must quickly change gears and focus on his second career start at Salem Speedway. In April, the track’s intimidation clearly tried to stall the team’s goal at a top-10 finish. However, after working on the handling of the No. 36 Orchard Chrysler Dodge Jeep Dodge Charger throughout the event, Brent was able to survive a series of melees and the track’s aggressiveness to collect a well earned 10th place finish.

The effort was the first of six top-10s this year also coming in his first start of the year for Justin Allgaier Motorsports (JAM). With some momentum on their side, the team returns to the Southern, Indiana track looking for their second straight top-five. Victory lane is also a familiar place for the Springfield, Illinois team at the Salem bullring and the Shelby Township, Michigan native would like nothing more than to power his team back to that familiar place under the lights this weekend.

“We need to keep this momentum going,” said Brent, who has been a juggling a busy fall college schedule in-between racing. “I’m feeling so upbeat after our run at New Jersey last weekend; I know we can go to Salem this weekend and improve on our run from the Spring.”

He added, “Salem is a pretty aggressive race track. It has Darlington and Bristol all built into one. The bright side for our team was that we were able to come away from Salem in April with a top-10 run but it wasn’t a run that we were proud of. We’ve had 16 races since then and I know we’ll be much better when we unload this weekend. Keeping our string of strong qualifying runs alive is important to me but trying to put our team in victory lane is the bigger picture.”

With his third career ARCA top-five in Millville last weekend, Brent moved ahead in the ARCA RE/MAX Series point standings to ninth. However, just five points separate the 22-year old hot shoe from Tom Hessert III, who’s trailing in 10th. Finishing strong in the next three races are crucial for Brent to conquering his goal of finishing inside the top-10.

“To be ninth right now, all things considered is great,” Brent added. “Our goal was to get to 10th and anything above that was a bonus, after missing the show at Daytona. We can’t afford to give an inch though. To keep us heading in the right direction; we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing and hope everything else works out.”

Washington Township, Michigan based Orchard Chrysler Dodge Jeep will continue it’s long-time association with Brent and serve as the primary sponsor on Brent’s No. 36 Dodge Charger this weekend. Orchard Chrysler Dodge Jeep has backed Brent since his entrance into racing at the age of 16.

Prior to joining Justin Allgaier Motorsports, Brent participated in the ARCA RE/MAX Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driving for NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski and Brad Keselowski Racing. In his 34 ARCA starts, Brent has acquired three top-five finishes and 11 top-10 efforts. Brent notched his career best qualifying effort of second at Kentucky Speedway last year. He has led the ARCA RE/MAX Series pack twice for 21 laps in 2008. His best finish in the NCWTS occurred at Nashville Superspeedway in his inaugural truck debut where he finished 21st after qualifying 26th.

This season, Brent has one top-five and six top-10 finishes in 17 starts with a best finish of fourth at New Jersey Motorsports Park in September. A third place qualifying effort at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in September is the team’s season best thus far.

For more on Robb Brent, sponsorship opportunities and official team merchandise, please visit the newly re-launched Robbbrentracing.com.

Be sure to cast your vote for Robb Brent as the 2009 ARCA RE/MAX Series most popular driver. Visit ARCANation.com and vote for Robb Brent today! Remember, if you are a member your vote counts twice compared to non-members whose clicks only equal one vote.

The Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA Fall Classic (200 laps/111 miles) is the 19th of 21 events on the 2009 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule. The 83rd ARCA race held at Salem is a one-day show. Practice begins Saturday, September 19 with an hour and a half practice session planned from 1:05 p.m. – 2:35 p.m. Menards Pole by Ansell qualifying is set for later in the day slated to begin at 4:00 p.m. The event will take the green flag shortly after 7:15 p.m. Saturday night. The race will be broadcasted live through the ARCA Racing Network (ARN) online at arcaracing.com. All times are local.

- Robb Brent Racing Press Release