ARCA

Chicagoland: Dexter Bean race report

Hard Work Equals Another Top-10 For Dexter Bean In Chicagoland JOLIET, Illinois (September 10, 2007) - - Sophomore ARCA RE/MAX Series (ARS) driver Dexter Bean earned a well deserved top-10 finish in Saturday's Chicagoland ARCA 200, the final ...

Published: Sep 11, 2007, 5:37 AM

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Hard Work Equals Another Top-10 For Dexter Bean In Chicagoland

JOLIET, Illinois (September 10, 2007) - - Sophomore ARCA RE/MAX Series (ARS) driver Dexter Bean earned a well deserved top-10 finish in Saturday's Chicagoland ARCA 200, the final intermediate track of the season garnishing the BlackJack Racing team with another impressive performance.

After losing a car at Gateway International Raceway, the BlackJack Racing team had to scramble to put together their other speedway car in just one weeks time. But as the BlackJack team has done so many times in their two years of ARCA competition, the team has shined in moments of doubt.

[IMAGE]Unveiling their black No. 6 Five Star Telecom Chevrolet at Chicagoland Speedway on Friday, the team had hoped to continue their strength of past Chicagoland runs.

A mixed weather forecast had the teams scrambling on Friday morning. Thankfully, the skies cleared with cooler temperatures allowing over 40 teams to tackle a two-hour practice.

During the session, Bean positioned himself strong in the top-15 for much of the practice run, but qualifying runs by several of his competitors late in the session dipped Bean in the standings.

His lap time of 31.715 seconds at 170.266 MPH put the team 24th on the rundown.

"We're tight in the center off. We haven't raced this car since the Kentucky Speedway race in July. We've made some adjustments to it and it is running pretty good here. The car will race; it's just trying to find some more speed out of it."

Crew Chief Chris Bires elected to make several adjustments to the No. 6 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS Friday afternoon hoping they would pay dividends for Bean in qualifying.

During his two laps of qualifying, Bean clocked off a lap of 31.448 seconds or 171.712 MPH locking the Westby, Wisconsin native 22nd on the starting grid.

"It's a tight field," said the 20-year old rising star. "We made some changes and found some speed. Chris (Bires, crew chief) said we'll be fine for race day, so I'm not worried, we just need to keep out of trouble."

At the start of the Chicagoland ARCA 200, Bean held his own. Competing in a huge pack for the first 10 laps, Bean held the 24th position when the first caution flag waived on lap 11 for a spin by Justin South.

On the restart, Bean patiently hovered in the lead pack and had climbed to 20th when the next yellow flag flew on lap 27 involving a horrifying accident involving Josh Wise, Alex Yontz and Darrell Basham.

Bean brought his machine to the attention of his BlackJack crew when the pits opened on lap 28. The team bolted on four new Hoosier tires, made a chassis adjustment and added Sunoco Racing fuel before sending their driver back into the hunt.

Nice pit work by the team put Bean 14th on the restart. Bean would maintain a solid position in the top-15 for much of the next thirty laps before a caution waived on lap 70 for the No. 12 machine.

Another cycle of pit stops began on lap 77 with Bean bringing his automobile to the attention of his crew.

Restarting 21st, Bean would climb in the rundown before positioning himself in the 13th position when a caution waived on lap 101.

Back to racing, the former NASCAR Elite Division driver was on a mission. After knocking off the 12th place competitor, Bean would waste no time moving towards the top-10. By lap 123 Bean had tucked into the eighth position.

During the final 11 circuits, Bean would put on a great show with Blake Feese before overtaking the driver of the No. 8 Dodge with two laps to go grabbing the seventh position. Bean would hold off another challenge from the Saybrook, Illinois to collect his 10th top-10 finish of the 2007 season.

"We struggled with the car today," said Bean after the race. "We made some changes and the car was the best it had been all day on the last run and that was good news for us. We just kept fighting a tight condition. We had a 20th place car, but hard work awarded us with another top-10 finish. I just want to thank all the guys on the BlackJack Racing team for their awesome work on pit road. We're going to Salem next weekend and I'm really looking forward to that!"

With his strong performance on Saturday, Bean maintains third in the championship standings and cushioned his lead on fourth place competitor Justin Allgaier heading into Saturday's Eddie Gilstrap Motors ARCA Fall Classic by Advance Auto Parts.

Bean is the defending ARCA SIM Factory pole award winner and Bean eyes bettering his second place run at Salem Speedway this past April.

Leaving Chicagoland, Dexter Bean has 48 ARCA RE/MAX Series starts to his credit with five-top five finishes and 16 top-10 efforts. He holds a career best finish of second at Salem Speedway and Pocono Raceway (April 2007 and June 2007). He owns the 2006 ARCA SIM Factory pole award at Salem Speedway (September 2006) while hoisting a career-best speedway time trials effort of fourth at Pocono Raceway (June 2006). Bean also has controlled the ARCA field for 138 laps in six races.

-credit: DexterBean.net

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