Jupiter: Frank Kimmel qualifying report

Frank Kimmel Prepares for Tire Kingdom 150

JUPITER, Florida (February 26, 2010) - In preparation for the Tire Kingdom 150 presented by Modspace, Frank Kimmel and the No.44 Ansell/Menards Ford ran six practice segments and completed 27 total laps in the three-hour practice session today at Palm Beach International Raceway.

"Practice went really well," said Kimmel. "The car has been very responsive to some of the changes we made since the test here a few weeks ago and to the changes we made today."

During today's practice session, the Ansell/Menards Ford was in the ninth quickest position for most of the day. However, Kimmel's fastest lap came in the third segment with a lap time of 80.003, positioning the Ansell/Menards car 11th in the 34-car field. No.44 Ansell/Menards Ford

Qualifying order was aligned by practice speeds and broken down into six groups of five and one group of four cars. Each group had ten minutes to make their fastest lap attempt for the Menards Pole Award Presented by Ansell.

The Ansell/Menards Ford rolled off pit road first within the third group of qualifying cars. Kimmel ran four laps, with his second lap being the quickest at a time of 80.475 seconds, enough for the 13th starting spot in the 75-lap event.

"I'm a little disappointed in our qualifying time," said Kimmel. "We drove faster in our practice runs, so I thought we could at least match that, if not gain on it. We just weren't able to [IMG_67252.jpg] do it. We didn't want to stay out and continue to burn fuel, so we could have a longer first run tomorrow. We'll take the 13th spot and work hard during the race to come up with a good finishing position."

-source: frank kimmel PR