ARCA

Ken Weaver Michigan race notes

Ken Weaver Gets Back to Fun with Sixth-Place Run at Michigan Even a Brush With the Wall Can't Keep Smile off the Tall Texan's Face at MIS DENVER, NC (June 19, 2006) -- For Ken Weaver, driving his ...

Published: Jun 21, 2006, 5:30 PM

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Ken Weaver Gets Back to Fun with Sixth-Place Run at Michigan

Even a Brush With the Wall Can't Keep Smile off the Tall Texan's Face at MIS

DENVER, NC (June 19, 2006) -- For Ken Weaver, driving his #20 1-800-4-A-PHONE Dodge on the ARCA RE/MAX Series has become a whole lot more fun in recent weeks. After two-straight top-10 finishes at Toledo and Pocono, Weaver found himself walking around the Michigan International Speedway garage with a big smile on his face as he looked for a third consecutive good outing at the 2-mile tri-oval.

If Weaver was having fun behind the wheel going into Michigan, then he's more like a kid in a candy store now that he brought home that third-straight top-10 and the fifth overall this season in the Hantz Group 200 at MIS with a sixth-place run.

"I had a lot of fun out there today because I had the best racecar I've had all season long," said Weaver. "It took a while for our car to get the right line figured out and once I got the right grip on the outside, the car was just about perfect. I had a completely different car on the outside and the car just flew around the racetrack while I was running up there."

Weaver set himself up for a strong run in Friday's race after timing in 13th-place starting spot in Thursday's Pork Pole qualifying. Even though Weaver had to come from a little deeper in the field than he would've liked, he still worked his way patiently through the field with his powerful #20 Dodge.

"I love being able to pass cars left and right like we were doing today. Some of the joy of it is like being on the freeway and you can just go by all these people. The car was just so easy to drive. Driving a good car at a place like Michigan is like you're five years old again. It's so fun to drive it like that.

"We were running around fifth pretty much the whole first part of the race before pit stops. The guys gave me some great stops today and they kept me up front. I'm really happy with their performance."

There was a moment in Friday's 100-lap event where things weren't so fun for Weaver. On lap 70 Weaver slightly brushed the wall with the right-front fender, causing slight damage. Weaver pitted on the next caution period so that his crew could do the best repairs possible to get the Texas veteran back out and in contention for the win.

"After I moved to the high side I had some of the most fun in a racecar that I've had in a long time. I got a little greedy on new tires and just barely scraped the wall. I only got into it slightly, but it was bad enough to push the right front fender in.

"We had to come in and the car got back going really good, but we lost so many positions when we pitted that we were just trying to race back up to where we were before. We weren't going to win, but we probably had a second-place car the way our car was going."

Even with the slight damage, Weaver continued to have one of the fastest cars at MIS Friday. Weaver held on for sixth at the fall of the checkers, giving him and the Eddie Sharp Racing team plenty of motivation heading into the next ARCA race at Kentucky Speedway in two weeks.

"We had to come in and fix it and that put us back a little bit, but Ken recovered nicely and brought home a good finish," said car owner Eddie Sharp. "We're headed in the right direction with this team and now we've got a week to go back and polish this car and get it ready for Kansas. Pit stops were good and the car was better than ever, so we'll keep working hard trying to get Ken into Victory Lane."

-kw-

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