Pocono Race Report, Results

Long Pond, PA, by Don Radebaugh - Much to the approval of his hometown crowd, Montoursville, Pennsylvania driver Blaise Alexander finished out a perfect week at Pocono International Raceway Saturday with an extremely popular victory in the ARCA Pepsi 200.

The 1996 ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series Rookie of the Year did everything he needed to do, including winning the pole with a new track record, leading the most laps, and most importantly, holding off defending champion Frank Kimmel at the final stripe to win his second career ARCA victory and first-ever at the 2.5 mile triangular superspeedway. Kimmel trailed by less than a half second with current point leader Bill Baird finishing third ahead of Jeff Finley and Mike Swaim, Jr. in tow to complete the top five.

After leading 41 of the 80 laps, and with Kimmel lined up directly in his rear view mirror, Alexander almost saw it all go away with two laps to go when his transmission began to falter. "I went to shift into fourth when I got the two laps to go there and I shifted and something broke, and it was like shifting into neutral," explained Alexander after the race. "I quick went back into third gear and luckily we didn