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Rockingham: Ryan Crane race report

Ryan Crane Impressive in ARCA Remax Debut at "The Rock" Panama City, FL 4/21/09- They always say the first one is the one you remember the most and for Florida native Ryan Crane this weekend's debut in the ARCA Remax was definitely one to ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:51 PM

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Ryan Crane Impressive in ARCA Remax Debut at "The Rock"

Panama City, FL 4/21/09- They always say the first one is the one you remember the most and for Florida native Ryan Crane this weekend's debut in the ARCA Remax was definitely one to remember. A blown motor in the first lap of practice, a one lap qualifying run, and an impressive eighth place finish should make things pretty easy to remember for quite some time.

Crane, making his ARCA series debut at the famed Rockingham Speedway in a car owned by NASCAR Sprint Cup series car owner James Finch took adversity head on from the get go. Just as the #51 Phoenix Contrustion/RyanCrane10.com Dodge was coming up to speed in the first lap of practice, trouble struck under the hood resulting in an expired engine. The Mike Garvey lead crew scrambled to make the motor change before qualifying and with only one timed lap to make it into the forty car field due to missing their designated position in line for qualifying, Crane wheeled his way to a tenth place position on the starting grid to take the green flag.

Much like Ryan's home track of Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, "The Rock" has a very abrasive surface that is tough on tires and equipment. This favored the team's mindset of conservative racing throughout the first 100 laps of racing especially after having to come up through the field due to a miscue on pit road. At crossed flags the ARCA rookie driver had made his way back to twelfth.

An eighty lap green flag run to the finish quickly showed the drivers capable of conservative style racing. While NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader put a majority of the field down a lap including the #51, Ryan did his version of the same blowing by drivers such as veteran Frank Kimmel and Kevin Harvick Inc. driver Ricky Carmichael on his way to an impressive eighth place finish.

While a top ten finish would have been nothing but joy to most drivers in their first race, a few thoughts of wanting more was what Crane reflected on the most after the race.

"I know this was my first race in this type of car but having to manage my equipment to be there at the end is something I've been doing for years at Pensacola (Five Flags Speedway) and I really think we could have been in the top five. I made a mistake on pit road the first stop by driving off after the guys changed two tires, I guess I thought I was still racing a Blizzard series race," laughed Crane. "But all in all, the car is in one piece, we logged some laps and it gives us something to build on for the future. My crew deserves more thanks than can be given especially James Finch and everyone at Phoenix Racing because I know we couldn't have gotten this done without them."

-credit: ryancrane10.com

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