Salem: Montgomery Motorsports race remarks

Montgomery makes most of uncertainty in Salem.

SALEM, Ind. (April 28, 2002)-- Although finishing 18th in an ARCA RE/MAX Series race doesn't seem like a great accomplishment, the Montgomery Motorsports team was just happy to have raced and finished today's race.

The weekend appeared to be over before it started for the #27 Montgomery Motorsports team. Due to the wash out of qualifying for Saturday's Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 and no provisional option (the team changed numbers at the beginning of the season, which didn't give them enough owner's points for a provisional), the #27 Chevrolet Monte Carlo was loaded back onto the hauler.

Thanks to the camaraderie and family environment of the ARCA RE/MAX series, all was not lost for the #27 driver, Chase Montgomery. Montgomery was given several offers to run other cars for Saturday's race, while several others teams, including the teams of Frank Kimmel and Jason Jarrett, spoke to ARCA officials on behalf of letting the Montgomery Motorsports team enter the race.

Montgomery and the team decided Saturday morning to accept an offer to compete in the #38 Capital City Motorsports Ford Taurus owned by Greg Sarff.

"I appreciate the opportunity that was given to me by Greg (Sarff)," Montgomery said. "It really says a lot for the series to have such gracious teams."

Since the #38 made a driver change, the car had to start from the back of the field. Since Wednesday's test day was Montgomery's first time around the .555-mile Salem Speedway and all practice time was rained out over the weekend, he was still green to the track.

In his typical style, Montgomery settled in, quickly learned the track and the 18-year-old RE/MAX series rookie of the year contender moved up seven spots in the first 20 laps.

Montgomery stayed out of harm's way for the first half of the race. On lap 104, the race-leading #64 machine came up on Turn 4 and into the side of Montgomery. The #38 was banged up but fortunately it seemed to be only cosmetic damage.

After a short pit stop, Montgomery went back out and held on until the end of the race, finishing 18th. Montgomery was the highest finishing rookie of the weekend, which helps his rookie of the year cause.

"He went out there and did what we asked him to do," team owner Ray Montgomery said. "That wasn't our normal style of racing. We very conservative because we were looking to protect the equipment of our fellow competitor who was kind enough to let us borrow it."

Although it wasn't the turn out he was looking for coming into the race, Montgomery made the most of the situation. He is glad to have this short track experience under his belt and is looking forward to the next event at Kentucky Speedway.

"I'm just glad I got to race," Chase said. "The crew did a great job and worked very hard all weekend. I have to give them credit for hanging in there and helping me through this situation. We are looking forwarding to heading to Kentucky."

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