Talladega: Patrick Sheltra qualifying report

Patrick Sheltra Qualifies 11th For ARCA RE/MAX 250 At Talladega
"Third Year ARCA Team Captures Career Best Speedway Qualifying Effort"

TALLADEGA, Alabama (April 23, 2009) - - Patrick Sheltra just missed his third top-10 start of the season after the Indiantown, Florida negotiated the 11th fastest time in Menards Pole by Ansell qualifying Thursday afternoon which sets the field for tomorrow's ARCA RE/MAX 250 at Talladega Superspeedway.

The effort is a career-best for Sheltra in fifth superspeedway time trials attempt. After drawing the sixth position for his qualifying run, Sheltra maneuvered the 2.66-mile speedway in Grace Sheltra's No. 60 Buffalo Wings & Rings / BuckedUpApparel.com Dodge Charger to a time of 51.872 seconds at 184.608 miles per hour. The effort was a tick slower from his practice effort early Friday afternoon.

"It was pretty decent," said Sheltra. "We were really hoping for a little more but I've never qualified better than 27th here so I'll take 11th and look forward to tomorrow's race. It's a big day for us. We have several representatives of Buffalo Wings & Rings who will be in attendance on Friday and of course, our newest buddy Scott Herman will be in the pits, so I'm looking forward to all the hype and the race tomorrow."

Sheltra who finished fifth in last year's ARCA RE/MAX 250 commented on qualifying as a whole. "The Toyotas are fast but I was happy to see a Ford and Tom (Hessert) get the pole. The Toyotas are obviously the cars to beat here tomorrow, we just have to outsmart them. It was a Dodge that beat a Toyota here last year, so I'm hoping we can back up that statement for the second consecutive year."

-credit: sm