Casola Happy With Strong Finish in Pennsylvania 200 at Pocono

LONG POND PA (8-6-07)--"It was a fantastic day," said Dominick Casola as he described his involvement in the Pennsylvania 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Pocono Raceway on Saturday. "I was really happy with the way we performed. It showed that we could run well against the great talent that is involved in ARCA competition."

Casola, a rookie on the ARCA RE/MAX Series circuit, had the A.Casola Farms Ford, prepared by Andy Belmont Motorsports, in first for a few laps and ran with the leaders all throughout the 200-mile event.

"Tire wear kept us from finishing higher but we are happy with our eighth place finish," commented the young racing talent. "It was our first top ten and with the amazing horsepower we got out of the Roush-Fenway motor we will be looking for more strong finishes.

"Andy Belmont really gave me a great car and Jennifer (Belmont) did an outstanding job as the spotter. She kept me out of trouble and that certainly was a tough job with so many incidents happening on that huge Pocono triangular track."

Casola is excited about his chances of having a good showing at the next event.

The A. Casola Farms team heads to the Nashville, TN Superspeedway for the Toyota ARCA 150 on Saturday afternoon, August 11th.

"We are taking the very same car we ran at Pocono this past weekend to Nashville," Dominick said. "The last time at Nashville we got caught up in a wreck and did not finish. I think we can get another top 10 finish or better in this second visit to Nashville."

Practice for the Toyota ARCA 150 is scheduled from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm Friday afternoon, August 10th, followed by SIM Factory Pole Award Qualifying at 5:30 pm. The Toyota ARCA 150 will be LIVE on SPEED at 3:30pm ET on Saturday, August 11th.

On Sunday afternoon, August 19th, Casola gets his first crack at major league dirt track racing competition.What makes the ARCA RE/MAX Series unique in major league sports is the fact that they spread their schedule over superspeedways, short tracks and also a couple of dirt tracks. The ARCA racers will be taking part in the Allen Crowe 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois, a one-mile-dirt track.

"I have only raced on dirt twice in my career," said Casola. "The race at Springfield could be fun for me or funny to watch for others."

The Allen Crowe 100 has practice, qualifying and the race all happening on the same day, August 19th.