Casola's Second Effort On Dirt With ARCA RE/MAX Series is a Good One; Heading to Chicagoland

JOLIET IL (9-4-07)--With just one previous effort on a dirt track with the ARCA RE/MAX Series, that was a 13th place finish at Springfield, Illinois a couple weeks back, Dominick Casola was satisfied, not ecstatic, but satisfied with his 17th place finish in the Southern Illinois 100 at DuQuoin, Illinois Fairgrounds.

"We had a problem with a malfunctiong air gun that slowed us down a little," commented the Holmdel, NJ racer. "During a pit stop a lug nut got caught in the air gun and that make for a somewhat slow pit stop. It was nobody's fault. Those things happen. The crew did well and the car performed good."

Casola, a rookie racer on the ARCA RE/MAX Series, started 22nd in the Labor Day afternoon event. A steady effort by the 20-year-old racer brought the A. Casola Farms Ford home ahead of some of the veteran performers in the 40-car starting field who had much more experience on the dirt ovals. Casola, now 16th in the ARCA point standings, gave a lot of the credit for the good effort to car owner Andy Belmont.

"Andy has been doing this for a long time, not only as an owner but for many years as a top driver on the circuit," said Casola. "He has been a tremendous help to me. His tutoring has been immensely important to my career. And he has taught me a lot about dirt racing and during the season he has been a wealth of knowledge to me."

Ken Schrader, a veteran Nextel Cup racer, won the race for the second year in a row.

After shaking the dirt off from DuQuoin the A.Casola Farms Ford team heads to Chicagoland Speedway, a 1.5-mile D shaped tri-oval for the running of ARCA 200 on Saturday, September 8th. Qualifying takes place on Friday, September 7th, at 5 p.m. And on Saturday, September 15th, Casola gets back to short track racing with the running of the Eddie Gilstrap Motors ARCA Fall Classic by Advance Auto at the one-half-mile Salem, Indiana Speedway.

On Saturday, October 5th the team, fielded by Andy Belmont Motorsports, heads to Talladega Superspeedway for the ARCA RE/MAX 200 on a track many consider the fastest on the circuit. The season closes out on October 14th with the running of the Hantz Group 200 by Belle Tire being presented at Toledo, Ohio Speedway.