Casola posts Career Best Third Place Finish

TALLADEGA AL (10-8-07)--"We are thrilled, absolutely ecstatic, with our third place finish," said Dominick Casola after getting his career best finish in the nationally televised ARCA RE/MAX 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday evening. "To be able to run with the leaders and hold second spot for so many laps was fantastic. It shows that we have a team that has what it takes to be a contender against the many high dollar teams that race on the ARCA circuit."

Casola, a rookie on the highly competitive ARCA circuit that has had 15 different race winners this season, had high praise for car owner Andy Belmont and the crew. The A.Casola Farms Ford Fusion, a former Chip Ganassi owned Nextel Cup entry, sported Roush/Yates power.

"I'd never drafted with anyone before. So this weekend definitely paid dividends. We started in the middle (qualified 21st quickest), fell to the back, and I tried to work my way back up there. My car was real strong all day. I just haven't had the experience on these restrictor plate tracks," commented the excited Holmdel, NJ racer. "I knew I had to protect my position and maintain where I was (on the final laps). I wasn't giving up the bottom for anything, because if I went to the outside, I'd get freight-trained. So I was just trying to hold the line and follow them to the checkered and see what happens."

Great things happened as Casola was able to bring the A.Casola Farms Ford home behind winner Michael Annett and second place finisher, eight time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel.

Casola, making his first start in restrictor plate racing,  earned the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger honors for advancing the most positions, coming from 21st to third.

That strong finish came despite running the final 15 laps with a serious tire rub that almost caused a cut tire that could have given out had the race continued any longer.

The A.Casola Farms entry gained a lot of attention and TV time as the No. 1 sported a black paint scheme with Halloween figurines that promoted the on-going Halloween activities at the Holmdel, NJ farms. The public is welcome to visit each day through Halloween.

With the third place finish Casola moved into 13th spot in the ARCA RE/MAX point standings (unofficially) and gained some ground on 12th position.

A strong effort in the season finale at Toledo, Ohio Speedway on Sunday, October 14th, could give Casola enough points to have the rookie racer finish in 12th spot in the final standings despite having not participated in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

The Championship Weekend at Toledo Speedway will feature the Hantz Group 200, presented by Belle Tire, and will have a 2 p.m. starting time and will be seen live on SPEED.

"It is always fun to get back to short track racing," said Casola. "You just never know what is going to happen on a track like Toledo. I just hope that I can close out the season with a strong effort, of course a win would be great but a top five is our realistic goal, and that will give us the incentive to start our plans for a great 2008 season."

With the ARCA RE/MAX Series finishing Dominick is looking to hook up with a team owner to race in the Turkey Derby weekend at Wall Township, NJ Speedway in late November. The team is also planning to be part of the Motorsports 2008 presented by VP Racing Fuels Race Car Show at Atlantic City's Convention Hall January 18th through 20th.