Michael McDowell Wins a Thriller in ARCA RE/MAX Series Pennsylvania 200
By Dino Oberto
Race Results
(Long Pond, PA 8-4-07) The Pennsylvania ARCA 200 was a race that came down to a survival run as numerous cautions plagued the 80-mile trek but in the final outcome it was fuel mileage that ultimately decided the race.
Winner Michael McDowell drove his Dodge past the Chevy of Jeremy Clements who ran out of gas coming off the final turn en-route to an exciting finish.
“It was real unfortunate for Jeremy Clements. We weren’t sure how he was going to stretch his mileage. We kind of knew he was going to be in a little bit of trouble so he was a bit unlucky and we were more fortunate,” said fourth place starter McDowell.
Clements was the strongest car in the latter stages of the race and appeared poised to take his career first ARCA win.
He dodged a number of accidents that eliminated several of the top contenders, however, over the final five laps it came down to a shootout between him, McDowell and Josh Wise.
Wise, in a Toyota, had grabbed the lead with three laps to go but before the lap was competed Clements returned the favor and was back out-front. Then it was McDowell who zipped under Wise on the white flag circuit and was making a dash at the leader.
Clements had the edge going into the short chute and looked like victory was his, however, as the trio exited turn three, his tank ran dry which allowed McDowell and Wise to squeak by.
“We’ve been in contention to win a lot of these races and the last couple of times luck has gone our way,” said McDowell who also won last week’s ARCA race in Kentucky.
“There were a lot of good cars out there today and we were able to steer clear of the accidents and cop a few yellows when we needed them.
“It was a great race on that last lap between Josh (Wise) and I. We both drove it into the tunnel turn as hard as we could and I used a little bit of the curve down there to make the pass.”
Erin Crocker and Marc Mitchell completed the top five with Justin Allgaier, Dexter Bean, Dominick Casola, Josh Krug and Mike Harmon completing the top ten.
“It’s so hard running these races and were just a small team,” said a disappointed Clements. “The pit crew had it figures that if we had enough cautions we would make it but I guess they were wrong. There was just disbelief.”
McDowell’s win helped him to keep within reach of ARCA point leader Frank Kimmel who crashed out of the event on lap 68. 30-points are the separation now between the pair heading into the next ARCA race a week from now at Nashville Superspeedway.
The most serious crash occurred on lap 56 that involved local favorite and title contender Bobby Gerhart from Lebanon,
Racing within the top five, Gerhart was pinched from behind while heading into the tricky tunnel turn. His car spun and smacked the outside wall. Afterwards he was clobbered by the oncoming Tom Berte.
While a host of other cars were also collected in the melee, Gerhart’s and Berle’s mounts were the most severely damaged.
Gerhart did climb from the wreckage but was later transported to Lehigh valley Medical Center in Allentown. No report was available as of press time on his condition. Berte was okay.
There were eight lead changes among six drivers. The margin of victory was listed at .490-seconds. There were nine cautions that consumed a total of 49 laps.
Toyota driver Bobby Santos III was the pole sitter and early leader but was sidelined on lap 42 due to an accident.
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