| ARCA Champion Patrick
Sheltra Solidly Qualifies For Talladega Truck Debut
“2010 ARCA Racing Series Champion Grabs Attentions
With Attractive Lap”
TALLADEGA, Ala. (October 21, 2011) - - 2010
ARCA Racing Series champion Patrick Sheltra will make his
second-career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS)
start Saturday afternoon in the sixth annual Coca-Cola 250
Powered By fred’s 250 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Sheltra, the Indiantown, Florida native practiced
his No. 99 Bucked Up Apparel / PatrickSheltra.com Ford F-150
Friday morning in the 32nd position in the lone-two hour
session of the weekend after mounting a lap of 54.418 seconds
at 175.971 miles per hour. However in qualifying, the 25-year
old nailed the 21st quickest effort by maneuvering his blue
oval around the 2.66-mile speedway in 55.129 seconds or
173.702 miles per hour.
The T3R Racing team led by Motorsports veteran
crew chief Cal Boprey started the day with a strict agenda.
With 40 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams on the ground,
the team would have to beat four other competitors in order
to earn a berth into tomorrow’s race.
After some routine adjustments, Boprey turned
the reins to the three-time ARCA Racing Series winner where
he impressed many in the garage with a solid time trials
lap and attractable starting position.
T3R Racing out qualified some of the stoutest
teams in the NCWTS garage that included; Germain Racing
(Max Papis and Brendan Gaughan), Kyle Busch Motorsports
(Josh Richards), Randy Moss Motorsports (Todd Bodine) and
Red Horse Racing (Miguel Paludo).
“It was a total team effort by everyone
at T3R,” said Sheltra, who will make his first NCWTS
start since 2007. “Our main attention was single-truck
runs during practice. We received a little help during the
session which threw our lap-times off track a little bit,
but we were pretty pleased with that (qualifying) lap.”
He added, “I definitely think we have
a good enough No. 99 Bucked Up Apparel / PatrickSheltra.com
Ford F-150 to have a good run with during the race. We know
that in order to have a finish well though, we have to be
around when lap 94 strikes. We haven’t really decided
on a game plan yet; we’ll just see how it all unfolds.
I just want to thank everyone including Cal (Boprey, crew
chief), Charlie (Vest, team manager) and the Silas family
for the opportunity. I am looking forward to the race.”
Sheltra is no stranger to success at the daring
yet sometimes intimidating Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Last year in the ARCA race, Sheltra who finished second
pushed Dakoda Armstrong, who is also entered in Saturday’s
afternoon contest to his first career ARCA Racing Series
win last April. The following day, Sheltra made his NASCAR
Nationwide Series (NNS) debut at ‘Dega driving the
No. 09 Ford Fusion for RAB Racing with Brack Maggard, which
included leading three laps under green before delivering
a top-20 finish.
The No. 99 Ford F-150 is boasting a pink paint
scheme for this weekend’s thriller, all towards spreading
the support of Breast Cancer Awareness month, which is recognized
during the month of October.
Before today, Sheltra’s best starting
position for any NASCAR event ironically occurred at Talladega
last April for RAB Racing where he started 22nd. He started
35th in his lone NCWTS start at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway
more than five years ago.
Additionally, T3R announced today that it
plans to field a ride for the Floridian in the season finale
at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in the Ford 200 on Friday
night, November 18.
The Coca-Cola 250 Powered By fred’s
250 (94 laps / 250.04 miles) is the 22nd of 25 races on
the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series tour. The field
will take the green flag on Saturday, October 22nd shortly
after 3:00 p.m. with live coverage on SPEED, the Motor Racing
Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite, Channel
90). Pre-race coverage of the contest lifts off at 2:30
p.m. also on SPEED. All times are local (Central).
For additional input on Patrick Sheltra, please
connect to PatrickSheltra.com.
###
TEAM / DRIVER COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:
NAME: Chris Knight, Knight Motorsports Management
PHONE: 239.834.9797
EMAIL: chris@chrisknightpr.com
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