Press Release

Kimmel Steering for Record 7th ARCA RE/MAX Series Crown; Next Stop Nashville

Release date: March 11, 2005
Contact: Sean Dozier
Public Relations Director
615.547.7210

NASHVILLE TN – Frank Kimmel is already the only driver in ARCA RE/MAX Series history to win five consecutive championships. And with a record-tying six crowns to his credit overall (Iggy Katona also has six), he very well may be bearing down on a record mark of seven series titles.

Kimmel’s also got three really nice electric Gibson Guitars, all earned with victories at Nashville Superspeedway, the next stop on the RE/MAX Series tour.

“The Gibson guitars are the neatest trophies we have,” said Kimmel from his New Albany, Indiana race shop. And for a driver who is second on the all-time series win list with 56 victories accompanied by some very fancy hardware from a wide variety of first-class facilities, that says a lot.

“I’ve got a really cool helmet for winning the pole at Texas once, but nothing out-runs the Gibson guitars from Nashville. I remember going to the Nashville fairgrounds years ago and watching the All-American 400, seeing Jim Sauter and Darrell Waltrip get that Gibson guitar trophy. Always thought to myself, ‘man it would be neat to have one.

’”Coming off a solid second place finish at Daytona, coupled with a Nashville stat book better than the rest, another Music City six-stringer will not be out of the question when the PFG Lester 150 rolls off on Saturday, March 26 on the 1.33-mile concrete oval.

And while the field will be full of eager rookies and savvy veterans ready and willing to unplug Kimmel’s guitar, it will be no small task. Certainly not when you consider Kimmel’s track record at Nashville where, in eight series starts, the Clarksville, Indiana second-generation racer has three wins and five Pork Pole Awards.

And if he wasn't in victory lane at Nashville, Kimmel has always been somewhere very near. He finished second to NASCAR vet Ken Schrader in the inaugural event in 2001 and second to Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Busch in 2003. Add his third and fourth place finishes in 2004, and you get the picture. Only a broken transmission in the late-summer event in 2003 has kept the all-time series superspeedway lap-leader from a top-five finishing position there.

“It’s been a couple years since we’ve won at Nashville,” said Kimmel. “And we know the competition is at an all-time high in this series, especially on the intermediate tracks. Last year, it was Ryan (Hemphill) winning everywhere (on the intermediate tracks). With Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs, Jack Roush, Ganassi, Evernham, and all the rest in the game now, we know we have to improve our program. We’re working very hard to do that. That’s why we’re bringing two cars to the test next week. We’re gunna find out which one works better and get the other as close as we can.”

Kimmel, headed to Nashville, is second in points behind three-time Daytona winner Bobby Gerhart. With Advance Auto Parts signed on for three more years and Pork coming back as an associate sponsor, Kimmel’s quest for what would be a record seventh series crown is, no doubt, fresh in his mind.

After all, only NASCAR legends Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt have seven championships in a national tour that requires drivers to be skillful on similar short-tracks and many of the same superspeedways. In the case of NASCAR, throw in a couple road courses; in the case of ARCA, throw in a couple dirt tracks. Either way, it's hard to be a champion in either league. “I don’t know if it’s fair to include me in that category, with Earnhardt and Petty, but for someone to even consider it, is very humbling for me,” added Kimmel. “I can tell you this; I’ve got a real appreciation for those guys (Earnhardt and Petty). But I can also relate. I’m learning how hard it is to be a seven-time champion in any touring series, period. Makes me respect those guys even more.”

In numbers, we know that Petty, in 1,185 career Cup starts, won 200 races (first all-time) over the course of 34 years. For Earnhardt, his 76 career Cup wins (sixth all-time) were spread among 676 career starts during his 26-year NASCAR tenure.

In percentages, this means that Petty was a winner in approximately 17% of the races he started. For Earnhardt, his wins represented just over 11% of his total starts. Kimmel, on the other hand, over a relatively short 15-year tenure, has earned 56 career series wins (second all-time) in 280 career starts. In other words, he has won exactly 20% of all the races he has started. This is no small thing. And while you may be uncomfortable with the ARCA/NASCAR comparison, Kimmel's impressive numbers are coming at a much quicker pace, nonetheless.

Further, Kimmel, during his 15 years in ARCA, only won five races between 1990 and 1997. Since hooking up with car owner Larry Clement fulltime in 1998, the year of his first championship, Kimmel won 51 races bringing his career total to 56. Therefore, the Kimmel/Clement combination produced an astounding ratio of starts-to-wins that is, arguably, unrivaled in American motorsports. During their seven-year run together (and counting), they have won 33% of all the races they have started. In addition, Kimmel is already the all-time leader in career earnings with over million, more than twice as much as the next driver in line.

Possibly the most telling and impressive stat outside his win-to-start ratio is his lap-leader mark of 8,251 laps-led in 144 races. And speaking of the lap-leader category, he's got that very well covered at Nashville too with 354 laps-led total, more than any other driver who has ever circled the Tennessee oval.And with so much potential career yet ahead of him, it's fun to wonder what Kimmel's career stats will look like when he finally hangs up his goggles for good somewhere down the road, whenever that should be.

Whether Kimmel joins the seven-timer club or not remains to be seen. But either way it shakes out for Frank James Kimmel, he is a proven commodity and a remarkably talented multi-time champion in major-league national stock car racing; and it's hard to be a champion, let alone a seven-time one at that.

The March 26th PFG Lester 150 from Nashville Superspeedway, a preamble to the same-day NASCAR Busch Series Pepsi 300, is LIVE on SPEED Channel at 1:30 pm Eastern.

Nashville Superspeedway is owned by Dover Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE: DVD), a leading promoter of motorsports events in the United States. DVD subsidiaries operate three tracks in three states, and present several hundred motorsports events each year. This includes 14 major, national events which include races sanctioned by NASCAR and the NHRA. Dover Motorsports, Inc. also owns and operates Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del., and Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis, Mo. For further information log on to www.DoverMotorsports.com. This release may contain forward-looking statements based on management’s beliefs and assumptions. Such statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause results to vary materially. Please refer to the SEC filings of DVD for a discussion of such factors.