8/10/2015
Katlynn Leer
Cody Quarrick Steals His first ARCA Truck Series Win of Season ! Parks it in Lincoln Welders Victory Lane at Jennerstown !
Jennerstown, PA – After more than a year since his first career victory at Jennerstown Speedway in the inaugural event at the famed half-mile, the drought for a win is finally over for ARCA Truck points leader Cody Quarrick.
The grandstands were at nearly full capacity on Saturday, with over 4,000 fans on hand to see the ARCA Truck Series and the all the great local talent on hand. It was an amazing atmosphere and matched the great weather that greeted both teams and fans to the track.
The storyline of the evening was could Cody Quarrick get his first win of 2015 on his home turf. Doing so would pad his points lead heading into the final three events of the season.
Behind Quarrick in the standings is 2014 Holley Performance Rookie of the Year Jeff Myers Jr, who already has three visits to victory lane this season. Only 32 points separate the two, which can be swung in one race. Sitting in third is veteran Shawn Szep, who has two wins this season, and in fourth is Brandon Huff who captured his first win a few weeks ago.
Anymore all the races seem to be the same. Huff leads practice, wins the pole, and then the winner of the feature is up for grabs. That is about how this Saturday went. Huff lead Myers in practice, but it wasn’t Huff winning yet another Rocco Kirsch pole award. Instead it was Myers Jr. taking his second official Rocco Kirsch Pole Award of the season, while laying down a lap time that was 0.001 seconds off from Danny Jackson’s record setting time from last September.
During the inversion dice roll we would roll an 11, which was nearly the entire field. Meaning that Myers had his work cut out for himself in the feature.
The inversion placed local late model favorite Matt Sever and Holley Performance Rookie of the Year points leader Katlynn Leer on the front row.
Starting in the near the rear of the field was no deterrent to Jeff Myers Jr. With bonus points on the line for leading the most laps in the first 25 lap segment, as well as leading at halfway, he was determined to get to the front and capture those points.
Within the three laps of the race Myers Jr. was in second place and was looking for the lead. While he was quick to the get to the front, he had a mirror full of Cody Quarrick who followed him from the back.
Behind the leaders, Brandon Huff was having a harder time working through the pack. While Myers Jr. and Quarrick took three laps to take the top two spots, Huff found himself only in fifth on lap 6. Behind him Shawn Szep was racing to get into sixth. Up front the battle for the lead was heating up between Myers Jr. and Quarrick, with the two nose to tail cruising around the half-mile speedway.
The battle for the lead wasn’t the only battle the fans had to watch. Local favorite Matt Sever, who started on the pole, didn’t not give up any positions easy. While he didn’t stay up front for long, he didn’t fade away easily either. Brian Brewer as well was working hard to remain in the top five and fought hard to stay in fifth for many laps.
The race was rolling smooth when the caution flew for Holley Performance Rookie of the Year candidate BJ Wollerman on lap 18. It was a welcomed opportunity to get back up front with the leaders for Huff and Szep, who had found their way into third and fourth.
Coming to the green, Myers Jr. did not get a good restart and lost the lead to Quarrick with only 7 laps remaining in the first segment.
The top four sorted out with Quarrick leading Myers, Huff, and Szep. While that group ran off, the battle for fifth was tight between Brad Yunker and 2010 series champion Chris Bailey Jr. Bailey would get the edge on Yunker at the line to round out the top five at the break.
Unlike breaks in the past, where teams are given 10-15 minutes for adjustments or repairs, this week teams had nearly two hours between segments. In that two hours the sun went down and the temperature dropped about ten degrees. In other words, the track was not the same when the trucks came back out to finish their feature.
The inversion for the second segment was a five, which put Chris Bailey Jr. on the pole to start. During the first segment, he was in a hard fight to take fifth, which worked out in his favor.
When the green flag dropped, it was Bailey at the front of a five truck breakaway. Behind him were Shawn Szep, Brandon Huff, Jeff Myers Jr., and Cody Quarrick.
Two laps in Huff made the first move on Bailey, which would pan out and he went into the lead on lap 27. Once there he quickly jumped out to a 10 truck lead before Myers and Quarrick found their way past Bailey and into second and third on lap 29.
Take any race this season and the names Myers and Quarrick always seem to be together. Tonight was no different. The two battled the entire for half for the lead and now were battling for second, while trying to run Huff down.
With a massive lead on the field, it seemed probably that Huff had his second win of the season in the bag. That was until the second caution of the evening flew on lap 39 for Ralph Harrod, who was making his first ARCA Truck Series appearance.
As one can imagine, it was not what Huff wanted to see. However, for Myers and Quarrick who were chasing him, it was welcomed.
Little did anyone know, but the caution would set the field up for what would be one of the best finishes to an ARCA Truck Series race in years.
When the green flag flew for the last restart of the evening, Myers was on the outside of Huff for the lead and the two were door to door coming off two turn. The duo battled down the backstretch side by side and ran hard into turn three, where Huff made one bobble and lost the lead to Myers.
Quarrick would slip past Huff, but Myers got the jump and had a comfortable lead. As the laps wound down Quarrick had the faster truck and was pushing it as hard as he could. But it appeared that Myers was going to cruise to his second straight win, his fourth of the season.
As Myers was entering turn three the truck took an odd ‘set’ and a few sparks flew. It appeared as though he might have cut a tire. As he came off the exit of turn four the amount of sparks coming from the Todd Guns-SPEAR Motorsports Chevrolet more than doubled and Myers nearly took down the front stretch wall as the truck became nearly impossible to drive.
Myers made an incredible save in the middle of the front stretch while receiving the white flag, but he had to lift in order to save the truck. This opened the door for Quarrick, who blew by him. It was now apparent that something in the rear suspension had broken. It didn’t stop Myers. While he had lost the race, he was determined to finish and instead of pulling off the track or slowing down and limping it back to the pits, he manhandled his truck to a third place finish. It was quite an amazing sight to watch.
While he miraculously made it back around the track to finish the race, Cody Quarrick benefited from the incident and took home a win in front of a large crowd of family and friends.
It was the first time this season that Cody Quarrick was able to win a race that he was leading at the halfway point. “A win is a win,” said Quarrick in victory lane. “We’ve lost a few to the inversion at midway, but tonight we got one… just happy to get one have five seconds this season.”
Brandon Huff was able to catch and take second away from Jeff Myers Jr. Myers Jr. would end up in third with Shawn Szep taking fourth and Chris Bailey Jr. rounding out the top five.
In the Holley Performance Rookie of the Year points, Brian Brewer came in eight for this second finish of the season. It was the first time Katlynn Leer was not the Holley Performance Rookie of the race. She finished tenth, while BJ Wollerman had an early exit and a DNF suffering a broken spindle in his spin on lap 17.
The ARCA Trucks will have the upcoming weekend off before heading back to Angola, Indiana to Angola Motorsport Speedway for the Double B Garage 100.
Article Credit: http://www.arcatruckracing.com
Submitted By: Katlynn Leer
