DAYTONA BEACH FL (2-6-09)-Justin Lofton earned the Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell at Daytona International Speedway on Friday afternoon with a time of 49.418 seconds (182.120 mph) around the 2.5-mile speed plant. The Eddie Sharp Racing Driver starts Saturday's Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race alongside Daytona Beach, Florida native Alli Owens. The race is live on SPEED beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern.

The top-five starters for Saturday's ARCA RE/MAX Series race will all be sporting the Toyota nameplate, led by Lofton and Owens. Local favorite Owens, who is making her first career ARCA RE/MAX Series start with D'Hondt Motorsports this weekend, qualified a career best second in the No. 19 ElectrifyingCareers.com Toyota with a time of 49.584 seconds (181.510 mph).

"That was awesome," said Owens. "I waited so long to be able to see my name up front at the top of the charts during qualifying and the crew and everyone over at Eddie D'Hondt racing has done a really good job supporting me. I want lots of pictures so all of you people out there taking pictures send them to me.  I thought to myself ‘here's your chance Alli. Here's your chance to accomplish what you've been waiting for.' And I went out there and hit my marks and I couldn't be happier."

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie Joey Logano qualified third in a Toyota owned by Bill Venturini, followed by Michael Annett in the No. 01 Visit Japan Campaign Toyota and Brian Scott in the No. 8 Venturini-prepared Albertson's Toyota. Five-time ARCA Daytona winner Bobby Gerhart starts sixth in the No. 5 Lucas Oil-Slick Mist Chevrolet, followed by James Buescher, Will Kimmel, Craig Goess and Tom Hessert.

The Series will hold a final practice session from 5:10-6:15 p.m. Friday in which teams will only be allowed to make a limited number of pre-approved adjustments. The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 is live on SPEED beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. A live radio broadcast of the race will accompany live timing and scoring on arcaracing.com.

For more information on the ARCA RE/MAX Series, visit http://www.arcaracing.com/.

CONTACTS:
ARCA PR/Media, office (734) 847-6726
Don Radebaugh, cell (419) 450-0611
Jackie L. Franzil, cell (419) 574-2685

Post Qualifying Driver Quotes:

Justin just take us through your pole winning lap and how the car is for tomorrow's Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200.

Justin Lofton: "The car felt really good. Driving around here doesn't require too much but a good handling car. And my crew, Mark Rhett, and Tyler Jones, Shawn and Brett and the guys that have done a really outstanding job at setting it up. We came here exactly with what Bryan Clauson sat on the pole with here in the Nationwide race and it worked again. It was comfortable and I don't think we're going to go out for happy hour, we're just going to leave the car in the impound and go relax a little bit and know that we have done the first part of our job."

Alli, talk a little bit about being on the outside pole here at Daytona.

Alli Owens: "When we first came here back in December there were a lot of expectations that we had with the new team, Eddie D'Hondt and D'Hondt Motorsports and expectations that my sponsors, electrifying careers.com, had on me so there was a lot of emotion that went into that test but we came out of there with some pretty good numbers. We went into practice yesterday and ran some pretty good laps and put some really good times on the board. I got kind of nervous late yesterday when we decided to make an engine change and we worked late into the night and came in early this morning to make that change. We didn't have any laps on the motor so I was kind of nervous about how that was going to turn out and came out with my first outside pole ever. It's neat to be on the outside pole with Justin [Lofton], we did some racing together last year and hopefully we'll be able to put on a good show for at least the first couple of laps tomorrow."

How will your car be in race trim as opposed to qualifying trim?

Justin Lofton: "To be honest I really don't know. We didn't do any kind of drafting with our teammates when we went to Talladega to test, we didn't do any drafting in practice yesterday and we aren't going to do any drafting tonight. We're just going to go out there and see what we've got. The whole Eddie Sharp Racing Lofton Cattle crew knows exactly what we have underneath the hood and I can pretty much just tell between practice and qualifying that we are going to have a really fast racecar. I'm really not worried about drafting."

Alli Owens: "Well as most of you guys know Eddie D'Hondt [car owner/spotter] is a former spotter and still spots for a lot of the Cup guys. His drafting experience from up top is going to be a huge help to me. We're going to do some testing with drafting later this afternoon in practice and get used to communicating together on the radio. I have faith in his ability to know where the cars are around me and stuff like that. We ran Daytona and Talladega last year and I love drafting. I like the three-wide, fender-to-fender racing and I like to get down and dirty out there and so hopefully Eddie [D'Hondt. car owner/spotter] will be able to guide me up front and keep me there."

Talk me through the last lap at Daytona. If you're behind the leader and want to get to the front. Where on the track do you want to make your move or is it just whatever happens?

Justin Lofton:"When it comes to restrictor plate racing here I don't think you really ever want to be up front. Look at what Justin Allgaier did at Talladega to make the pass in the last lap and win the race in 2008. You can suck up a lot better being in second and if you are leading you just can't do anything but push the guy down if he's running up to you. Ideally, you'd like to lead all of the laps in the race and never even have to worry about that but in restrictor plate racing you can't really do that. Mike Calinoff is my spotter and I am going to let him guide me and do that. He's going to do all of the work and I'm just going to be the guy driving the car."

Alli Owens: "With drafting you're going to surprise a lot of people, especially in the ARCA RE/MAX Series, with the amount of experience we have. That was a pretty awesome move at Talladega last year [Justin Allgaier's pass for the win]. I have a lot of faith in my spotter [Eddie D'Hondt] and I want to do whatever I can to get to the front. There's a lot of good cars out here and hopefully we'll be able to put on a good show, maybe even better than Talladega! I'm hoping for a good finish but if could be able to come out and win Daytona-oh boy-that would be awesome."

There's usually a big crash in this race. How does that enter your thinking during the race?

Justin Lofton: "Well I'm hoping that if I have a car like I did in qualifying we'll stay up front and we won't have to worry about it. I've sat down with my crew chief and my spotter just to think about it and I think really just to be up front is your least chance of anything happening to you."

Alli Owens: "I definitely agree that it is good to be up front but unfortunately last year here at Daytona one of the big wrecks was up front, with second and third-place cars involved, so you're really not safe anywhere. It's pretty much just making sure that you are on key and know your surroundings and hopefully we'll be in a situation where we have really good cars and really good drivers around us all the way through the race. I need to stay focused and we need to make sure that we are doing everything that we can and sometimes fate plays into our hands."

What if there is someone in position near you that you don't really want to be around?

Justin Lofton: "That requires a lot of communication between the driver, the spotter and the crew chief. That's just a move that only a veteran driver will know because maybe it will work out but it might not. So that's just a roll of the dice and having experienced spotters, especially Cup level spotters, that really helps out because they've seen it time and time again. Just put trust in them and let it happen."

What would a win or a good finish do to your career?

Alli Owens: "Well being a Daytona Beach native I think it would do a lot for this community and I think it would open up a lot of eyes. More or less, I think it would be an inspiration for a lot of people. In terms of my career, I think it would be huge. We haven't had the best equipment my entire career and I think that this is the first time that I have confidence in my cars to know that when we come to the racetrack we are one of those cars that people look at to see where our times are so that they can be like us. There really still hasn't been the Danica Patrick of NASCAR racing or stockcar racing in general and not to try and compare myself to her but it would be nice to blaze that trail that so many have looked for.