Img 8145 Day19 Jwa 6.jpg

Empire Racing Finishes Strong Week with Top-Five Finish with Sean Corr at Daytona

www.arcaracing.com February 17, 2019

Empire Racing started the 2019 ARCA Menards Series in style, starting on the front row with Thad Moffitt (No. 46 Performance Plus Oil Chevrolet) and finishing with Sean Corr (No. 43 Nesco Chevrolet) crossing the line in fifth position, which ties his best career series finish.

Moffitt, great grandson of the inaugural Daytona 500 winner Lee Petty and grandson of seven-time 500 winner and seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard Petty, was a factor throughout the early stages of the race, but was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop when his window net came loose on lap 27.

Moffitt fell back to 30th, one lap down, but would eventually rejoin the lead lap after receiving the free pass when the caution came out. Moffitt would race his way through the lead lap cars and again challenge to break into the top ten when he cut a right rear tire and slapped the outside wall on lap 70. The damage to the car was terminal and Moffitt finished 27th.

“We had that problem with the window net and we had to pit,” Moffitt said. “Then we worked our way back up and the right rear tire went down on us. It’s disappointing to end our week that way but that’s racing. We’ll be back and try to get a win at Talladega.”

Moffitt’s teammate Corr, himself a former General Tire Pole Award winner at Daytona, moved into the top ten under the caution flag for Moffitt’s incident and stayed there the rest of the way.

Corr restarted sixth on the final lap, the first time the ARCA Menards Series utilized a newly-instituted one attempt at a one-lap dash to the checkered overtime finish. Corr stayed tucked with Natalie Decker down the backstretch then moved high off of turn four and with a lot of momentum and slipstreamed past Decker to steal fifth at the stripe.

“I went from 22nd to ninth at the start and we had the first caution,” Corr said. “Once we got into the top ten those cars were a lot harder to pass. There was a lot of really good cars out there.

“My goal for the day was to just drive it back in the garage in one piece,” Corr continued. “I have to say I had a little deja vu from last year on that restart. I didn’t want to get caught up with anyone’s mess so I gave them a lot of room. Once off turn four I sucked up on that group in front of me and got fifth at the line.”