After a plastic bag found its way onto his grille at Daytona and overheated his engine, Joe Graf, Jr. (No. 77 EatSleepRace.com Ford) had been looking ahead to getting back into the cockpit and rebooting his run for the ARCA Menards Series championship. Graf is a short track winner, doing so at Berlin Raceway last August, so getting back to action at the half-mile Five Flags Speedway is just what he and his Chad Bryant Racing team needed.
Graf was near the top ten in practice and started the ARCA Pensacola 200 from eleventh. He broke into the top ten on lap five but by lap 12 had fallen back to eleventh. He needed an adjustment to the car’s handling, but with only two cautions all night long, the opportunities to do so just weren’t there.
Graf pitted repeatedly on the first caution of the night so crew chief Todd Meyers could make adjustments, and he made some progress from 13th on the restart back to eleventh. But from there, Graf’s progress through the field stalled. Another pair of stops under the second and final caution of the race didn’t give him the opportunity to race into the top ten, and he crossed the line eleventh. He was the only driver at the finish two laps down, and one lap behind tenth-place finisher Travis Braden.
“Obviously, the finish wasn’t what we were hoping for,” Graf said. “We made some strides during the race, but with the limited number of cautions, we weren’t able to get to pit road and keep adjusting on the car to put ourselves in the top ten. We are a winning race team and we are winners together, so an eleventh-place finish is unacceptable. Our team, however, is resilient and we will bounce back at Salem Speedway next month.”
Even with the struggles at Daytona and Five Flags, Graf has moved to fifth in the ARCA Menards Series championship standings.
Practice for the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA 200 is set for 11 am ET on Saturday, April 13 with General Tire Pole Qualifying scheduled for 3 pm ET that afternoon. The green flag on round three of the 2019 ARCA Menards Series season will drop shortly after 2 pm ET on Sunday, April 14. The race will be televised live on MAVTV and ARCA for Me members can access live timing & scoring, live chat, and live track updates at ARCARacing.com. New members can register for free at ARCARacing.com/login.
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