After starting 21st, Milka Duno moved up 11 positions throughout the race to score a 10th place finish and win the CGS Imaging Hard Charger of the Race Award. The award is given to the driver who makes up the most positions throughout the race.
The top 10 finish for Duno at New Jersey Motorsports Park on Sunday marks her first top 10 finish in her ARCA Racing Series career. She is also the first Venezuelan driver to finish in the top 10 in an ARCA Racing Series event.
“We definitely arrived here recharged and reinvigorated with a new team that’s running exclusively with Toyota power,” Duno says. “David Leiner has been my crew chief since mid-season last year and it’s so great to be running with him and his crew with his new team. The effort of the crew today was awesome! What we demonstrated with this result is that we are a team and an organization that simply will never give up. We earned this finish today and I’m really very happy and proud for all of us that we accomplished this.”
It also marked the first top 10 finish for David Leiner Racing, a new team in the ARCA Racing Series.
“The amount of work and effort it took to put this all in place and perform as well as we did today was staggering,” team owner and crew chief David Leiner says. “Everyone associated with this effort gave nothing less than 150%. Our crew worked so hard for this that I can’t possibly thank them enough. Milka started the race 21st and brought it home in 10th – what a fantastic job! Our first race with this new effort and we score our first top-ten at the same time!”
Duno made her move to the ARCA Racing Series last season after winning eight major races in the Prototype division of the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Series. She is also the highest ever finishing female in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, when she finished second.
