Daniel Suarez starting 6th, Leilani Munter 10th, and Frank Kimmel 11th
Daytona Beach, FL (February 13, 2015) – Cody Coughlin and the Venturini Motorsports (VMS) crew show continued improvement over two practice sessions to qualify second for tomorrow’s ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona International Speedway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing Development (JGR) driver will start on the outside of the front row after piloting his No.55 JEGS Toyota to a fast lap time of 48.046 seconds, missing the pole position by a mere .004 seconds.
“This is exciting,” Coughlin said as he addressed the media. “This is a very good start. We battled through a little bit of adversity with issues under the hood and got them solved. Dave Leiner, my crew chief, and everyone else on the JEGS team did a very good job. I can’t wait fortomorrow, starting from the front row.”
VMS has a combined 38 team starts at Daytona including a 2013 victory with driver John Wes Townley. Coughlin’s second place qualifying effort marks the 10th time a VMS driver has started on the front row – two poles and eight outside pole starting positions.
VMS teammate, Daniel Suarez, who will run the full season with JGR in the NASCAR XFINITY Series qualified sixth in his No.15 ARRIS Toyota.
“I think we are in good shape,” said Suarez. “We made it into the Top 10, which will hopefully help keep us from some of the contact that can happen towards the back, and help me learn and continue to figure things out on the track. We’ve been good since first practiceyesterday, second practice today and then qualifying. I think our No. ARRIS 15 Toyota Camry is good and we’ll be able to show it during the race tomorrow.”
Leilani Munter drove her No.66 Energy Freedom Toyota to a career best 10th place starting position. Leilani continually improved her speeds over the course of the two practice sessions and put herself in great position for tomorrow’s main event.
“It feels good. I’m very comfortable in the car and excited to be in this position for tomorrow’s race,” said Munter. “Having Frank (Kimmel) as a teammate has been very helpful, he’s given me a lot of solid advice. I’m looking forward to a great race in my Energy Freedom / 100.org car tomorrow afternoon.”
Frank Kimmel rounded out the foursome with an 11th place qualifying effort in his first appearance with VMS driving the new look No.25 Ansell-Menards Toyota.
“We finished the final practice second on the leaderboard but this group qualifying just didn’t work out the way we planned,” said Kimmel. “I’ve never had a car this fast here at Daytona, we’ve had some really good cars over the years but this one is extremely solid. We’ll be just fine come race time.”
Saturday’s race will be televised live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET while MRN will broadcast the race over ARCAracing.com. ARCAracing.com will also feature live timing and scoring and a live chat board.
ABOUT VENTURINI MOTORSPORTS:
Venturini Motorsports (VMS), fielding cars for over 30-years in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, is one of the premier NASCAR driver development programs in the country. Multiple team championships and consistent on-track success, VMS has evolved into one of the most recognizable names in motorsports. Since 2007, VMS has assisted in the career development of notable NASCAR drivers such as Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Brian Scott, Kevin Swindell, John Wes Townley, Erik Jones, and Justin Boston. Over the years the Venturini name has become synonymous with modern-day racing in America. In 2012, the Venturini family was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame (www.NIASHF.org) and now find themselves enshrined with such sports icons as Joe DiMaggio, Mario Andretti, Vince Lombardi, Tommy Lasorda and Rocky Marciano.
Official: www.VenturiniMotorsports.com | Twitter: @VenturiniMotor | Facebook: Venturini Motorsports
