J.R. Fitzpatrick Involved in Early ARCA Crash at Daytona
Daytona Beach, Florida (February 7, 2009) - Canadian J.R. Fitzpatrick was involved in a lap 14 crash in the season opening Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 ARCA RE/MAX race at Daytona International Speedway ending his day early.
Fitzpatrick, from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, started the race from the 42nd grid position. In the opening laps of the event he was bidding his time and getting the TRG Motorsports Chevrolet up to temperature and speed. On lap 14 an incident started in turn three and continued into turn four when Fitzpatrick was caught up in the wreck ending his day just 14-laps into the event.
Prior to the incident Fitzpatrick had moved up some 10 places and was getting faster as the laps clicked down running in 34th place.
"The car would go through the center of the corner like a bat out of hell," Fitzpatrick said. "I was one of the few cars that could hold the bottom of the corner. The car felt like it was progressively getting better as the race went on."
"When I came through turn three there was a lot of smoke across the track and I couldn't see a thing until I hit the No. 1 car. I looked up top and looked down and just didn't see a way through. I bit my tongue in the crash, so tomorrow I will probably have an American accent."
"We had the right plan," Kevin Buckler, TRG Motorsports team principal said. "We had a handling setup on the car and J.R. was getting in the groove when we got caught up in that wreck. We will put this behind us and get ready for the truck race next Friday."
Fitzpatrick will be back on Wednesday to drive the No. 7 Mammoet Chevrolet Silverado in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for TRG Motorsports.
TRG Motorsports is based in Mooresville, North Carolina where they run a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team as well as an ARCA RE/MAX Series effort. 2008 marked the first full season of competition for TRG in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series where they recorded one win, one top-five and ten top tens overall. The team's sister company, The Racer's Group, was founded in 1993 has been competing at the top level of motor racing ever since. TRG has the most wins of any team in the Grand-Am Rolex Series with 26, including the 2005 and 2006 Rolex Series GT championship trophy to go along with wins at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
For more information contact please contact Kyle Chura at (248) 821-0468 or chura@aol.com. Detailed team info can be viewed at www.trgmotorsports.com or www.theracersgroup.com.
From Kyle Chura / TRG
