7/26/2015
Katlynn Leer
ARCA Truck Series: Brandon Huff Finally “Strikes”! Visits 1st Lincoln Welders Victory Lane, Takes The Double B Garage 100 At Angola!
(Angola, IN) July 25th, 2015 — As lightning flashed in the sky far south of the facility, a storm of a different nature was about to hit Pam Shelmadine’s Angola Motorsport Speedway in the form of an ARCA Truck Series driver who had competed since 2011 without tasting triumph.
Poland, Ohio’s Brandon Huff led 74 laps en route to his first series victory in this his fifth full time season. The exhausted winner took that celebratory victory lap then parked in the Lincoln Welders Victory Lane and basically spilled out of his Pirate Marine Boat Trailers Chevy V6 at the completion of the Double B Garage 100 lapper!
“I have so many people to thank. My dad, my mom, Tom. And especially the fans here at Angola. I hope they enjoyed the race!”
Just like at Lake County last month, Katlynn Leer and Brian Brewer started on the front row (after first time Rocco Kirsch Pole winner Jeff Myers Jr. rolled a nine to invert the field). And just like at Lake County there was contact before a lap was even completed which sent Brad Yunker into the fourth turn tires and out of the race with rear suspension damage.
After a complete restart, Brewer was looking to get that monkey of his 2015 back and bolted into the top spot. But it wasn’t long before he felt that heat from Huff. The two raced side by side for almost three laps but Huff finally cleared Brewer on lap 15 and proceeded to check out.
It appeared that the rest of the field would need the midway break and inversion to catch Huff but on lap 41 he looped his truck in turn four which brought out Chief Starter Denise Engle’s caution and dropped Huff back to sixth and gave the lead to Jeff Myers Jr. who kept it on the restart and until the mid race break at the 51st circuit. Teams were allowed to make any changes in ten minutes as long as they didn’t remove any Hoosier Tires! Meanwhile, two young fans in attendance enjoying the Angola “Christmas In July” holiday each rolled a three which put Myers back in the back in sixth and Huff right back at the front!
And when he and Jess Drook took the green as the front row starters, Huff resumed his march and quickly showed the field his rear taillights. Behind him though was a battle of the top spot in the year long standings as lap after lap point leader Cody Quarrick and second place Myers fought for runner up until lap 84 when the transmission in Myers’ truck locked up and forced him to stop in turn one.
It’s as if the last restart was a formality as Huff was once again gone when racing resumed on lap 85 with Quarrick and last race winner Shawn Szep duking it out for second which eventually went to Quarrick.
With the bright half-moon illuminating the speedway and with the shrieks of cheers and tears of joy in the background during his interview, the 24-year-old soon-to-be father said of his competition, “what a great race! All these guys…Cody, Shawn, Jeff…had won an ARCA Truck Series race before and man they’re just so tough to beat! But thankfully we did it tonight!”
His fiancé Mary, by the way, usually is in attendance but could not make this event due to work obligations. Now, they say lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. But we’re sure with the way their team is performing, that they’ll “strike” again…so we, like Mary, will be watching for them in victory lane!
The next stop for the ARCA Truck Series is this Saturday night August 1st which is back at the Series home track of Columbus Motor Speedway in Ohio. Another long time competitor, Shawn Szep, was the victor there a few weeks ago in what was a rescheduled event from back in June after a rain out and he also ended a long winless drought with two total wins this season. There now have been three first time winners (Jeff Myers being the other) in the five 2015 ARCA Truck Series races to date!
Article Credit: http://www.arcatruckracing.com
Submitted By: Katlynn Leer
