Frank Kimmel scored his best career finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series during the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 at the Daytona International Speedway. Kimmel led six laps of the event en route to an impressive eighth place finish. Kimmel started the evening in the No. 29 K Automotive Ford F-150 in the 28th starting position and quickly moved into 16th after only the first lap of the event. With the lead draft stuck closely together, Kimmel made veteran moves that enabled him to avoid numerous accidents that seemed to happen directly in the path of his Ford truck. During the team’s first pit stop of the evening, the team took on four fresh Goodyear tires and filled up with Sunoco fuel, but made no adjustments to the race truck.

At the halfway point of the event, Kimmel made a charge moving from the eighth position into the second position in only ten laps. Running up front would save Kimmel from the ‘big one’ which took place on lap 51 collecting numerous trucks. Crew chief, Bob Keselowski, made the decision to keep the truck out in order to lead a lap and collect the five bonus points before bringing the truck to pit road. The crew was forced to make a radio change in the truck along with taking on four tires and fuel putting them in the 15th position for the restart. With 41 laps remaining in the event, Kimmel moved into the top ten and battled to the checkered flag within the top five and top ten.

“This was easily one of the most exciting races I have ever driven in,” said Kimmel. “It was wild out there with trucks battling like it was the last lap throughout the entire race. I can’t say enough about this K Automotive team and the truck they gave me tonight. The truck handled great all night and I was able to run pretty much anywhere I wanted to. We didn’t seem to be strong enough to lead the race, but getting up to the leader was not a problem until the last set of tires we put on. They just seemed to loosen the truck up too much and that caused me to run on the top of the track rather than on the bottom where I wanted to be.”

“I knew our goal here tonight was to get a top ten finish and be able to load the race truck into the hauler in one piece,” said Kimmel. “We accomplished what we came here to do, but there at the end I really wanted to get back into the top five for the finish. There was just a lot of bumping and air moving around on the track, but it was a great experience. I’m just thrilled with the run we had and to get my best career finish in NCTS competition along with getting another top ten at Daytona for the K Automotive team is a pretty great feeling.”

Frank Kimmel earned his best career ARCA RE/MAX Series finish at Daytona International Speedway last week when he finished second. K Automotive Motorsports has now earned five consecutive top ten finishes at Daytona. Kimmel will pilot the No. 29 K Automotive Ford F-150 at the next NCTS event at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 13.