Mitch Calvert
Time to get back to the drawing board.
Fort Frances native Steve Arpin’s hopes of a podium finish in his second start on the ARCA RE/MAX Series circuit came to a crashing halt Sunday at the Salem Speedway when his Eddie Sharp Racing teammate, Craig Goess Jr., clipped him on Lap 94 while he was in third place—leaving his car in disrepair.
“[Craig] pushed up a little bit getting into [turn] one and cut my left rear tire down,” Arpin recalled.
“There was a little bit of tension after the race, but it wasn’t intentional or anything, just one of those racing incidents.
“He got a little bit too deep and pushed up into me, and at that point I was just along for the ride,” Arpin added.
The 25-year-old eventually rejoined the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 30 laps later, but by then it was just a matter of moving up a few positions on drivers who had retired from the race to finish in 17th spot.
Florida native Patrick Sheltra took the checkered flag while using the same pit strategy as Arpin’s team, giving him his first ARCA victory in his 48th career start.
“We took the two-tire change [during the first pit stop] to save our four-tire stop until later in the race because we knew we had a good car to stick with them,” Arpin noted. “In the race, you’re limited to a set-and-a-half of tires.
“Everyone was taking their four-tire change at the first stop because everyone was really pushing them hard right off the start,” he remarked. “Sheltra was on the same pit strategy as us, so it would’ve been a really good battle down at the end.
“We were capable of a top two finish.”
Arpin pulled a few Houdini tricks out of his hat to avoid accidents earlier in the race, including on Lap 72 when he missed hitting Brett Hudson after he spun directly in front of him on turn four.
The pass moved Arpin into second place at the time.
“I was on the high side and the guy on the bottom spun out and pinched us into the wall a little bit, but we came out of that fine,” Arpin said.
“There were quite a few wrecks, but Brandon Lyons was spotting for me and did a great job keeping us out of trouble.”
Arpin had the 10th position out of qualifying, though he said a slip-up on his end prevented the team from a potential front row starting position.
“My crew chief, Wayne Carroll, and all the guys gave me a really good car, and I learned a lot on my first short track race,” Arpin enthused.
“We could have had a better qualifying lap, but I got a little too low entering into turn three, hit the bumps, and got the car a little sideways coming off of turn four on my second lap,” he recalled.
Arpin is at Talladega Superspeedway today and tomorrow for testing in preparation for the race there April 24, but his next scheduled ARCA event actually comes up Sunday, April 19 at Rockingham Speedway in Rockingham, N.C.
“We tested there [Rockingham] a couple weeks back and things went really good,” Arpin said. “We’re definitely on the right track and we’ll be expecting big things there.”
