Arpin pleased with Kentucky showing

Lucas Punkari

After spending the night before the UNOH 225 at the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta dealing with a bout of food poisoning, Steve Arpin simply was looking to make it through his second career Camping World Truck Series unscathed in more ways than one.
Even though his #32 Mike’s Hard Lemonade Chevrolet was involved in a pair of late-race mishaps, the Fort Frances native was able to bring his Turner Motorsports machine home to a respectable 12th-place showing last Thursday night.
“To be honest with you, I was just out of it when the race started,” Arpin said.
“I had a raging headache and I was dizzy, which is not the best frame of mind to be in going out there.
“We just wanted to stay in a position that would give us something towards the end of the race, and all in all it was like a win for us,” he added.
Having started the race in 13th spot, Arpin stayed right around that area for most of the race, then moved into the top 10 as it was winding down.
But with nine laps to go, Arpin looped his truck around as he exited Turns 3 and 4—just moments after the caution flag had waved for a spin involving the lapped truck of Charlie Vest.
“I’m not quite sure what happened there,” Arpin admitted.
“I don’t know if there was something on the track or if we got put into an aero situation because we were passing a lapped truck at the point and Todd Bodine was also on my back bumper,” he remarked.
“Then just all of a sudden, with like the snap of your fingers, we got loose and before I could get control again, it was gone.
“We had been loose going into Turn 3 all night long, but never to that extent,” he stressed.
As Arpin was regaining control of his truck, he nearly hit the stationary vehicle of Vest, who had come to stop at the entrance to pit road.
Fortunately, Vest was able to his machine re-fired and back underway before Arpin came sliding into that part of the track.
“My eyes got pretty big when I saw him there,” Arpin recalled.
“When I started spinning out, I couldn’t see that truck on the bottom, and I was regaining control and I saw him in front of me, I thought, “Oh my lord, I might have just screwed myself up here now.
“But luckily enough, he got it fired up again and out of the way.”
After pitting for a fresh set of tires, Arpin was looking to move his way back into the top 10 during a green-white-checkered restart. But as he entered Turn 3, he found himself involved in another incident.
Just ahead of Arpin, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Miguel Paludo got together while running three-wide going into the corner. Both trucks slid up the race track in front of Arpin—and he had nowhere to go but high and into the wall.
“We were the only truck with sticker tires on so it was going to be a really good deal there at the end,” he said.
“We went down the entire backstretch at half-throttle, just waiting for everything to smooth out,” he explained. “But when we went into Turn 3, the two guys ahead of me got together and went up into the fence, and that left us with nowhere to go up high.
“The truck really didn’t have that much damage at all, but we bent our splitter on the front of the truck which is what helps to produce downforce, and that makes the truck hard to turn.
“So we weren’t in a position to be aggressive on the second green-white-checkered at the end,” Arpin reasoned.
Back up at the front of the field, Sprint Cup star Kyle Busch captured the checkered flag, giving him his fifth win in the 10 races the Truck Series has run this season.
Busch then went on to win the inaugural Cup race at Kentucky on Saturday night.
Although Arpin was bummed that he wasn’t able to get a top 10 showing, that wasn’t the reaction he got from team owner Steve Turner once the race was finished.
“I’m disappointed about finishing in 12th but Mr. Turner is over there just absolutely excited about how fast I’m coming along, and he’s telling me that getting a 12th in my second race at this level is incredible,” he said.
“So one of the things I need to learn is about managing my expectations, and not let myself get down after a run like we had at Kentucky.”
Arpin won’t have long to dwell on his showing at Kentucky as he makes his third of five scheduled starts this Saturday night when he runs in the Coca-Cola 200 at the Iowa Speedway, a 7/8th-mile short track where Arpin raced in both the ARCA and Nationwide Series last year.
“We had a great run going in the ARCA car last year, but we unfortunately got into some debris and cut a right front tire down,” he recalled.
“Then in the Nationwide race, we got loose in the end and ended up in 18th, but we were up in the top 10 for most of the day.
“The track is awesome there and it’s so much fun to race on,” Arpin enthused.
Another reason why Arpin is looking forward to this event is the fact Iowa is the closest track to Fort Frances on his schedule—a nine-hour drive away.
“For me, it’s the closest thing that I have to a home race,” he remarked.
“It’s awesome to receive all of the feedback from back home and from Minnesota where we raced our dirt car for so many years, and there are so many coming down to support us, which is really cool.”
Fans who are headed down to the race at Iowa also can meet Arpin in the Casey’s Fan Zone, located in the track’s infield, on Saturday from noon-12:40 p.m. and again from 4-4:30 p.m.
“All they have to do is just contact the ticket office or purchase them online, and it’s only for $10 to head down there, which is a really good deal,” Arpin said.
But before he takes to the track at Iowa, Arpin was due to make a return to dirt racing tonight at the Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Mn., where he’ll be running a Modified in the Gopher 50 event.
“I’m so excited about running there again,” he enthused.
“It’s really cool to be able to come back to the track that I raced at for so many years, and to be able to see all of the people that have supported me over the years and share my new experience with all of them,” he added.
Although Arpin is excited to run on the dirt once again, he’s only cautiously optimistic about taking a trip to Victory Lane in his return to the track.
“That’s going to be a tough one as that is one of the best Modified fields in the country,” he stressed.
“When I first started going down there years ago, it was like a victory if you could even qualify for the feature, and then it got to a point where we were winning fairly regularly.
“Now I’ve been out of the seat for a couple of years, but hopefully it’s like riding a bike and I’ll be able to pick up right where we left off,” he reasoned.