Lucas Punkari
It’s sort of a case of dejà vu for Fort Frances native Steve Arpin.
Two years after picking up Mike’s Hard Lemonade for what then was a two-race deal in the ARCA Series prior to a victory at the Texas Motor Speedway, the 28-year-old has another two-race deal this year with Turner Motorsports in the Nationwide Series, starting Friday night in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at the 1.5-mile oval in Justin, Tex.
“They always say big things happen in Texas, and it seems that way with the way my career has been going,” Arpin noted.
“We picked up Mike’s for two-races at the time a couple of years again in the ARCA series, and that was the same weekend that I got my first win with them.
“And when it was also announced that I would be running for JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series,” he added.
“Last year my first race in the Truck Series was in Texas, and we are back to square one again with the deal here.
“And we hope to have these big things keep happening.”
For now, Arpin is pencilled in to run at Texas on Friday, then compete at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on Saturday, May 5, although there could be more races in the future if this stint goes well.
“We’ve been working on this all winter long, and we’ve had a whole bunch of bumps in the road, but we’ve also had some real smooth sailing,” he explained.
“It went from a full-time truck deal, to a partial truck deal, to a partial Nationwide schedule,” he recalled.
“But we are definitely working on things right now and hoping to continue things going forward into the future.”
Arpin’s #30 Chevrolet Impala also will have a bit of a different look than the regular Mike’s Hard Lemonade paint scheme that has been on his vehicles over the last two seasons as the company is promoting its new Mike’s On The Rocks product.
“They’ve just introduced it, and it’s combination of Long Island Iced Teas and Hurricanes,” he explained.
“I always thought that the Long Island Iced Teas at Sha-Sha’s were the best that I ever had, but that was until I tried one of these,” he enthused.
The team Arpin will be driving for already has had some success to start off the 2012 campaign. Camping World Truck Series driver James Buescher took a stunning win at the season-opening event at the Daytona International Speedway back in February.
Even though this will be his first race with the crew, which is led by crew chief Trent Owens, Arpin already is familiar with the guys he will be working with.
“I’ve actually been at the shop with them for about every week since September or so,” he noted.
“We’ve known what’s going to happen and everything that is going on, but there are so many details that have to be in place before you can have an official announcement.”
Having raced in five events for Turner Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series last year, when he became the first Canadian in more than a decade to earn a pole position at a race in Chicago in September, Friday’s race will be Arpin’s first in the Nationwide Series since a seven-race sting for JR Motorsports in 2010.
During his time with the team, the Nationwide Series was transitioning between body styles on their cars, with Arpin running the first race with the new style car at Daytona that July, where he had a career-best finish of 10th.
“There were obvious differences between the two cars when I drove them, but there has been a lot of changes since then and these cars have come a long way,” he noted.
“On top of that, when you run at a track like Daytona and Talladega, that style of racing doesn’t relate whatsoever to anything else that you race on.
“At those tracks, you hold it wide open and it’s all about drafting,” he remarked. “While at downforce tracks like Texas, it’s all about handling and things like that.”
With his first on-track activity being a 80-minute practice session tomorrow night, Arpin is looking forward to seeing how his first race back in the Nationwide Series will go.
“I’ll be able to tell you how I think everything goes on Thursday night after practice as I don’t know what to expect yet,” he quipped.
“The only time that I’ve sat in the car was to have my seat fitted, so I’m really curious as to what it will be like, but it should be fine.
“I learned a lot last year in the Truck Series with Turner, and the biggest thing was just working with this calibre of team on making sure that you have the car or truck where you need it to be from a daytime practice session into an evening race.
“Hopefully, those things will translate over here this weekend.”
The 200-lap affair will be broadcast locally on TSN 2, on tape delay, starting at 9 p.m. (CDT).
