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Jared Kash Wins Livonia 250, His First Career Race Win
Jared Kash has been a journeyman during his short career in the AERS. If nothing, he has been a serviceable veteran who can help a team short term and get a few solid runs here and there. He hasn't quite lived up to the potential many once told he had.
Things changed today. The Livonia 250 week rolled upon us and Jared Kash looked like a lead driver, a contender, someone who could take the top Kenny Gerrelds, Inc. driver position away from Alex Jates. Kash got the opportunity to battle with teammate Madison Vermette for that in the early 2018 campaign and did it, winning his first career race and doing it in the biggest race of the year and doing it in dominant fashion.
After starting 17th, Kash was obviously considered a longshot to compete for the win, but as time kept ticking down, it was clear the #0 Valero Ford was going to be a factor in the outcome of this race. Leading the second most laps in the race with 36, far behind Tyler Deefer's 92, Kash stayed out in the top-5 for most, if not all, of the race. His car continued to weave through lap traffic and hold off charges from Deefer, Zach McRae, and Shawn Glossum until the late stages when rookie polesitter Caine Dwyer made a late race charge after an earlier spin and Casey Lester came hot on his tail in the closing stages of the race. The real move, though, was the usage of lap traffic to weave around Carson Crompton's #84, who had taken the lead momentarily with 6 laps to go.
"We had a fast car all race," said the 250 winner, "I'm not sure how we came back like that, but damn does it feel good to break through like this."
Kash records his first win in what has been a long journey. After surging through the AARO as a young driver in the lower tiers, his AERS career hadn't got off to the start he'd have liked. Kash had never been in the top 35 in points long enough to solidify a locked in spot for each event.
"The main thing was the guys brought a good car. I don't really care what anyone thinks of me or my team, we're out here to prove everyone wrong. There's a lot of heart at this shop, and I can tell you we're going to explode this year."
Kash was joined by teammate Madison Vermette in victory lane who quickly came to his teammates defense, "Y'all know there's such things as late bloomers right?" he exclaimed.
Tommy Ritcher, Mikael Carter Fued In Garage Area
Shortly after the end to an exciting Livonia 250, Tommy Ritcher confronted #39 driver Mikael Carter, after an incident on lap 34 which brought out the first caution, when Carter turned Ritcher's #2 into the pit lane barrier. Ritcher was visibly upset and tracked down Carter after emerging from his motor home shortly after Carter had been done talking to media by his car.
"I was just walking from my car over to the media center for post-race questions and out of nowhere Tommy spun me around and got in my face." said Carter, "That's all he did too, yelled at me in my face, I tried to explain my side of it but he just stomped away. He's got the right to be mad, but what are you gonna do? We're all just tryna win out here."
Ritcher cooled down quite a bit after, and remarked to the media shortly after that "he'd lost his cool". "Clearly I let emotions get the best of me. I'm still not happy about it, I thought I handled post-race as well as I could have but man, I'm so angry. Guy's a champion but I don't think people realize what he does for his points. He's turning people left and right every week. I'm just tired of it, people are blind to it and even moreso after this layoff we had. We had a great car today, you saw with my teammates; they were all up at the front. We were gonna be too, so yes, I'm upset, but I've calmed down now. I'll have a word with him next weekend and we'll see where we're at then, but I'm still not going to be happy with him."
Caine Dwyer Battles Back For 2nd Place Finish
Polesitter rookie driver Caine Dwyer showed fans this weekend just what he's capable of in the sport's top ranks. While he faded from the pole almost immediately, Dwyer would kind of coast his way around for 200 laps as he tried to just buy his time and stay out of trouble.
On lap 124, shortly after green flag stops had ended, Dwyer made a rookie's mistake and merged right up into series previous champion Mikael Carter. Carter got together with another rookie, Steven Cortez, in the 96, and the three of them went around with minimal damage. Dwyer's car had to be repaired a bit, but he continued to pluck away at the race distance.
By the time the white flag flew, Dwyer had solidified his spot in the top-5 and was battling with Jared Kash for the top spot. And while he didn't get to visit victory lane in his first start, it was definitely a sign of what fans can expect from the young phenom.
"Yeah, I mean we weren't the best, made some driver errors and overall just weren't a huge threat all race, but a 2nd place finish in my first career start feels like a win to us. We're just proud of ourselves and I'm proud of everyone here for battling back like we did. It was great to get off to a good note in the championship standings. I think we all breathe a sigh of relief now that we know we're in for Boston and we know we've got a team that will go through hell to get to the front."
Dwyer finished the day with a 2nd place finish, with 5 laps led, and just barely edged out Casey Lester at the line to keep the runner-up position.
Ashton Short Frustrated With Carson Crompton
In a short quote gathered by media members outside his hauler, a heated Ashton Short exclaimed, "Carson Crompton is the biggest piece of **** in the garage area. *** that guy."
7 Forum Founder, Admin
Posts : 7740 Join date : 2009-05-16 Age : 29
Subject: Re: 2018 AERS Race 1 - Livonia (Livonia 250) Thu Mar 01, 2018 12:31 am
Lachner on Dwyer:
Lachner: Scawles, Dwyer "Using Sketchy Tactics"
Kody Lachner declared shortly after the Livonia 250 that Scawles Racing, namely rookie Caine Dwyer, are using "sketchy tactics" to bolster their cars. It is unclear as of yet whether or not the 10 or 5 passed post-race inspection, but Kody Lachner seems to believe they've done something against the rules.
"I've been keeping my eye on those guys, especially the 10 team. I've seen them doing some sketchy stuff, sketchy tactics," claimed Lachner, "Think about it, Scawles has been just horrible the past how many years? Now they get some hotshot rookie and all of a sudden they're one of the top teams? No that isn't how it works. Caine Dwyer isn't all that, sorry. That team is 100% cheating, and I seen it with my own eyes, my crew saw things as well. If that car passes post-race inspection, I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands and see what I can do. I'm not letting that go all year."
Update: Later in the night, Caine Dwyer and Zach McRae both passed post-race inspection. The AARO released a statement following: "Upon inspecting race cars for post-race inspection following the Livonia 250, we have not found any illegal parts or specifications to any team, including that of the Scawles Racing Team cars. The AARO has established an investigation on the two Scawles teams, as well as a full investigation on Garth Enterprises driver Kody Lachner."
VerizonGuy12 World Racing Legend
Posts : 1984 Join date : 2010-03-13 Age : 27
Subject: Re: 2018 AERS Race 1 - Livonia (Livonia 250) Thu Mar 01, 2018 2:37 am
SGR Report (is back):
Roger Sweeney not worried about Livonia 250 struggles.
Newly signed SGR driver Darcy Lusk's top 10 starting spot was the only positive that came out of the weekend. Silver Green was mired back in its first race with its new partnership with Chevrolet, with lead driver Jason Miller scoring the highest finish of the 3 with a 18th place finish. Despite this, Roger Sweeney is not worried.
"We brought alot of unfamiliarity to this year, and while an effort like this is disappointing, you don't win a championship in Week 1. The 22 is in a transition from our previous driver, and Jesse is getting his feet wet with these cars, so you can't be expecting alot out of them." - Roger Sweeney stated.
"The handling fell way off after the start, and we couldn't get it to work like what we had in the first 15 or so laps." - Darcy Lusk stated after his 31st place finish.
"These beasts do run a lot different also having to deal with a new aerodyanamic package with the Chevy kinda threw me off, but I will be familiar when it comes." - Rookie Keith Jesse making his AERS debut had that to say after finishing 32nd.
Miller had no comment, while Kurtis' team had already left after they DNQ'd from the race earlier in the weekend, prepping for Boston.
Last edited by VerizonGuy12 on Thu Mar 01, 2018 1:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
NathanSmith83 Racing Legend
Posts : 242 Join date : 2014-12-31 Location : The 5th Dimension
Subject: Re: 2018 AERS Race 1 - Livonia (Livonia 250) Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:12 am
ACS Racing Week in Review: Race 1:
As a general practice, ACS Racing tries to prevent its drivers from giving interviews immediately after laving the car. This is an attempt to let cooler heads prevail, avoid controversy, and letting the drivers actually see the video on their incidents before assigning blame. After about 30 minutes in their respective trailers, Smith, Crompton, and Aaron Anderson were reached for comment
Smith Apologetic to Scransen, Slightly Frustrated with AARO Officials
“First off I want to make clear I am sorry to the 26 team. That was a boneheaded move on my end. However, this is an issue I’ve seen coming at this track, which even further calls into question why I am the one it happened to. Since the pit lane is technically located after the Start/Finish line, when the pits open on the 2nd lap of yellow, we’ve generally only had between a half and one full lap to actually slow down and get into pacing formation before we pit. We were still at about 75% race speed diving into the pits, almost like it were green flag stops. All of this is on top of that pit wall being a death trap. However like I said this is my fault, especially since no other driver managed to make that mistake. I was checking the gauges and in the caution/pacing mindset and by the time I looked up I remembered I needed to pay special attention to the road ahead at this place. Again sorry to Scransen and the whole team. My team too we had a great qualifying run and were on the same setup as Carson who ran up front most of the latter half of the race. We never seem to have any luck here. It’s alright though, on to Boston.”
Carson Crompton Unapologetic to Short, Angered with Lapped Traffic
“A slight tap in the bumper shouldn’t end up like that. Also if you wanna avoid getting that tap, speed up. I thought rubbing was racing. Guess he doesn’t like when he’s on the receiving end. I didn’t straight dump him like Carter did, but he’s Mikael Carter so it’s ok. I will credit him [Short] for that great move up the middle and not slowing me down when we lapped him. He’s not untalented or stupid at the least. Phillips though. Fuck that guy. He finishes 2nd in an irrelevant series 3 years ago and that qualifies him to be here apparently. I miss Legge. Not sure if that was some kind of team orders for what happened between Nate and the 26. I doubt that though. Either way, nobody wants to see a car barely making minimum speed determine who wins the race though. That’s not what any driver or fan wants to see. He needs to take lessons from Nate and Short on how to get the fuck out of the way.”
Aaron Anderson Humbled by AERS Experience, Pleased to Avoid Trouble and Bring Home a Solid Finish
“First off I gotta thank Casey up there on the Spotter’s Tower for helping me avoid all the chaos. Glad we could bring this car home in the Top15. This has been my dream my whole life, especially these past 7 years watching Rian and Casey get to see the biggest stage. They’re the ones who brought me here, thanks to Dad of course too. I’ve enjoyed being on the track with these guys and I hope I can use this experience to improve throughout the season. Boston is next and it’s a pretty similar track and one that this organization has had more success too so we might go a bit more aggressive with the setup and I might make a few more moves being more used to the car.”
The ever quiet Ike Durbin took a bit longer in his hauler and could not be reached for comment by the time of this report.
Casey Lester: Very good car, thanks to all the awesome guys back at the shop. Third place? I'll take it. Was trying to pass Caine there at the end, but he's got an awful fast car too. He got a lot of eyeballs his way today from fans and drivers alike. I'm just glad we got off on the right foot unlike last season. Sorry to Clyde; I just got too high off of 4 and got his right rear. I've got a good feeling about Boston.
Guy Beugnet: I hate that we blew motor and did not finish. The team give me a good car to drive, but sometimes you have a break and today is just... poor luck.
Barry Juveno: Our day was aight. Ain't really able to flex no muscle today, but it be a new team and a new combo. We gon' need a bit of time to get goin'.
Beau Phillips and Bjorn Brewer refused comment following the Livonia 200
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