WINCHESTER, Ind. -- The movie “The Wizard of Oz” immortalized the phrase, “there’s no place like home!” Danny Jackson climbed from his ARCA Truck Series (presented by the Phoenix Management Group of Ohio LLC) racer in the Landrum Springs 50 lapper at the Winchester Speedway in Winchester, Indiana and said, “This place is like home to me! It was a great day! I’m having a lot of fun! I can’t say I’m paying a lot of attention to the points — but I hope this all leads to good things toward the end of the year!”

After winning his fourth out of four Gunr4sr.com-iRacing Pole Awards, Jackson rolled a seven on the dice putting 2010 champion Chris Bailey, Jr. — in his parents Chris and Guyann’s #17 C.A. Bailey Excavating Chevy — on the inside front row with last week’s winner Steve Christman’s #99 Blaine Miller Chevy starting alongside. At the drop of flagman Mike Bridge’s starting green, Christman jumped into the lead until DJ Safety Rookie candidate Chad Poorman stormed past on lap three in Todd Gearhart’s #3 Gearhart Timber Management Chevy, with Jackson now on his bumper.

By lap 10, Jackson moved into the lead (the third event he has paced this season) with Brandon Oakley now in runner-up as Poorman dropped to third. Levi Mansfield went into fourth followed by DJ Safety Rookie of the Year candidate Cody Quarrick and Bailey. Unlike prior races though, Jackson wasn’t able to move away like he had in previous races as Oakley stayed only a truck length or two behind.

As Jackson was trying to lap the #4 Don Baldwin Racing Engines Chevy of Steve Perkins on lap 13, they made contact and Perkins looped around in turn two and stalled, leaving a few white stripes down the side of the leader’s left sheet metal. After a push, Perkins got going again but the caution was out.

On the restart, second place Oakley did not come up to speed and the veteran Jackson got three lengths on him by the time they hit the line. But the distance stabilized again with Jackson, Oakley, Poorman, Mansfield and Quarrick out front and mixing it up amongst themselves. On lap 20, Poorman began to slowly drop off the pace and on lap 23, came to pit road with a spark plug wire off. He returned two laps later.

Right after the field received the halfway signal, Jon Kulpinski in Todd Gearhart’s #8 Gearhart Timber Management Chevy spun down the backstretch, made no contact and kept going but the caution was back out (yellow flag laps do not count in the series). The slowdown was short-lived and Jackson again took off as Oakley tried to come up through the gears but was still able to maintain runner-up.

This time, Jackson slowly began to stretch his advantage, leaving the battle behind him. Quarrick moved into third, then Brandon Huff made his presence known, climbing into the top five. Mansfield went into third at lap 34, then began pressuring Oakley for number two. Lap after lap, he’d look underneath, but couldn’t get far enough ahead to clear him. On lap 36, Huff drove into fourth and put some distance on Quarrick. Also making a run in the pack were Marcus Jones and Christman for sixth; then to add to the mix, Bailey closed in to make it a three way fight. In the end though, Jackson crossed the line first, followed by Oakley, Mansfield, Huff, Quarrick, Christman, Jones and Bailey, all on the lead lap!

“Had a real good race, and got to thank everyone that made this happen” said the Batavia, Ohio resident. “Redbank Transport, Widow Wax, R & B Fab Shop and Hart’s Machine Service, my dad Dave Jackson and Doug Miller!”

Second place Brandon Oakley, Beavercreek, Ohio, #6 Oakley Blacktop Chevy (17-years-old) — “I want to thank everybody for racing me clean! And I want to thank Bobby and Ronnie Wells for letting me do this. Just didn’t have anything for Danny and congratulations to him! We’ll be at Kil-Kare!”

Third Place Levi Mansfield, Oakwood, Ohio, in Ken Kirsch Sr.’s #54 Kirsch Automotive Chevy: “That was a lot of fun when you have a truck like that! It took a few laps to come up to speed, but the #6 did everything he could to pinch me off and keep me from getting by him, but he did what he had to do and my hats off to him! And I’d like to thank Ken for giving me this opportunity! We’re getting closer every week!”

Fourth Place Brandon Huff, East Palestine, Ohio, Dan Huff’s #21 Pirate Marine Boat Trailers Chevy (fourth place): “I caught Cody when it looked like his tires where going away. When I saw him slide, the front end just stuck in the turn and we were able to get by!”

Gunr4sr.com-iRacing Pole Qualifying: Jackson made it four for four in his black #5 owned by his dad, former racer Dave Jackson. “I love this place! I used to come here with my dad and watch him race years ago! Logged a lot of laps here and just got to thank Doug Miller for building me a great engine and my dad for putting a great set up under it!” Jackson holds the ARCA Truck Series track record here in 2009 with a time of 17.008 seconds and many thought after he also led both practice sessions (17.380 and 17.326) that someone might dip into the 16's, but the best Jackson could do was a 17.179 seconds over Mansfield, Oakley, Poorman, Quarrick, Christman & Bailey! Also qualifying for his first event in 12th was Montpelier, Ohio’s Jon Kulpinski.

Race Notes: After issues at Lake County where drivers seemed to have a problem on where to line up on restarts, the series implemented a “roll call” for team spotters during the pace laps to make sure they were monitoring the official’s channel. It appeared to work as teams could now hear for themselves race control’s directions more clearly which saved time during cautions; this race produced the best series finish for Oakley and tied Huff’s previous three fourth places; Landrum Springs $100 bonus went to Wheatland, Indiana’s Marcus Jones #55 Best One Tire/Jones & Sons Ford team, the highest finishing one using Landrum Springs; Maryville, Ohio’s Shawn Szep pitted his #81 THIKtees.com Chevy on both cautions with handling issues but returned to finish 11th; Poorman (of Montpelier, Ohio) pitted when the plug wire came off and the truck started shaking so badly he thought they’d blown the engine, but they found the problem and he returned to place 10th; Bailey had an issue with a sway bar in the first practice session so they skipped the second and fixed it; Series veteran Vanderhoff of Morenci, Michigan — in his own #46 Engine Rebuilders of Toledo Chevy — received the first free pass of the event on the first caution, and was also eligible to receive the second but forfeited that option on the second yellow when he pitted. Later, he said his valve cover bolts came loose and is the reason he started smoking heavily and had to retire early; Jerry Harlan of Maryville, Ohio, made his first start of the season in Ed Yoak’s #20 Ed & Co. Racing Supplies Chevy. He dropped out on lap 18 and was credited with 15th place; giving the command to “Start Your Engines” was seven-year-old Sydney and her mom Carol Szwed, who drove all the way down from their home in Michigan just to see the ARCA Truck Series (and their ARCA Racing Series counterparts) run! Sydney made quite the impression on teams with her cute smile and quick, inquisitive wit throughout the day! She certainly made her mark on the series and will be welcomed back by many on her return!

The next event for the ARCA Truck Series is on Friday night, July 6th at the Kil-Kare Speedway in Xenia, Ohio.

The ARCA Truck Series completed its second full season presented by the Phoenix Management Group of Ohio, LLC, (or PMG) of Millersport, Ohio in 2011, under a licensing agreement with the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). The ARCA Truck Series ran its first full season under ARCA’s direction in 1999, after evolving from the Pro-4 Series, which was sanctioned by ARCA for the previous nine years. Today, the series has grown into one of the most versatile series in short track racing, having taken popular four cylinder, V-6 & Ford V-8 crate powered trucks to asphalt tracks of many sizes under one mile, road courses, and numerous dirt tracks in its history.

Founded by John Marcum in 1953 in Toledo, Ohio, the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is recognized among the leading sanctioning bodies in the country. Closing in on completing its sixth decade after hundreds of thousands of miles of racing, ARCA administers over 100 race events each season in two professional touring series and local weekly events.

Following the ARCA Truck Series has become easier than ever lately! For in-depth stories, continually log on to ARCATruckRacing.com. For instant “ARCA Truck Series Right Now News Alerts” text messages, please email kschwarze@arcatruckracing.com and ask to be added to that list. You can now also follow the series on Twitter at @ARCATruckRacing, there is an “ARCA Truck Series” Facebook page, “ARCA Truck Racing” is on LinkedIn, and you can see race highlights on youtube.com at the ARCA Truck Series page at http://youtube.com/arcatrucks !

For more information please contact: Kevin Schwarze, Public and Media Relations
kschwarze@arcatruckracing.com