Sunday, April 5, 2020

ARCA: Practice Crash Ends Grace Takayoma’s Day In DuQuoin

Grace Takayoma picked up the 1st last place finish of her SCRL Lucas Oil ARCA Racing Series career in the Southern Illinois 100 by Federated Car Care at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds when her unsponsored #99 Roulo Brothers Racing Ford was unable to start the race.

The finish came in her 13th start. In the SCRL Lucas Oil ARCA Racing Series, it's the 3rd for car #99 and the 1st where the car did not start. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 14th for the #99 and the 8th where the vehicle did not start. 

Grace was one of several drivers that would be making her SCRL debut in the series's third and ever season as she had never competed in a SCRL race before, with a well known ARCA racing team, Roulo Brothers Racing, deciding to make a gamble on the new rookie driver in a attempt at possibly getting a good season and give the driver valuable experience for one day racing in higher series. Grace finished a disappointing 33rd in her debut start at Daytona and would struggle for the next four races with finishes of 34th at Atlanta, 37th at Nashville, 33rd at Salem and a 35th at Talladega. A 21st at Charlotte would be a brief stop to her bad season but would be followed with be 31st at Gateway, before scoring her best finish of 13th at Pocono. A 36th at Chicagoland and Lucas Oil would follow before Grace would fight to a 18th at Kentucky before finishing 17th in the last round at Iowa. 

Much like with every ARCA Series race, a forty five minute practice session would be held as Max Anderson would top the charts while with just a couple of minutes to go, a crash would break out on the backstretch as Grace would make contact with the unsponsored #54 Kurzejewski Motorsports Dodge of Arina McShane and two time last-place finisher the #11 Hudson Perf / Drivelines / Warrick Tubing Dodge of Tony Newman with the front end of McShane's car being completely ripped off, Newman's car would be destroyed on both ends, while Grace's back end was damaged so much that there was barely anything left of it, while the hood was crumbled up. All three cars would be unable to get their backups cars unloaded in time and all three drivers were unable to start the race, scoring the final three spots before the green flag even waved.

The remaining Bottom Five would finish on the same lap as the race leaders: 37th was the #3 Bob Steele Chevrolet of Dale Guthrie and 36th was Iowa last-place finisher the unsponsored #68 Kimmel Racing Ford of Becky Dent.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #99 has finished last at DuQuoin.
*This marked the third time the #99 has trailed an ARCA Series race; the most recent time it happened was the Season 2 Scott Get Geared Up 200 at the Lucas Oil Raceway when Luke Rainey fell out with gearbox problems without completing any of the 22 laps; 23 races ago.
*Takayoma is the first ARCA Series driver to finish last due to being unable to start the race.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #99-Grace Takayoma / 0 laps / did not start
39) #54-Arina McShane / 0 laps / did not start
38) #11-Tony Newman / 0 laps / did not start
37) #3-Dale Guthrie / 10 laps / running
36) #68-Becky Dent / 10 laps / running

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