DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (February 14, 2012) – – Josh Williams made six ARCA Racing Series starts last season. And it goes without saying that Williams and his Josh Williams Racing team picked up the pace considerably from their previous season and will look to raise that bar even further in Saturday’s Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Eight of the 18 year old’s 11 ARCA Racing Series starts have come on short tracks with the other three consisting of the road courses of Palm Beach (Fla.) International Raceway and New Jersey Motorsports Park. After turning the legal age of 18 to compete at a superspeedway last August, the Port Charlotte, Florida native is has eagerly but patiently waiting increase his rhyme on the tour. The time has finally arrived. “We’ve been looking forward to this week since we started competing on the ARCA Racing Series tour in 2010,” said Williams, whose team is now run out of Concord, North Carolina. “Daytona is a big deal to us and we haven’t taken any curves that could hinder us in any of the on-track activity that is scheduled for this week.” He added, “One of the reasons, I’m excited to walk into that garage area at Daytona is knowing that the our main man calling the shots has won at that amazing place and will be a part of our No. 02 Southwest Florida Cable Construction Ford Fusion.” Of course, the man that Williams is referring to is Barry Owen. Owen, a former winning ARCA car owner at Daytona with restrictor plate ace Mike Wallace will guide the rising star in his restrictor plate debut. “As far as I’m concerned, you don’t get any better than Barry Owen,” offered Williams. “He truly has been the glue that has kept this team alive and thriving and now we’re going into his turf if you will at Daytona and we’re looking to be that inspirational story. We can’t predict what is going to happen. From practice to qualifying and even the race, fate is fate. We know that we’re bringing the strongest car that we can possibly bring to the racetrack and we’re going to give nothing less than 100 percent to put in solidly in the starting field and then turn our concentration on the race. I don’t have a lot of drafting experience, so I have to be incredibly careful of the moves I make on the track, because I might never know when I need that partner to be “hooked” up with me. One thing we will do no matter what this week(end) is hold our head high; because we made it to Daytona and that’s nothing to be ashamed about!”
The team is still in the process of finalizing their plans for the year and will further concrete their direction following the conclusion of the first ARCA race of the season. The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona (80 laps / 200 miles) is the first of 20 events on the 2012 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. The 49th ARCA race held at Daytona is a three-day show. Practice begins Thursday, February 16 with a four hour practice session planned from 1:00p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Menards pole qualifying presented by Ansell is set for Friday, February 17 slated to begin at 2:00 p.m. A forty-five minute final practice session is etched in on Saturday, February 18th from 10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. The event will take the green flag later that day shortly after 4:30 p.m. The race will be televised live on SPEED with additional race coverage including live timing and scoring and radio broadcast through the ARCA Racing Network (ARN) online at arcaracing.com www.arcaracing.com. All times are local. ARCA, celebrating its 60th season in 2012 is the preamble for the highly anticipated Budweiser Shootout for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) set to ignite under the lights later that night. For more information on Josh Williams, his Josh Williams Racing team and sponsorship opportunities for the 2012 season, please connect to the team’s official website at www.joshwracing.com. PHOTO CAPTION: Josh Williams, driver of the No. 02 Southwest Florida Cable Construction Ford Fusion in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards for Josh Williams Racing (JWR).
TEAM COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:
NAME: Chris Knight, Knight Motorsports Management
PHONE: 239.834.9797
EMAIL: chris@chrisknightpr.com