{"id":4674,"date":"2011-02-07T18:20:38","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T18:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=4674"},"modified":"2011-02-07T18:20:38","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T18:20:38","slug":"sponsor-participant-university-of-northwestern-ohio-plays-big-role-in-40th-dirtcar-nationals-at-volusia-speedway-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/series\/sponsor-participant-university-of-northwestern-ohio-plays-big-role-in-40th-dirtcar-nationals-at-volusia-speedway-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Sponsor & Participant: University of Northwestern Ohio Plays Big Role In 40th DIRTcar Nationals At Volusia Speedway Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNOH\u2019s UMP Modified Team Includes NASCAR\u2019s Kenny Wallace, David Reutimann & Dillon Brothers, Students From Buckeye State School<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

BARBERVILLE, FL \u2013 Feb. 5, 2011 \u2013 The University of Northwestern Ohio is more than just the presenting sponsor of the 40th<\/sup> DIRTcar Nationals that runs from Feb. 8-19 at Volusia Speedway Park.<\/p>\n

The Lima, Ohio-based institution is also a major participant in the mid-winter motorsports extravaganza held about a half-hour outside Daytona Beach.<\/p>\n

Sponsorship of the DIRTcar Nationals goes hand-in-hand with competition for the university, which will have its distinctive UNOH logo on the bodywork of eight DIRTcar UMP Modifieds during the open-wheel division\u2019s portion of the racing meet (Feb. 8-15). Highlighting the UNOH drivers\u2019 roster will be nationally-known NASCAR racers Kenny Wallace and David Reutimann as well as up-and-coming brothers Austin and Ty Dillon, the grandsons of longtime team owner Richard Childress.<\/p>\n

A private, not-for-profit school that offers the world\u2019s only High Performance\/Motorsports degree program, UNOH uses the DIRTcar Nationals to cap a unique extra-curricular activity that provides its budding mechanical minds true real-world training. Four years ago the university enhanced the motorsports program\u2019s curriculum by launching a fully-sponsored, in-house UMP Modified team \u2013 basically, an after-school pursuit in which a select group of students builds and maintains UMP Modifieds and races them in the weekly events at nearby Limaland Motorsports Park, which is owned and operated by UNOH. The trip to Florida for the DIRTcar Nationals serves as the culmination of the 2010-2011 racing season for the UNOH motorsports team, which is housed in a shop on the university\u2019s 189-acre campus.<\/p>\n

UNOH\u2019s UMP Modified team includes 36 students, all of whom receive scholarships in the same manner as basketball and football student-athletes at other schools. High Performance\/Motorsports program students are selected for various positions on the team through annual try-outs; all the team members are transported to Volusia each February to end their year-long stints with a busy week of activity servicing the UMP Modifieds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dirt-track program has been a phenomenal success for us,\u201d said UNOH Vice President of Development Steve Farmer, who will accompany the school\u2019s students to the Sunshine State. \u201cA grassroots program like this gives us a great platform to recruit students and show them what the University of Northwestern Ohio has to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen (UNOH President) Dr. (Jeffrey A.) Jarvis started this motorsports program and began offering scholarships, a lot of people looked at it like, \u2018Wow, is this gonna work?\u2019 Well, we had 186 kids try out for 36 positions on this year\u2019s team. It\u2019s exciting to see the student body so interested in this.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a national standpoint, this program has given our school credibility that\u2019s second to none,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s great for the university, it\u2019s great for the students \u2013 and hopefully it\u2019s fun for the fans to see a bunch of students working on and racing cars. We\u2019re hoping the program keeps growing for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNOH\u2019s army of wrench-twisters at Volusia will include Chris Puskas of Somerset, N.J., Andrew Strait of Traverse City, Mich., and Kody Weisner of Muskegon, Mich. \u2013 a trio that will not only work on the University-built UMP Modifieds, but drive them as well. Two more cars from the UNOH shop will be in Volusia\u2019s pit area \u2013 one that\u2019s scheduled to be driven on selected nights by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standout David Reutimann, and a fifth machine that will serve as a team backup but might see some action with former Limaland Motorsports Park champion Terry Hull of Columbia City, Ind., behind the wheel. Reutimann \u2013 the son of DIRTcar Big-Block Modified legend Buzzie Reutimann and himself a regular on the upstate New York DIRTcar 358-Modified circuit for a brief period in the \u201890s \u2013 hopes to make at least a couple starts at Volusia in between his commitments with Michael Waltrip Racing at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n

Four additional UMP Modifieds will carry sponsorship from UNOH, led by the No. 36 that will be driven throughout the DIRTcar Nationals by popular NASCAR Nationwide Series regular and SPEED television commentator Kenny Wallace. A 2007 UMP Modified feature winner at Volusia, Wallace will sport backing from UNOH in all his dirt-track appearances this season and three of his Nationwide Series starts with RAB Motorsports, including the Nationwide event on Feb. 19 at Daytona.<\/p>\n

The budding-star Dillon brothers \u2013 20-year-old Austin, who drives the RCR No. 3 on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and 18-year-old Ty, who will chase the ARCA Racing Series title this season after breaking into Victory Lane on the venerable stock-car tour last year \u2013 will also sport UNOH sponsorship on their Team Dillon UMP Modifieds for the duration of the DIRTcar Nationals. Austin Dillon fell just 11 points short of the 2010 DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH championship in the UMP Modified class, finishing second to Dave Hess Jr. of Waterford, Pa.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the UNOH assault on Volusia will be former Limaland champ Todd Sherman of Churubusco, Ind., who will enter his own No. 65 in the week\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

Accenting UNOH\u2019s activity at Volusia, the school will have a healthy presence at Daytona International Speedway. UNOH will sponsor Wallace\u2019s Nationwide Series effort (four UNOH High Performance Motorsports students will work alongside Wallace\u2019s crew for the event) and the RCR Chevy that Ty Dillon will drive in the ARCA Slick Mist 200 on Feb. 12. In addition, 32 UNOH High Performance Motorsports student \u201cinterns\u201d will be in the Daytona pit area assisting ARCA teams as part of a work arrangement with the series.<\/p>\n

The UMP Modified action during the DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH features $1,000-to-win A-Mains on Feb. Feb. 8, 9, 10 and 11; a pair of $700-to-win preliminary events on Feb. 12 and 13 leading into the headline \u2018Gator\u2019 championship race paying $5,000 to win on Feb. 14; and a multiple-features-only finale on Feb. 15.<\/p>\n

Throughout the DIRTcar Nationals, UNOH representatives will be available in the track\u2019s midway area to promote the school\u2019s Motorsports programs \u2013 a proven marketing tool for UNOH.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University draws students from all 50 states and 16 foreign countries, and in the last few years we have had an influx of students interested in our High Performance\/Motorsports Programs from the state of Florida,\u201d said UNOH President Dr. Jeffrey A. Jarvis. \u201cBy building and racing vehicles in Florida that will be driven and crewed by UNOH High Performance Motorsports students, the University hopes to continue to encourage both interested prospective students and local Florida high school instructors to check out everything that UNOH has to offer them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 1920, the University of Northwestern Ohio is comprised of the College of Business, College of Technologies and College of Distance Learning. UNOH offers over 60 programs in High Performance, Alternate Fuels, Diesel, Automotive, HVAC, Agricultural, Business, Marketing, Medical, Legal, Travel, IT Computer and Sport Marketing and Management with Associate degrees, Baccalaureate degrees and a Master\u2019s Degree in Business Administration.<\/p>\n

For more detailed information about the University of Northwestern Ohio, visit www.unoh.edu.<\/a><\/p>\n

The DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH is a 12-night short-track blockbuster that also includes the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series (Feb. 11-13); the World of Outlaws Late Model Series (Feb. 17 and 19); the O\u2019Reilly All-Star Sprint Car Series (Feb. 9-10); DIRTcar UMP Late Models (Feb. 14, 15, 16 and 18); and the Super DIRTcar Series for big-block Modifieds (Feb. 16-19).<\/p>\n

For more information on the DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH \u2013 including special pricing on advance-sale tickets and details of the \u2018Free Pit Pass With Every Ticket\u2019 offer that allows fans to get up-close-and-personal with the race teams every night of the DCN \u2013 visit www.DIRTcarNationals.com<\/a> or call 704-795-7223 or 386-985-4402.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNOH\u2019s UMP Modified Team Includes NASCAR\u2019s Kenny Wallace, David Reutimann & Dillon Brothers, Students From Buckeye State School BARBERVILLE, FL \u2013 Feb. 5, 2011 \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,1,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-series","category-upcoming-events","category-volusia-speedway-park"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4676,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions\/4676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}