May 26, 2015 – Millville, NJ – In his first ARCA Series road course, Kyle Weatherman took his first career
checkered flag in just his fifth start with Cunningham Motorsports. Making his 18th ARCA career start, the 17
year old Roush Fenway Driver Development driver grabbed the win at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP).
He was followed to the stripe by his teammate, Tom Hessert in the Barbera’s Autoland #77.
Weatherman has made five starts this season with the Cunningham organization with a 3.6 average finish—3
fifth place finishes (Mobile, Nashville, Toledo), a 2nd at Salem Speedway and the win at NJMP.
His New Jersey weekend got off to a rocky start as two problems cropped up during the first practice session,
resulting in the #22 not making any laps until the final practice. With no previous road course experience in a
stock car, Weatherman relied on guidance from teammate Hessert and iRacing with roommate, Chris Buescher, ARCA 2013 champion. Though his time in the final practice was the 12th quickest speed, Kyle was pleased that he and the team picked up .5 second in the group qualifying session…posting a starting spot of 8th.
When the green flag dropped, Weatherman set sail off of turn 1, grabbing a few spots before taking an off-
track spin between turns 1 and 2 on the second lap. After the initial trouble coming off of turn 1, this became
Weatherman’s favorite spot to pass cars; passing numerous cars throughout the race going into that turn. After recovering from his early spin, Weatherman ran in the top-5 for the rest of the race..taking the point twice for 12 laps. As the checkered flag flew, the high school junior from Wentzville, MO collected his first win, after leading the final 5 laps.
After taking a bit of time to digest his victory, Weatherman commented, “We had an amazing weekend. The
crew did awesome pit stops and Paul Andrews (crew chief) made good calls from pit road. I can’t thank Kerry
Scherer and Briggs Cunningham and everyone else enough who has helped me the past few years. It’s a
dream come true. I have been working so hard for this win. With our finishes this year, I knew it was coming
soon!” In addition to the win, Weatherman was named the Scott Rookie of the race.
The next race for the #22 team will be June 6 at Pocono Raceway, when Roush Fenway Racing’s Trevor Bayne
will pilot the Ford. Weatherman’s next race is scheduled for June 28 at Winchester Speedway.
This win marked the second victory in six races for the #22 team and Crew Chief Paul Andrews. The team also
got the ‘W’ when Blake Jones took the trophy home in his second career start at Talladega Superspeedway in
early May.