WINCHESTER, Indiana – (June 29, 2015) – Cunningham Motorsports produced two more top-6 finishes
Sunday in the Herr’s Taste the Chase 200 at Winchester Speedway. After rain delayed practice and
forced cancellation of qualifying, the field was set by car-owner points-putting Kyle Weatherman, in the
No. 22 Ford, on the pole and Tom Hessert fifth in the No. 77 Dodge.
Weatherman was making his sixth start with the Cunningham organization. In his previous five starts he
earned his first ARCA victory at New Jersey Motorsports Park, finished second at Salem Speedway and
grabbed three fifths at Mobile International Speedway, Fairgrounds Nashville Speedway and Toledo
Speedway.
Even though Weatherman didn’t get credit for his second ARCA Series pole (his first came at Nashville),
he took the green flag from the point. Before crew chief Paul Andrews called his driver to the pits for
right side tires, under caution on lap 80, he had fallen back to fifth. With the fresh Hoosiers the Ford
came to life, as Weatherman worked his way back towards the front, grabbing the lead for a lap. During
the next fifty laps, Kyle ran in the top three before his last pit stop on lap 138 went amiss. As his crew
came to the left side of the car, the jack malfunctioned – causing a lengthy four tire stop that dropped
Weatherman to 9 th on the restart. Weatherman was able to fight his way back to grab his sixth top-5
finish…finishing fourth.
“We had a fun weekend with the guys. We had a few problems on pit road and gave up some track
position, but we fought back and had a decent day. We had a really good long run car. We just needed
a little bit better short run car,” said Weatherman after getting the SCOTT rookie of the race award.
In Hessert’s 150th ARCA Series start, at one of his favorite tracks, he lined up to take the green in fifth.
After initially falling back to eighth, crew chief chad Bryant brought Hessert’s Dodge in for right side tires
on lap 80. With a lightning fast stop, the crew picked up four spots for the team. Hessert restarted
fourth, before dropping to fifth. On the final stop, the crew bolted on four fresh tires. With Hessert
running in the fourth spot, he radioed to Bryant that his engine had shut off. By the backstretch, the
Ilmor motor had refired, but the damage had been done…. Hessert had fallen to sixth, where he
ultimately finished.
As Hessert rushed off to return home to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to await the birth of his first child with
his wife Meghan, he said, “P6 wasn’t what we were looking for, but given the issues we fought near the
end of the race (when the motor shut off), it wasn’t a bad finish. We fought tight in practice and for
most of the race. I’m excited to get home and help Meghan with this baby!”
Both teams headed out to Iowa Speedway to test for the next race, which is scheduled for Friday, July 17. The race will be covered live at 8:00 CST live on Fox Sports 1.