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First time's a charm Keith wins at Daytona in first visit to historic track
Posted: Sunday February 13, 2000 06:57 PM
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- David Keith, making only his seventh start in ARCA competition, took advantage of a long pit stop Sunday that hurt Kirk Shermerdine, and held on to win the Pro2Call 200 at Daytona International Speedway. Keith, a 26-year-old driver from Owensboro, Ky., went to the lead when a dominant Shelmerdine was blocked on pit road by Bob Strait. That stretched Shermerdine's stop to 27 seconds, nullifying the lead the polesitter held for the first 53 of 80 laps. Then Keith, the only driver who hadn't made a stop, got a big break when Randall Ritter spun three laps later. Keith was able to stop under caution and retain his edge. Thereafter, it was just a question of holding off defending race champion Bobby Gerhart over the final 23 laps on the 2.5-mile superspeedway. "I cannot believe this," said Keith, who started 24th. "I've never been here before. "This was a last-minute deal. We just loaded up and came down here." But short notice didn't bother Keith's crew, which did a magnificent job preparing his Ford. "We're just now getting started," crew chief Billy Poindexter said. "When we get rolling, we're really going to be hot." Keith got some help after the green flag waved on lap 76 when his closest pursuers began racing side by side. That permitted Keith, who held off a final bid by Gerhart's Chevrolet on the high-banked fourth turn two laps from the end, get his second career victory. "I got my nose on him a couple of times," said Gerhart, who was unable to get any drafting help. "It comes down to how many friends you've got, and today I had none. "They followed David, and that gave him a little bit of an edge." Keith ran with an engine built by Robert Yates Racing, which has the front row for next Sunday's Daytona 500 with Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd. Earlier Sunday, Jarrett won the Bud Shootout, a preliminary event for Winston Cup cars. "They could fall out of a race and still have confidence running his motors," Keith said of Yates. Strait was third in a Ford, followed by the Chevys of Mike Harmon, Shelmerdine and two-time race winner Andy Hillenburg. Keith, who got his first ARCA victory last year at Michigan Speedway, earned $27,120 from a purse of $236,577. He led for only the final 23 laps, 30 fewer than Shelmerdine, in a race that had only three pacesetters. Five cautions covering 24 laps slowed the winner's average speed to 130.695 mph.
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