Grant, crew chief Howard Bixman, along with crew members Zac, Jim and Don put in a full day at Chicagoland Speedway Thursday. Everyone on the team was pleased with the car’s performance, with Grant posting the 5th fastest time of 20 competitors at the 1 1/2 mile oval. “The car’s performance on long “race runs” was great. We weren’t the fastest car when taped up for a mock qualifying trial, but the car seemed to handle well. The best thing about the day was that we made the car quicker as we went, with adjustments making the car better each time we came into the garage.

Grant, Zac and Jim drove a few hours Thursday evening, before stopping for a good night’s sleep. They will be back in North Carolina later today, before a long weekend of work begins. They will be taking measurements on many points of the car to get a baseline to begin when they return to Chicago next week. They will do final work on both the primary and backup cars and make sure they have all necessary tools and parts for the race next week. That race, to be nationally televised on Speed TV, will start at 6 pm CDT next Friday August 27th.

Grant, Zac & Jim pulled into Chicago at midnight Wednesday after the long haul from North Carolina. They are meeting crew chief Howard Bixman at Chicagoland Speedway this morning for a full day of testing at the 1 1/2 mile high banked oval. This is an open ARCA test which means that most ARCA teams will be testing their cars in preparation for next week’s big race. While Grant finished 2nd at Chicago last year, every team tries new set ups, and pushes the envelope to improve performance. Grant and the crew have made what they hope are improvements to the car, but they won’t know if the long hours of work will pay off until the car is on the pavement.

After today’s test, the crew will head back to the North Carolina shop to make final adjustments to the car if today’s test goes well. If the car does not perform as expected today, Grant will consult his notes, then follow Jethro’s lead and do some “ciphering” to figure out what to do next. He won’t have much time to make set up decisions as both the primary and backup cars must be finalized and loaded, along with extensive equipment and tools, by Tuesday to head back to the Windy City.

Next Friday’s race will be televised live on Speed TV at 6 p.m. CDT. More information on the race can be found at www.arcaracing.com .

Grant, Zac & Jim will pull out of the North Carolina shop this morning, heading to Chicagoland Speedway for testing Thursday. ARCA competitors will take advantage of the day long open test session in advance of next Friday’s nationally televised race. Grant finished 2nd in the 2009 Chicago race, crossing the finish line only 7/100 of a second behind winner Justin Lofton who is now racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

“We have worked hard and long rebuilding this car from the ground up and we are ready to get the car on the track and anxious to find out how the car performs. We know that the Chicago race may well be the last race of the season for us and we are determined to put the BeasleyAllen car in victory circle.”

CHICAGOLAND RACE 2009

Grant, Zac and Jim will return to the shop this weekend and make any changes necessary to the car, “nut & bolt” the car (physically touching/adjusting every connection, nut, bolt, weld and installation in and on the car) before loading the car and a backup car, with all necessary tools and equipment into the hauler. They will then head back to Chicago Tuesday evening for the race.

For more details on the 150 mile race at the 1.5 mile high banked track, visit www.arcaracing.com .

Grant & the BeasleyAllen.com ARCA race team have added another race to the 2010 schedule. Grant will drive the BeasleyAllen car on national television August 27th at Chicagoland Speedway. That 1 1/2 mile oval was the setting last year when Grant finished 2nd by 7/100th of a second.

Grant and Zach have been hard at work setting the car up for Chicago and making sure that every nut and bolt on the machine is secured and that the chassis is set up for Chicagoland. They will make the long trip to the race track August 19th for an ARCA open test session, to make sure the car is dialed in and to experiment with different setups. “Even though we had a great car at Chicago last year, everyone is constantly upgrading the cars and improving performance. We can’t sit still on last year’s run, and we will be working hard on the 19th to make the car even faster than last year.”

While the Iowa ARCA race in which Grant finished 3rd was scheduled to be the final BeasleyAllen sponsored race of the year, assistance from an associate sponsor helped stretch that sponsorship to another race which will feature BeasleyAllen on Speed TV. Grant & the team are still searching for additional assistance to possibly run the remaining televised races (Kansas & Rockingham) but if Chicago is the last race of 2010, it has been a successful season.

“BeasleyAllen has allowed us to run at the top of the pack at big time tracks before a national audience. While we have a higher percentage of top 10 and top 3 finishes than anyone who has run the same number of races as us, we want to give BeasleyAllen a winner’s trophy before this run is over.”

For more information on the Chicago race and the remaining ARCA schedule, visit www.arcaracing.com .

Grant pulled the BeasleyAllen.com race transporter into the North Carolina shop at 4 o’clock this morning, completing the 2200 mile round trip to Iowa. In between cross country hauls, Grant drove the BeasleyAllen ARCA car to a 3rd place at Iowa Speedway Saturday night before a national television audience and a huge crowd at the 7/8 mile track. More than 23,000 tickets to the Prairie Meadows 200 were sold in advance, and the fans from the midwest filled the rest of the seats before the green flag flew.

“I am extremely happy with our finish, as we were “junk” until qualifying. We were only 20th of 40 racers in the final practice Saturday.” Spotter Jeremy Lundy claimed that after the poor practice showing, the crew changed everything on the car except the driver. After making the wholesale changes to the car’s setup, Grant drove the car hard during the 2 lap qualifying session. “I really thought we would qualify in the 20s, but we were pleased to gain a 7th place starting position.”

Grant’s roomate, Tom Hessert from Cherry Hill New Jersey, won the race going away. “I am happy for Tom and we didn’t have anything for him. The car was so loose during the race that I almost lost the car several times and I had to manhandle the car. To post a podium finish when only 10 cars finished on the lead lap was satisfying. Once again, we have showed that when we don’t have a mechanical problem, we run at the top despite being a part-time, independent team.”

For more information and photos on the race, visit www.arcaracing.com .