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Throughout the years Cunningham Motorsports has been a very successful race team. With an extensive winning history and the drive to develop young talent, Cunningham Motorsports fields teams in the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menard’s and the USAC Series with the Cunningham Juniors. The organization is the official driver development partner for Penske Racing, where drivers are developed in order to gain experience and knowledge to continue their careers within the Penske Racing stables.
Cunningham Motorsports has developed some talented drivers over the past few years. In 2008 Taylor Malsam finished 9th in overall points in the ARCA RE/MAX series. Malsam has continued his career in the Camping World Truck series in 2009 and 2010. Other drivers that have driven for Cunningham Motorsports are Juan Pablo Montoya, Chase Miller, Scott Lagasse, Jr., Tim Andrews, Frank Kimmel, Steven Wallace and Justin Labonte.
The 2009 season brought lots of triumph for the Cunningham organization. Parker Kligerman, driving the #77 Penske Driver Development Dodge, won 9 races, including 4 in a row in the 21 race ARCA series. In addition to the series-leading wins, Kligerman had 14 top-5 and 18 top-10 finishes, while finishing 5 points out of the championship position. The naturally talented 19 year old adapted quickly to all of the tracks on the diverse schedule--winning on speedways, short tracks and dirt tracks and finishing 2nd on the road course. He ran 2 Nationwide races in 2009, in preparation for the 2010 season when he is planning to run select Nationwide and Camping World truck races with Penske Racing. Driving duties for the #4 Dodge were split between Ken Weaver, Chase Miller, Hal Martin, Dakoda Armstrong, Jonathon Eilen, Mark Gibson and Patrick Long. This team had 1 win at New Jersey Motorsports Park with Patrick Long handling driving duties, 5 top-5 and 8 top-10 finishes. In addition to the win, the team finished 3rd at Michigan with Chase Miller, 3rd at Chicago with Hal Martin and 3rd at Salem with Dakoda Armstrong.
In addition to the talented drivers that made up Cunningham Motorsports, the 2009 season brought 2 veteran NASCAR crew chiefs to the team as well. The #77 team was led by Chris Carrier, who has guided such drivers as Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Harry Gant, Ken Schrader and Elliott Sadler, to name a few. Paul Andrews joined the organization, leading the #4 team to a 10th place car owner points finish, with 7 different drivers. Andrews and Alan Kulwicki won the 1992 NASCAR series championship. He has also been the crew chief for drivers Jeff Burton, Kyle Petty, Geoff Bodine, Michael Waltrip, Steve Park and Bobby Labonte.
In the 2010 season, the #77 Dodge will be piloted by Tom Hessert III of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. 2010 will be Hessert’s third full season in the ARCA series. He made his stock car debut in 2007 and finished 8th in series points in both 2008 and 2009. While competing with 2 different teams in 2009, Tom had 1 top-5 and 6 top-10 finishes, with a season high of third at Toledo Speedway. The 23 year old began his racing career at the age of 6 in the CART series. He has raced in the Quarter Midgets series, USAC Midget series, IMSA Super Modified series, USAR Hooters Pro Cup series and Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, where he was twice a teammate of his father’s, Tom Hessert, Jr., who is a 3 time winner-in-class of the Rolex 24.
Dakoda Armstrong will drive the second Cunningham Motorsports car, the #22 Penske Driver Development Dodge. Dakoda ran 6 races with Cunningham Motorsports in the 2009 season, finishing with 1 top-5 and 3 top-10 finishes, with a career high of third at Salem Speedway. Armstrong began racing at the age of 6. As a 7 year old he won the WKA National Championship. He continued through the NASCART series, Quarter Midget series and USAR Hooters Pro Cup series—with over 150 feature wins. His first ARCA series start was in 2008, when he ran 3 races. Armstrong will run select races in the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards, and intends to compete for the Rookie of the Year award.
Cunningham Motorsports has moved to a new shop in Mooresville, North Carolina, under the direction of General Manager, Paul Andrews. Andrews will also serve as the crew chief for the #22 team and Dakoda Armstrong. John Monsam, another NASCAR veteran, will be the crew chief guiding Tom Hessert and the #77 team. Monsam, a 46 year old native of Granby, Connecticut, has led drivers Ron Hornaday, Rick Carelli, Dennis Setzer, Mike Bliss in the former Craftsman Truck series, Ricky Craven in the former Busch series and Jerry Nadeau in the former Winston Cup series.
The ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards will drop the green flag on the 2010 season Saturday, February 6th, at Daytona International Speedway. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED at 4 pm EST. The season opener will be followed February 27th at the Palm Beach International Raceway, April 11th at Salem Speedway, April 16th at Texas Motor Speedway, April 23rd at Talladega Superspeedway and May 23rd at Toledo Speedway. Live audio coverage of all of the races will be available through www.arcaracing.com.
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