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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 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 ran select Nationwide and Camping World truck races with Penske Racing. In the 2011 season he completed the season in the Camping World Truck Series driving for Brad Keselowski 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 was piloted by Tom Hessert, III of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Hessert won his first ARCA Series race at Iowa Speedway, finishing the season with third place in the championship points battle. In the 20 races that made up the 2010 season, Hessert had 1 victory, 10 top-5 finishes and 15 top-10 finishes. In addition to those stats, Hessert also captured the Aarons Lap Leader Award, by leading 387 laps in eight races, while his closest competitor led 270 laps in eight races. Hessert also garnered the S & S Volvo Laps Completed Award by completing 99.7% of all the race laps.
Dakoda Armstrong drove the #22 Ferrellgas Dodge for the second Cunningham Motorsports team, as the Penske Driver Development driver. Armstrong earned his first ARCA Series checkered flag at Talladega Superspeedway, after winning the pole. His second victory of the season came at the Salem Speedway short track. In addition to his two wins, Armstrong completed the season with 5 top-5 finishes and 10 top-10 finishes. On his way to becoming the final RE/MAX Rookie of the Year, Dakoda finished as the highest finishing rookie in 19 of the 20 races. This makes 2 years in a row for the Cunningham organization to field the Rookie of the Year.
Cunningham Motorsports moved to a new shop in 2010 in Mooresville, North Carolina, under the direction of General Manager, Paul Andrews. Andrews also serves as the crew chief for the #22 team, with John Monsam, another NASCAR veteran, guiding the #77 team. Co-owner Kerry Scherer was given the Spirit Award at the end-of-season ARCA banquet for his dedication and support of ARCA, his uplifting spirit by way of example, and his perseverance and positive attitude.
The 2011 season saw some changes for the Cunningham organization. After running several full seasons and competing for the championship the last two years, Cunningham ran 8 of the 19 races. Last year’s ARCA Rookie of the Year, Dakoda Armstrong ran 6 races, winning the 200 lap event at Winchester Speedway, his home track. He also earned 2 top-5 finishes and 4 top-10 finishes. Ryan Lynch and Chrissy Wallace also entered competition in the #22 Dodge, with Ryan finishing 13th at Salem Speedway and Chrissy finishing 11th at Toledo Speedway. The second Cunningham car, the #77 Dodge competed in 2 complete races during the year; with rookie competitors Joey Licata and Frank Kimmel II finishing with a 6th finish at Daytona International Speedway and a 7th place finish at Salem Speedway, respectively.
The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will drop the green flag on the 2012 season Saturday, February 18th, at Daytona International Speedway. The sanctioning body’s 60th year of competition commences with the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, which will air live on SPEED. The season opener will be followed by a first-time event at Mobile International Speedway on March 10th and on May 4 the ARCA Series will race for the 50th time at the 2.66 mile Talladega Superspeedway. Live updates of all track events will be available on twitter @cunningham_race, as well as live timing and scoring will be available through www.arcaracing.com.
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