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Instead, it’s been about unexpected mechanical failures, freak incidents, some moments of driver error, and a whole lot of frustration. All of the things that should make a driver hang his head, right?
Not if you’re Dexter Bean.
Westby’s hottest young driver enters the second half of the ARCA season with an upbeat attitude, plenty of fire, and a team that believes it can make a serious run at the top 15, maybe even the top 10, in points.
Unrealistic expectations?
“I am keeping my head in the game. We’re working long hours during the week — the crew and myself — and preparing hard for every race,” said Bean during a phone interview from St. Louis, Mo., where he is preparing for today’s ARCA event at the Gateway International Speedway.
“The first half, it was tough. We only finished six of the 12 races so far this season. We would run strong but we wouldn’t finish. We had a bad first half of the season but we’ve proven we can definitely run with the top cars.”
Bean’s last two races have been a dramatic turnaround. He finished 12th at Berlin, Mich., two weeks ago, then turned in a career-best fourth at Pocono, Pa., last week. The 19-year-old Bean has clawed his way back to 17th in the points standings (out of 145 drivers who have earned points), and is just 65 points out of the top 10 with 11 races remaining.
He hopes to keep that momentum going with tonight’s (8 p.m. on Speed Channel) race at the 1.25-mile track at Gateway International Speedway.
“It has long straightaways and tight corners. You have to downshift going into (Turn) 1 to slow down,” said Bean, who has never raced on the track. “When you’re going 170 mph or more down the straightaways and downshift, it throws a new twist into things.”
Bean believes the motor problems, the tire problems and other unforeseen obstacles he experienced in the first half are behind him. And he’s confident some of the mistakes he’s made on the track won’t happen again either.
“Some of the things that have happened to us have just been bad luck. We have done everything we needed to with the engine program, but have just had bad luck,” Bean said. “And things like what happened at Kentucky ... We went three-wide and I was the meat of the sandwich. I found out in a hurry what happens when someone takes the air away from your spoiler.”
NUTTLEMAN 4TH in DIV. III: Bangor’s Kevin Nuttleman, the Kwik Trip Late Model points leader at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway, has climbed to fourth place in the Dodge Weekly Racing Series Division III standings.
Nuttleman, with two wins and 12 top-10 finishes in 12 starts, is four points out of third place.
Nuttleman is the defending Division III champion.
