SPARTA, Ky. – A vicious crash at lap 24 of Friday night’s Crosley Brands 150 for the ARCA Racing Series at Kentucky Speedway took Sarah Cornett-Ching out of the action and ended second-starting Shane Lee’s chances for the victory.
Cornett-Ching’s momentum was cut by a slower lapped car as she worked up the banking exiting turn two, with Lee coming around the outside in an effort to pass the Canadian driver.
As Lee looked to Cornett-Ching’s outside, she came up across the nose of the Win-Tron Racing entry, hooking her No. 2 Dickies Toyota hard into the outside wall before it came swiftly across the backstretch and blasted the inside SAFER Barrier.
Cornett-Ching was checked and released from the infield care center before giving her version of what happened on the FOX Sports 2 broadcast.
“I’m banged up a bit, but other than that I’m good,” she said. “That was a hard hit. It was one of the harder ones I’ve had (in my career).”
“It’s frustrating. We were just getting into (a rhythm). The slow cars on the bottom made it tough because (Kentucky) is a one lane race track. I felt like I gave (Lee) a lot of room, but I just got hooked. There’s not much more you can say. Somebody made a mistake and we ended up in the wall again.”
Lee, who led the first 26 laps of the race, pitted for damage repair and restarted eighth before working his way back into the top five by the halfway mark at lap 50.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
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