Frustration Results in 22nd Place Effort for Fox at Pocono
Long Pond, PA (June 6, 2010) - Steve Fox and the Universe Racing headed
into the weekend at Pocono International Raceway for the
Messina Wildlife Animal Stopper 200 in the ARCA Racing Series event,
presented by RE/MAX and Menards with three goals in mind. The First was
to qualify through time and second, to bring the car home in one piece.
The third was to earn a top 20 finish, which nearly happened for
the #28 FireHouse/Universe Towing Dodge Charger. As the old saying goes,
‘two out of three ain’t bad’.
Fox time trialed 21st quickest on Friday and felt that he had
a good piece for Saturday’s 200-mile event. Saturday morning Fox, along
with several competitors, signed autographs prior to the drivers meeting
before taking to the speedway.
Typically plagued with yellow flags, the team set up the racecar for
short runs. The plan for Fox was to take is easy over the first half of
the event and then kick it up a notch for the second half. However, the
cautions never fell into place and Mikey Kile, who led most of the race,
set a blistering pace and nearly lapped the entire field.
“Compared to Friday we were off all day”, said Fox. “The first half of
race was pretty decent. The car ran well, but it was really loose in
turn three”, he said. “The crew tried to adjust on it and it didn’t get
any better”.
There was added frustration during a green flag stop when the car fell
off of the jack. “I got really frustrated at that point because we were
running decent”, noted Fox. “That’s the way it goes and we’ll take what
we learned and make it much better for July”. 
The timing of first caution flag didn’t help matters. “Many of the teams
have already pitted and then the yellow came out”, said Fox. “It hurt us
and we lost laps on those exchanges also”.
Fox brought out the second and final yellow with 11 laps remaining. “The
car was so loose in three and very tight in turn one. I drove it into
one too hard and just scraped the wall and then went around”, said the
driver. 
“At least the car’s in one piece and we have something to go off of for
July when ARCA returns to Pocono. “We’re down a little bit on power, but
didn’t show what we’re capable of. I expected a better result from the
team and a better result for our great sponsors”, he said. “I feel like
we let them down”.
Fox summed up the day a positive note and has begun to focus on the next
event in seven weeks. “It’s not the finish that we hoped for and doesn’t
reflect on how well we could have run. All I can say is that we’ll get
them next time”.
Despite having a finish that was not to his liking, Fox praised team
owner Tony Aquilino for all that he’s done. “Tony put a lot into this
effort and he’s excited about returning in July. I really appreciate
everything that he’s done for us”.
Craig Goes took the lead following the last caution flag and took the
checkers for his first career ARCA victory. Fox crossed the strip in the
22nd position. 
In conjunction with Alex’s Lemonade Stand and following the event, Fox
and a fellow competitor headed to a local Quarter Midget track to sign
autographs for a child with cancer.
Fox also noted that the team would have never been able to complete in the event if it weren’t for the team supporters, which include Universe Towing and Autobody, FireHouse, AFR Productions, American Truck, Valve Tech Sales LLC, Tri State Towing Equipment, Himmer Graphics, Weigand Combat Handguns, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, G-Force Racing Products, Long Island Skydiving and StockCar Racing Experience at Pocono Raceway.
