ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Sean Caisse isn’t scheduled to race again in 2009, so he made what might be his last event behind the wheel this year a memorable one.
Caisse took advantage when Ken Schrader ran out of gas with three laps ago and held on to win the ARCA RE/MAX Series Carolina 200 at Rockingham Speedway on Sunday.
Despite a solid resume — he has seven career victories in the NASCAR Camping World East Series and twice was the series runner-up — Caisse currently doesn’t have any other races on his schedule for the rest of the year.
In Victory Lane, crew chief Billy Venturini promised his young driver at least one more start with the team, and Caisse plans to hold him to it.
“Hopefully, he can pull out his checkbook and run me one more race, or two more races,” Caisse said. “I know I have the talent to do it. I just need the opportunity.”
The triumph at Rockingham marked the first career series victory for the 23-year-old Caisse, who led a total of 254 laps in five races last year with a best finish of second. He got a chance for this race in the same Venturini Motorsports car Joey Logano used to win the 2008 event, yet appeared destined to finish behind Schrader.
The 53-year-old Schrader, the longtime NASCAR driver who made 39 Sprint Cup Series starts at Rockingham, led a total of 185 laps. He was ahead by more than the length of the front straightaway when his engine sputtered out of fuel as the final 88 laps were run under green.
Schrader coasted down pit road on lap 197 as Caisse streaked into the lead.
“I can’t say I beat him. I won the race, but I didn’t beat him,” Caisse said. “I think we were one adjustment away from running with him. If we would have gotten one more caution, it would have made for an awesome, awesome finish.”
Patrick Sheltra was 7.5 seconds behind in second, followed by Matt Merrell, Bryan Silas and Parker Kligerman. The results for Merrell and Silas were the best of their careers.
“The race car wasn’t used up, but the tires were,” Sheltra said. “The last 20 laps we were just riding and trying to hang on.”
Schrader got back on the track quickly enough to salvage seventh behind Craig Goess, with Ryan Crane, Alex Yontz and Steve Arpin rounding out the top 10.
“We’ve had worse days,” Schrader said. “I didn’t think it would go that long without a yellow. If I would have known a little bit earlier, I think I started saving with about 40 laps to go. You think I could have saved a couple laps more.”
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