NEW DEVELOPMENTS :: RacingForTheWin.com confirmed late Monday that Stringer Motorsports will field a truck in the 2009 Camping World Truck Series in at least five events. 23 year-old Gabi DiCarlo, who has run two complete seasons in the ARCA Re/Max Series, will drive for Stringer Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series with Great Clips sponsoring the effort.  DiCarlo was also compete in, at-least, 13 ARCA Re/Max Series races in 2009.

“We will run a minimum of 13 races and maybe more depending on what transpires between now and the other races on the schedule,” said Doug Stringer owner of Stringer Motorsports. “We are looking for some options that would allow us compete for the entire season”

One of those "options" is rumored to be Shane Hmiel, who has raced for Stringer before.  Hmiel is a NASCAR veteran who has a victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.  He was running in the NASCAR Nationwide Series before being suspended indefinently for the second time for substance abuse.  He was later banned for life from NASCAR.  Hmiel is only the second driver to recieve such a ban.  The first was Curtis Turner, who's ban was lifted in 1965.

Shane Hmiel has raced in ARCA before.  He made his first career start in the ARCA Re/Max Series in the 2001 season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, finishing 2nd to Kerry Earnhardt.

Gabi DiCarlo will run at least 5 races in the Camping World Truck Series for Stringer Motorsports.  So far, those planned events are: Martinsville Speedway, Milwaukee Mile, Chicagoland Speedway and O'Reilly Raceway Park.  Stringer Motorsports and Great Clips Racing have told us Phoenix is a planned alternate, and also mentioned they had planned on running at the now defunct Mansfield Motorsports Park.

DiCarlo was on a roll at the end of the season.  She had great performances going at New Jersey Motorsports Park and Toledo Speedway only to end up spinning or wrecked off the front bumper of another racecar.  She recovered from her spin at New Jersey, finishing inside the top-15 but felt as though she had a top-5 car.

“I really am looking forward to getting back to racing,” said DiCarlo. “We were running our best at the end of the season and I hated for the year to end”

Crew Chief Randy Nelson will head the Great Clips crew in what will be his first full season with Stringer Motorsports. Nelson joined the team for the last third of the 2008 season and the on track performance showed immediate improvement.

“Randy made a huge impact on both the development of Gabi’s driving and also the performance numbers of the cars,” said Stringer.

The ARCA Re/Max Series kicks off February 7th with the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at the Daytona International Speedway.

Related link: Stringer Motorsports/Great Clips Racing press release

Stringer Motorsports, ARCA and NASCAR all contributed to this report.

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