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Dale Quarterley Expands ARCA Schedule, Plans Truck Debut

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At 62 years old, Dale Quarterley isn’t slowing down his racing career. Sure, he isn’t running as often, but Quarterley will contest seven total ARCA Menards Series races as well as attempt his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Circuit of the Americas.

Of his seven total ARCA races in 2023, five will be with the main series. Quarterley will compete in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Watkins Glen International, the Illinois State Fairgrounds and the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds.

In the ARCA Menards Series West, Quarterley will compete in both road course events at Portland International Raceway and Sonoma Raceway.

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Quarterley will drive his self-owned Quarterley Racing No. 4 in the main series events. In the West, because a team with more owners’ points claimed the No. 4, Quarterley will drive the No. 32.

Van Dyk Recycling Solutions will continue serving as Quarterley’s primary sponsor.

Although Quarterley considers himself the team crew chief, his son Alex Quarterley is atop the pit box as the crew chief.

A former successful competitor in AMA Superbike events, Quarterley doesn’t aspire to regularly race in ARCA anymore like before in ARCA Menards Series East competition.

“I’ve never stopped racing, I just don’t run as much as I used to,” Quarterley tells Frontstretch. “Instead of running 20 shows a year, I only run a few.”

Quarterley bought a superspeedway racecar from GMS Racing, and he will pilot it for the first time in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. He brought it down to the ARCA test at Daytona in January, but mechanical woes relegated him to 32nd on the speed chart.

Quarterley drove his own road course racecar in the two main ARCA road course events as well as the two ARCA Menards Series West road course races in 2022. He scored one top five, a third in the West event at Sonoma Raceway, and three top 10s in his three total road course events.

This offseason, Quarterley purchased an ARCA dirt track car and a trailer from newly retired team owner Bill Hendren. The racecar has been successful recently as Ryan Unzicker piloted it to victory at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 2020 and the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in 2022.

A six-time winner in the ARCA Menards Series East, formerly NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, Quarterley repeatedly jokingly said he grins when said the reason for his increased ARCA participation is simple: “Because we can.

“A few of the sponsors that I’ve had in the past, business is good for the moment and they just asked, ‘Hey, you want to go racing again?’ Cause I was getting burnt out from stock car racing and so I got out for a while. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go again.’ So we sat down and put a limited deal together last season and it all went well. So this year they helped increase it a little.”

“Last year was a feeder year for us,” Quarterley continued. “We were re-teaching ourselves things that we forgot. Honestly, this sport grows every single year so because we were out for a few years, we had to come back to speed so we didn’t want to overrun last year.”

The two 1-mile dirt tracks will be new racetracks for Quarterley, but he desired to compete more and with the purchase of a fast racecar, the reason became quite simple: “Because we can.”

“We’re all playing and luckily I get the fun part,” he added. “They get to play through me. Racing itself is a joke and I consider myself a traveling circus. My job is to entertain. Entertaining means I’m doing the best I possibly can and leaving nothing on the table. If we go to the racetrack and start 20th, I have to finish with a top 10. If you start 10th, you must finish in the top five. As long as we’re moving forward, life is good, I got to put on a show and the sponsors go home happy. Everybody’s happy.”

Even though Quarterley bought two fast racecars, he reiterates there is only one goal: “Improve from where you start.”

Still, he certainly is aiming for his first main series victory in 2023.

“I’m incredibly self-motivated,” Quarterley states. “I will do whatever it takes to run up front. If we’re not running up front, then we have to make a change. Let’s take a shot at it [the win]. We’re here to race. We never stop.

“I certainly hope [to win]. That’s why we show up, right? To win a race, you have to be in contention first. The first rule to be in contention is to have a car that’s capable by itself of running in the top five. Up until this point, we have not been in contention to win, even third at Sonoma. Being in contention is our goal every day.”

Quarterley will also attempt to make his Truck Series debut at COTA on March 25. He purchased a Toyota from Kyle Busch Motorsports.

There is still some uncertainty about the details. Ideally, Quarterley would like to run his truck for another team to cut down on costs as well as to have owners’ points to fall back on. However, he has not yet been able to secure a deal with any team.

“Everything here is killer pieces,” Quarterley said. “There’s no junk. Everything has killer speed. If we’re not running up front, it’s our fault. I’ll be the first one to admit it.”

About the author

Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.

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Johnny Cuda

Best of luck to Dale Quarterly! I remember him from the Busch North Series racing up here at New Hampshire Speedway about 20 years ago.

Eugene casciaro

Best of luck …

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