Andrew Caddell Wins Second Consecutive Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Championship

This past weekend at Miller Motorsports Park Andrew Caddell earned his second consecutive Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Championship by having a flag-to-flag run to victory lane in his FR500S.  With the 2010 Hurst Ford Mustang pacing the 26-car field for the final race of the season Andrew Caddell got the early lead and never looked back keeping the likes of Ted Anthony Jr. and Jason Von Kluge behind him the whole race.  Finishing second in the overall points for the 2009 series was Ted Anthony Jr followed by Jason Von Kluge who took Third.  For all the details on the final race of the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge series check below.

Press Release: Andrew Caddell secured his second consecutive Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Championship with a flag-to-flag run to victory lane at Miller Motorsports Park on Saturday, with Ted Anthony Jr., sealing second in the year-end championship with his second-place finish. Jason von Kluge returned to the Mustang Challenge podium with his third-place finish to move up to third in the overall championship.

The 45-minute race got off to a clean start through the tight turn one after BFGoodrich Tires “Ride of your Lifetime” contest winner Linda Wilson threw the green flag. But as the 26-car field made raced into lap one, an incident slowed the field after D. Rick Edwards got turned around in traffic, and Pratt Cole had nowhere to go and the two made contact despite his quick evasive maneuver.

Von Kluge jumped into third on the start, but his expected battle with Dan Aweida—which had significant championship implications as the two were just two points apart heading into the weekend—didn’t play out as Aweida’s run was thwarted by a throttle problem, which took him out of the front-running pack in the early laps.

On the restart, Caddell again established his lead after holding off the advances of Anthony Jr., and went on to grow his lead to take the checkered flag, flown by Series Manager Lynda Randall to close out the 2009 season.

As has been the case throughout the season, the racing was intense throughout the field, with the battle for fourth the hottest contest. After a full race of dicing, Zach Lutz held on to take the position, with Mike Mcgovern and Andrew Hendricks nearly on his quarter panels as the threesome crossed the line nearly in the same shadow.

“It wasn’t that easy!” Caddell said after his fourth win of the season. “I started with a good gap but he got really close to me under braking going into one and I think I went deeper into that corner than I had all day! But it feels great to get this championship finally locked up and now I’m really ready to celebrate. It’s been a great season and this was the best possible way to wrap it up with a win here at Miller and the home track for the series.”

“I did everything I could do today, but Andrew had a great car and there was just no way to keep his pace,” said Anthony Jr. “I was just trying to manage the front tires because we had a bit of a push this morning. It was everything I could do. But congratulations to Andrew, he is a deserving champion. This was a great season for me, and for TC Motorsports. Those guys do fantastic work and I’m happy to have had the opportunity to race with them.”

“This is great-to come home on the podium to finish out the season,” said von Kluge. “I love to spray some champagne and to get some new hardware! I was happy to get in front of Dan (Aweida) although it’s too bad he didn’t get the chance to race more. I’m mote sure what happened with his car, but I was focused forward. I’m really happy to come out at the end of the year third in the championship. The Mustang Challenge is a great place to race and I had a blast today.”