At the start of the 80-lap ARCA RE/MAX Series race on Saturday afternoon, Justin Marks was at the front of the field.  For most of the 200 miles, that's where Marks and the #65 Voodoo Ride Toyota Camry could be found - dicing it up among the top three and top five race cars.  Though handling, horsepower and great teamwork were on his side, it wasn't enough to overcome the tough breaks. Marks started the race in pole position but was forced to retire early, earning a 26th-place finish.

"First of all, I'm just very proud of the efforts of the Germain Racing guys that put this thing together for me this week because they gave me an incredible race car. The Voodoo Ride Camry was very, very strong," said Marks, who drives full time for Germain Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. "We came down here to win this race. That was the goal. But these races are really tough. There's a lot of experience mixed in with a lot of drivers that are still learning and it makes it really hard to stay free from the trouble. We tried our best to race smart, but we still had trouble find us.

Marks ran a smart race, and was able to work with his crew, led by Mike Abner, to overcome an incident early in the race that brought the Voodoo Camry to pit road twice following a red flag in the race, to get fix some sheet metal damage repaired and put the #65 Camry back in winning shape

"I think we did everything we had to do as a team. we were able to overcome our first problems, and the Voodoo Ride Camry was back in as good a shape as it was at the start. I restarted at the tail-end of the field and I came back through the field with no problems. It was great teamwork," said Marks, who eventually was forced to retire early from the ARCA 200 when the Voodoo Ride Camry was collected in a second incident later in the race.

Marks, of Rocklin, Cal., puts a premium on learning. He wants to gain critical experience every time he runs a race, and the ARCA 200 proved valuable for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racer.

"For me, it was important to run a race again before the Truck Series season starts to kind of knock the rust off. Obviously we've been testing a lot over the off season, but in a race there are a lot of things you go through, pitting, restarts, communicating with the team, that are much different than in a test situation," said Marks, who will contend for Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the Truck Series. "It was overall a really good experience before we put the Construct Corps Tundra on track at Daytona next week."

Marks and Mike Abner plan to put the crew together again when the ARCA RE/MAX Series takes on one of NASCAR's retired circuits, Rockingham Speedway.

"I like the ARCA RE/MAX Series. You get to run some cool race tracks. I know we are planning on running Rockingham, and I wouldn't mind running some more, but we're just waiting to see how sponsorship pans out," said Marks.