KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? The 17-year-old kid had been the second fastest all weekend, except when it counted.

Shelby Howard surprised the field in becoming the youngest ARCA RE/MAX driver ever to win at a superspeedway when he surpassed 41-year-old Frank Kimmel with 22 laps to go to win Sunday’s BPU 200 at Kansas Speedway.

“It’s definitely up there,” said Howard, of where his second career ARCA win ranked. “We were hoping to get a couple of wins this year. I thought we could win at a speedway. I just thought it would be a matter of time.”

Kimmel, the defending BPU 200 champion, clearly was dominating the race until his final pit stop on lap No. 109.

In fact the four-time ARCA champ, who won the inaugural Winston West Series race at the Speedway two years ago, had led 108 of the first 109 laps, trailing only once after his first pit.

But that pit wasn’t the problem.

After a yellow caution on lap No. 104, Kimmel and the six cars that still were running on the lead lap headed to pit row.

Kimmel was slow getting out of the pits when his jack was hit by a tire and went down on the right side, allowing three drivers — Rick Carelli, Jason Jarrett and Howard — all to exit before him.

But as was the case all day, Kimmel quickly jumped back ahead of Jarrett and Carelli on the first restart lap.

However, he never could catch Howard, who finished second in Saturday’s qualifying and was the next fastest competitor in practice.

Shelby Howard hoists his trophy in Victory Lane at Kansas Speedway after winning the ARCA RE/MAX BPU 200. Howard, 17, became the youngest driver to win an ARCA race at a superspeedway Sunday at Kansas City, Kan.

On his next five laps, the Mack Trucks-Beck Dodge driver proceeded to widen his lead to nearly the half-lap margin that Kimmel had been running at in the early going.

“I had a good restart there. I got by Jason (Jarrett) and Rick Carelli there real fast, and I looked up in my mirror and kept thinking the orange car was coming,” said Howard, a Greenwood, Ind., native. “I seen him back there, but he didn’t gain at me at all and at that point we knew we were going to be fine as long as something didn’t happen.”

It didn’t, and Howard became the third ARCA winner in as many years, joining Jarrett and Kimmel.

Kimmel, the current series points leader, fell to third, when Brent Sherman passed him with two laps remaining.

“It is not very often that you get to pass Frank Kimmel in competition,” Sherman said. “But I have to admit, it feels pretty good.”

After having had so much success in the ARCA races at the Speedway — Kimmel has led 287 of the 402 laps over three years, won once and had two second place-finishes to go with back-to-back pole positions — he was asked if he had lost a bit of his stranglehold in Kansas.

“I honestly never thought I owned anything,” Kimmel said. “This is a sport, and everyone is trying to do the best they can. The media like to play that up that we’ve won a lot and ran well here.

“It showed today that one small mistake, one setback, and you’ll get beat. That’s why it’s so nice when you finally do get to win.”