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Consistency Key to ARCA Championship Leader Travis Braden’s 2019 Success

The championship battle in the ARCA Menards Series may have looked to be a runaway before the season started, but it has proven to be anything but a quarter of the way into the 2019 season.

The pre-season favorites were the powerhouse Venturini Motorsports teammates, Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) and Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota). The Venturini organization can trace its roots back to the 1960s short track scene around Chicago and has been a part of the ARCA landscape since 1983 when team owner Bill Venturini won the rookie of year award as well as a pair of races. He would go on to win series championships in 1987 and 1991 and along with wife Cathy, son Billy and daughter-in-law Emily, owns and operates the family team that at times fields five entries.

It was no surprise when the Venturini team won the opening race of the season at Daytona with part-time driver Harrison Burton. Self then won the next two at Five Flags Speedway and Salem Speedway, and Eckes took the checkered flag first in the series most recent race at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.

One might expect Venturini team to be dominating the series championship standings. But that hasn’t been the case through the first five races of the year.

The little team that could, RFMS Racing, owned by Don Fike and led by long-time crew chief Dan Glauz finds itself in the thick of the fight for the series championship. Driver Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford) leads the series standings by thirty points heading into the next race, the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200, at Toledo Speedway on Sunday, May 19.

Braden, from Wheeling, West Virginia, is a graduate of West Virginia University with dual degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering. He’s a two-time ARCA/CRA Super Series champion and won in his ARCA Menards Series debut at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis driving for his family-owned race team. Not only does he apply his talents for the team behind the wheel, he’s also an integral part of the team that builds and maintains the racecars. In fact, he and Glauz are two of the three full-time employees the team has.

He and Glauz take a lot of pride in competing with, and beating, the bigger organizations.

“Everyone in the ARCA Menards Series takes a lot of pride in what they do. We are no different at RFMS Racing in that regard,” Braden said. “Each team, driver, crew member, you name it, everyone has a very unique background in this series. We are viewed as the “little team,” and we love to face that challenge head on. From ourselves, our sponsors, our fans, we all have that chip on our shoulders. It’s very fun working with this group. Right now we’re in the midst of a tight points battle that is going to continue for the length of the twenty race schedule it looks like, and we’re trying to apply more pressure on those bigger teams. They feel the pressure when we come in and compete with them.”

While Braden hasn’t been able to match Self and Eckes on speed just yet, he’s stayed in contention by staying out of trouble and being consistent. Meanwhile, despite winning two races, Self has been eliminated from contention in two other races due to crashes and Eckes missed the race at Salem due to illness and finished last the following race at Talladega due to a crash. Braden’s four top-ten runs aren’t enough to satisfy his desire to win but, for now, they’ve been enough to keep him in the title fight.

“We’ve by no means been satisfied with our performances,” Braden said. “The pressure to perform within our team is about as high as it could get. We’re all hungry. But as we reach that point, we’ve made sure to be as mistake-free as possible and it’s paying off right now. If our performance gets to where it’s headed and we stay mistake-free, that’s a perfect storm for us, after the solid start we’ve gotten.”

Although he will be making just his second ARCA Menards Series start at Toledo Speedway, he has had plenty of previous experience at the famed Glass City half-mile. He started from the pole and led the first half of an ARCA/CRA Super Series race there in 2013 before an electrical problem sidelined him. He was eighth last year, and his previous experience should come in handy in the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200. Self has never raced at Toledo before, and although Eckes has raced there it’s not been kind to him in the past. He was 21st last year after an accident on lap 71.

“Toledo is a strange place,” Braden said. “It seems like everyone has inconsistent results here. Guys run good one race, then suck the next. There’s always a mishap for someone that takes them out of contention. It’s really one of the more mysterious places we go to. This is a place we have to keep up our consistency and capitalize.”

It’s not all hard work all the time for Braden and his crew. They often like to find local hot spots when they’re on the road for a little fun, such as Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk during their recent visit to Nashville. They are aware of the obvious go-tos in Toledo, like a Mud Hens game or a visit to Tony Packo’s but they’re looking for other fun things to do, too.

“Toledo is a pretty cool city. There’s a good bit to do, and it’s growing right now,” he said. “With this race weekend being a three-day affair, we have some downtime in the evening Friday and Saturday, and so we always make sure to get some good food and find a fun spot to hang out as a team. That’s not always easy to do in this busy schedule, so we take advantage every chance we get.”

Practice for the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 at Toledo Speedway is scheduled for 12:30 pm ET on Saturday, May 18, followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 4 pm ET. A 35-lap ARCA late model sportsman feature event will close Saturday’s activities at the track. The Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 will go green shortly after 2 pm ET on Sunday, May 19. The race will be televised live on MAVTV. ARCA for Me members can access live timing & scoring, live track updates, and live user chat throughout all on-track sessions at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login. Tickets are available by calling the Toledo Speedway ticket office at (419) 727-1100. Discounted tickets are available at Northwest Ohio Menards locations for $15, a savings of $10 from the raceday ticket price.

Joe Graf, Jr. Trades NYC Skyline for Steering Wheel in Sunday’s ARCA Race at Toledo

Last year, Joe Graf, Jr. (No. 77 EAT SLEEP RACE Ford) made his Toledo Speedway debut and finished third. Impressive enough for a driver in just his fourth career ARCA Menards Series start and at one of the trickiest tracks on the schedule. It’s even more impressive when you take into account he did it with a broken foot.

Graf suffered the injury to his left foot, used for braking, while playing basketball with his younger brother Ryan last Easter. While he was hobbled outside of the racecar, it didn’t slow him at all inside it. He finished second in a statistical dead-heat only broken by a review of the photo finish camera in his third series appearance at Talladega. That track doesn’t require a lot of braking. The short tracks, like Toledo Speedway, site of the May 19 Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200, do. After last year’s race, Graf’s left foot had swollen to nearly twice its normal size.

By the time the summer rolled around, Graf was fully healed and had acclimated to the heavy, full-bodied ARCA Menards Series racecars. He scored his first series win at Berlin Raceway in August in a fender-slamming duel with Zane Smith, ironically, the driver he battled with for the win at Talladega. Despite missing the first race of the season, Graf finished eighth in the series championship standings.

Returning for a second full year in the ARCA Menards Series, Graf sits fourth in the series standings a quarter of the way through the season’s 20 race schedule. He has three top-ten finishes in those five races but has yet to fully hit his stride. He tested last week at the half-mile banked oval on the Ohio-Michigan border looking to finally get some momentum headed into the busiest stretch of the ARCA season. Starting with Toledo, the series will have a race in each of the next seven weeks.

“We ran really good last year,” Graf said. “I was just getting over my broken foot. We had a strong test last week. We’ll make a few changes to help get it dialed in and hopefully end up in victory lane. I finished third with a broken foot last year, so there aren’t any excuses for this season.”

Graf is balancing his racing career with his education. He’s a full-time student at NYU pursuing a degree in Business, Media, and Sports Management. He recently signed on as an intern with Richard Childress Racing, working in the organizations marketing and communications department. When he’s not at the racetrack, or at the Childress shop in Welcome, North Carolina, Graf lives in Manhattan where he enjoys a penthouse view of the New York City skyline.

“I’ve been an intern with RCR since March,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun and we’ve worked on a lot of different projects. I’ve been learning a lot. I am also in the Cup driver debriefs, the XFINITY driver debriefs, I am working with the engineers on Sunday at the shop, I work on all sorts of things with the marketing department during the week. It’s been a really good learning experience. I am in a lot of meetings over there, it’s really helping me understand the business side of racing as well as being in the car.”

Teamed with veteran crew chief and now car owned Chad Bryant, Graf has 15-year-old Corey Heim as his teammate on the short tracks. Despite having two totally different styles, he and Heim work well together.

“Corey drives a lot differently than I do,” he said. “He enters the corners here at Toledo differently than me, and that means sometimes the setups are very different. But we usually end up with very similar lap times. It’s just a matter of how we get there.”

youngster Corey Heim Looking to Join List of Names Who Have Been Made at Toledo Speedway

Toledo, Ohio is the glass capital of the world, nicknamed the Glass City, due to the production of a wide range of glass products. A significant amount of window glass used in the automotive manufacturing boom of the early to mid-20th Century was produced in Toledo, and the process that produces glass bottles was perfected in Toledo as well. The Mud Hens, made famous by Toledo native Jamie Farr as Corporal Max Klinger on M*A*S*H is another claim to fame, as are Klinger’s favorite snack Tony Packo’s hot dogs.

Toledo also happens to be one of the Midwest’s epicenters for auto racing with long-defunct tracks like Toledo Raceway Park and Ft. Miami Speedway, which was located where the current Lucas County Recreation Center now sits. Those two tracks were the site of many nights of jalopy and open wheel races through the mid-1900s before racing moved to Toledo Speedway in 1960.

The then-dirt half-mile opened on June 8, 1960 with a supermodified show won by Toledo’s own Al Beale. In the intervening 59 seasons, just about every top name driver in the country has competed on Toledo’s now-paved high banks. NASCAR champions like Benny Parsons, Bobby Allison, and Darrell Waltrip all competed at Toledo, as have Indy 500 winners Gordon Johncock, Al Unser, and Tom Sneva.

That pipeline didn’t end at the end of the 20th Century. Current NASCAR stars Kyle Busch, Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher, and Michael McDowell have all raced at Toledo, and all of them but Busch – surprisingly – have won.

Toledo is also the home of ARCA, the Automobile Racing Club of America. Founded in 1953, ARCA has sanctioned thousands of races at hundreds of racetracks in the intervening 67 years.

The attention of the motorsports world will again be focused on Toledo Speedway on May 19 when the ARCA Menards Series takes to its home track for the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200. Over the years, sixteen drivers have earned their first ARCA victory at the series’ home track. The drivers who have earned their first wins on Toledo’s ultra-fast high banks range from the prolific, to the up-and-comers, to the one-off winners who were never able to recapture the magic again.

Ten-time series champion Frank Kimmel logged his first win – the first of a record 80 ARCA wins – back in May 1994. Kimmel would go on to victory a total of nine times at Toledo, which makes it his most prolific track alongside the legendary Salem Speedway in Indiana.

“This is just a really cool racetrack,” Kimmel said. “That first win was huge for me. At some point we had to stop being the bridesmaid and be the bride. We had to beat Bob Keselowski, Bobby Bowsher, and Dave Weltmeyer that night. We ended up winning nine times at Toledo but that first one is what got it all started. It’s still a pretty special memory to me.”

Todd Gilliland, who recently earned his second series win at Talladega Superspeedway, won at Toledo in his first-ever series start. It was a record-setting win, as Gilliland was one day past his 15th birthday, making him the youngest winner in series history. And since ARCA rules stipulate you must be 15 years old to race, chances are that’s a record that will stand for years to come.

Gilliland won’t be racing at Toledo this season, as he is racing a partial ARCA schedule while chasing the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series title. He credits that Toledo win for helping establish himself as an up-and-comer worthy of a high-profile opportunity. He currently races for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

“Toledo is fun short track,” Gilliland said. “It’s really wide, and you are probably turning more than you want on the straightaway. That was new to me when I raced in the ARCA Menards Series race there a few years ago, and I had to learn as fast as I could. Keeping the car turning is really important for the long run. The fans seem like they come out from everywhere and they always have a great crowd on hand. It’s really cool to be the record holder as the youngest winner in ARCA history after my win at Toledo. Watching the guys that have won there after me like Myatt Snider, Harrison Burton and Zane Smith is really cool as well because they are bunch of my buddies. It’s a fun race track and I’ll be tuned-in cheering on my Toyota teammates.”

One driver that hopes to join Kimmel and Gilliland as ARCA winners at Toledo is Corey Heim. Heim is 16 years old, not quite as young as Gilliland was at the time of his Toledo win, and he comes with a wealth of short track experience already under his belt. Heim finished second in the CARS Tour super late model points last season, winning one of the series’ nine races.

“I’m really looking forward to Toledo,” offered Heim. “It’s a relatively flat race track, which I’m particularly good at and I know Chad Bryant Racing has been very good there in recent years, so I look forward at the chance for my first ARCA Menards Series victory.”

NHRA Champion Tanner Gray Looking for Another Big Ohio Win in ARCA Menards Series Sioux Choief PowerPEX 200 at Toledo Speedway

For most drivers rocketing up the stock car ladder system, their eventual goal is to reach the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Their dream is to race and win at Daytona and go on to become a champion to join the likes of Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, Gordon, Waltrip, Allison, Earnhardt and Johnson as legends of the sport. Most of them these days start when they’re young, sometimes as young as four years old, racing in quarter midgets, then go-karts, then perhaps a late model at their local short track before trying to land a ride in the ARCA Menards Series.

The ladder system has been in place for a couple of decades now, and several have taken advantage of it. The late Davey Allison, who was recently inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, spent two full seasons in the ARCA Menards Series after starting his career on the dusty Alabama short tracks. An eight-time ARCA winner, he finished second in the ARCA points in 1984 before moving on to become NASCAR’s Cup Series rookie of the year in 1987. Davey would go on to win the Daytona 500 in 1992 and was part of an incredible six-way battle for the championship that season, eventually finishing third behind Alan Kulwicki and Bill Elliott.

Others have tried to follow Allison’s pathway to NASCAR stardom, including current drivers Justin Allgaier, Michael McDowell, Ty Dillon, and Chris Buescher. Allgaier, Dillon, and Buescher are former ARCA champions, while McDowell finished as high as second. Other current NASCAR drivers have raced in ARCA sporadically on their way up the ladder, but never competed for a championship, including three-time ARCA winner Kyle Busch, who is the 2015 Cup Series champion, and two-time ARCA winner Joey Logano, who won the Cup title in 2018.

Logano, who drives for Team Penske, credits the ARCA Menards Series for launching him into the national spotlight when he won at Rockingham in 2008.

“At the time I was running a lot of K&N Pro Series races and we didn’t get to run a lot of the big tracks,” Logano said. “ARCA was a great place to go to get experience on the bigger tracks. Pocono, when you go there for the first time, it’s so difficult and different. Having that experience there helped me as a driver quite a bit. It gives you the ability to learn. It’s a good learning tool to get you some experience until you get to the next step in Trucks or XFINITY.”

One driver looking to follow in Logano’s footsteps is Tanner Gray (No. 54 Gray’s Motorsports/Valvoline/Durst, Inc. Toyota). Like Logano, he comes to the ARCA Menards Series with some experience in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. In fact, he won for the first time in his career on May 3 at the four-tenths mile South Boston Speedway in Virginia. And like Logano, who had a championship background as a youth in Legends cars, Gray also has a championship under his belt.

But that’s where the similarities end.

Rather than racing around the tight quarter-mile infield oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway or other similar short tracks up and down the east coast like Logano did, Gray earned his racing championship at 200 miles per hour going in a straight line 1000 feet at a time. And he did it on one of drag racing’s most prestigious stages, the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock division.

Gray became the youngest national event winner in NHRA history when he won at Las Vegas 13 days before his eighteenth birthday in 2017. He backed that up with eight national event wins in 2018, including wins at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio and the famed U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, on his way to becoming NHRA’s youngest-ever champion.

It may seem to be an odd transition to make, but for Gray it’s natural.

“The transition has definitely been tough,” Gray said. “I’ve learned a ton since the start of the year, and I feel like I’m starting to see progress in myself. I think I’m continuing to get more and more comfortable with the DGR-Crosley guys and working with them. They have done an awesome job so far, and I couldn’t ask for a better group to work and learn with."

Gray has already had success in the Buckeye state, winning in Norwalk last year. Norwalk is a little more than an hour’s drive from Toledo, where he will be racing on May 19 in the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200. Fresh off his first career oval track win, he’s coming to Toledo Speedway with some momentum on his side. Should he win, Gray would join a list of nineteen other drivers who have scored their first ARCA Menards Series win at Toledo, joining the likes of recent first-time winners Chris Buescher, Myatt Snider, and Todd Gilliland, all of whom now race in various national NASCAR series.

“I’m confident going into Toledo,” Gray. “I think it’s going to be a fun race. We’ve struggled a little bit this year on the ARCA side of things, but I feel like if I can do my job right, then we will be up front and have a shot to win. DGR-Crosley always brings fast race cars to the track so it should be good.”

ARCA Menards Series Championship Contender Heads to Toledo for the First Time

It’s not very often that a championship contender in a racing series will visit a track that’s been on the schedule for years for the very first time. That’s exactly what’s going to happen when ARCA Menards Series contender Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) visits Toledo Speedway for the May 19 Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200.

Self, who has raced in the ARCA Menards Series for the past few seasons, but only partial schedules – mainly on superspeedways – as funding would allow. But a major commitment by his sponsor has allowed him to contend for the title for the first time in his career in 2019. That means visiting racetracks he’s never been to before.

On the strength of victories at Five Flags Speedway in March and Salem Speedway in April, the Salt Lake City, Utah resident was leading the standings for the first time in his career. After bad luck at Nashville, Self is now second, 30 points behind leader Travis Braden (No. 27 Matrixcare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford).

Self has been a superspeedway specialist in recent years, and there’s no disguising the fact it’s a style of racing that he enjoys, but he’s also out to prove he is every bit as good on the short tracks.

While he may not have a lot of experience on the short tracks that comprise the ARCA Menards Series tour, Self is no stranger to racing on the bullrings. He has plenty of short track experience in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, and he’s earned six of his eight career NKNPSW wins on short tracks.

But even with that experience, it takes some time to learn the way around a racetrack you’ve never been to before. Self has a wealth of experience to draw from as his team owner Bill Venturini is a two-time series champion, in 1987 and 1991, and team co-owner Billy Venturini is himself a former driver and heads up the organization’s driver development program. The team fields multiple cars at each series event, cycling through some of the most sought after talent in stock car racing’s developmental leagues. Some of those drivers, like Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) and Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman/828 Logistics Toyota) are themselves winners in the ARCA Menards Series.

Self, himself a driver coach when not racing, has no qualms on leaning on that support system to find speed.

“Over the years I’ve learned how important it is to listen to others that have experience and not be hard-headed about asking for advice,” Self said. “I’m far from knowing everything about every track on the ARCA schedule, so if I can ask guys like Frank Kimmel, Billy, or Christian questions about those tracks and get their input since they’ve been there, sometimes that really helps advance the learning curve for me.”

Self will make his first series start at Toledo Speedway, the series home track. The track has played host to 77 previous ARCA Menards Series races and has seen some of the biggest names in the series long history visit victory lane over the years. Ten-time series champion Frank Kimmel, now a crew chief and consultant at Venturini Motorsports, is a nine-time Toledo winner, including his first-ever series win in May 1994.

Kimmel won five of those races in years he won the series title, something Self hopes he can make happen this year. With two previous short track wins in 2019, his hopes could easily turn into reality.

“Without ever having been to Toledo I have no idea what to expect, but I do know that the VMS guys have been bringing fast cars to every race this year, so I can have confidence there,” he said. “People have told me Toledo is a fun, fast track, so I’m anxious to get there and get some laps under my belt and see if we can rebound from Nashville.”

History Maker Hailie Deegan Looking to Rewrite ARCA Record Book in Series Debut at Toledo

Sixteen drivers have earned their first ARCA Menards Series victory at the series’ home track, Toledo Speedway. Of those, three of them earned their way into victory lane in their series debut, including current NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship contender and recent ARCA winner at Talladega Superspeedway Todd Gilliland.

Hailie Deegan, from Temecula, California, will be making her series debut on May 19 in the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 looking to become the fourth driver to win at Toledo in their first series start. Should she do it, she’d also become the first female to win an ARCA Menards Series race in the series’ 67-year history.

Deegan is the daughter of X Games superstar Brian Deegan. That alone is enough to generate buzz and excitement wherever she goes. But Deegan is also the first female driver to win in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series in more than 30 years. Deegan earned her first win last year at Meridian Speedway in Idaho and backed it up with her second victory this past February at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Just like virtually every other second-generation athlete, Deegan is happy to have had doors opened by a recognizable last name but also wants to build a name of her own. While she enjoys many of the same activities that made her father an X Games superstar, she’s also happy to have found success in a field that’s completely different than freestyle motocross.

“My Dad has definitely taught me a lot when it comes to my training and my determination towards my goals,” said Deegan. “He’s always reminding me how hard you have to work in order to be successful and he’s right there by my side at the gym, at the race track, at test sessions and I know I’ll be leaning on him a lot as I start this next chapter of my racing career.”

With two K&N Pro Series wins on her resume, Deegan is on the radar screen of virtually every race team and sponsor in NASCAR’s national touring series. Her future is seemingly wide open, but the next step on the ladder is a partial schedule in the ARCA Menards Series.

A part of the TRD (Toyota Racing Development) driver development program, Deegan has aligned with Venturini Motorsports for six starts in the ARCA Menards Series in 2019. The team started the season with three consecutive wins, at Daytona with Harrison Burton, and at Five Flags and Salem with Michael Self. Signing with one of the most successful teams in the series, with 53 wins since 1983, is reason enough to be excited but Deegan stands to benefit from the organization’s long record of success developing young drivers as well.

Current NASCAR drivers Alex Bowman, who replaced Dale Earnhardt, Jr. when he retired in 2018, and Erik Jones, who won his first Cup Series race at Daytona last July, got their start with Venturini Motorsports. Others like defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano and William Byron, ran limited schedules with the team but had success before moving on.

Developing young drivers and then seeing them go on to success in their career is a skill that team co-owner Billy Venturini takes tremendous pride in.

“Working alongside a group like TRD on driver development is incredible,” said Venturini. “Our team has had the opportunity to work with so many talented young drivers over the years, but to now be a part of the system to evaluate drivers in the TRD system as they move up the ranks is a great privilege for our whole team. Hailie has shown a lot of success thus far in her career and more importantly, she shows the determination and willingness to work hard that it takes to succeed in motorsports.”

Perhaps success at the ARCA level will allow Deegan to follow in the footsteps of others who have gone on to NASCAR success, like Bowman, Jones, Logano, and previous ARCA champions Chris Buescher and Ty Dillon, all of whom race on Sundays in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. But Deegan wants to blaze her own trail.

Evolution of Race Drivers Brings Talented Teenagers into the Sport; Carson Hocevar Ready to Tackle Toledo for the Second Time

The sport of automobile racing has evolved greatly since the 1950s, moving from dusty fairgrounds tracks carved out of unused farm land to glitzy stadiums that encircle ribbons of pavement as smooth as a billiard table. The cars have changed, from street cars driven off the showroom floor then modified for racing to purpose-built tube frame chassis that are refined for maximum aerodynamic performance in the wind tunnel.

The drivers have changed, too.

The racer of the past was a rough-and-tumble guy, upwards of middle age, who either worked his whole life to spend money racing or was lucky enough to find a way to race for living. He had grease under his fingernails because he had to build and maintain his own racecars, and a bad night at the speedway could mean he and his family had slick meat sandwiches for dinner instead of a warm meal.

Today’s drivers are refined. They are clean cut, highly specialized, well-trained athletes and spokespersons. They get their start in racing at a very young age, often sliding into a quarter midget before they start first grade. From there the progression leads them to go-karts, and then, depending on the career path they choose, a full-sized Midget or a late model.

By the time an up-and-coming driver reaches high school, for many it’s time to make the move out of short track racing. At the age of 15, a driver can seek the approval to race in the ARCA Menards Series. Per rule, drivers from the age of 15 to 17 can come to ARCA and race on tracks one mile in length and under.

ARCA provides the platform for these young drivers to gain experience before they make the move up the ladder into the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, the NASCAR XFINITY Series, and eventually the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Doing so on the ARCA short tracks is a great way to do that, and in racing circles, is a relatively low-pressure environment to gain experience.

But drivers don’t just want to run in circles. They want to win. ARCA recognized that and created a championship within the overall series championship just for those tracks one mile and under that those young drivers not quite old enough to run the full season could chase after. The Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge encompasses eleven races and counts a driver’s ten best finishes meaning a driver can have a bad day and not necessarily have it impact his or her run at the short track title.

The May 19 Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 at Toledo Speedway will be the fourth round of the 2019 Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge. Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) won the first two short track races of the season at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida and Salem Speedway in Salem, Indiana. He was sidelined by a crash in the most recent short track race at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, finishing 15th. His misfortune at Nashville has allowed Ty Gibbs (No. 18 Monster Energy/ORCA Coolers/Terrible Herbst/Advance Auto Parts Toyota) to assume the Short Track Challenge points lead. Gibbs finished second at Five Flags and Nashville and was eighth at Salem. Gibbs is joined in the top five in the standings by fellow 16-year-old Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman/828 Logistics Toyota), who is second, and 15-year-old Corey Heim (No. 22 Speedway Children’s Charities Ford) in fourth.

Carson Hocevar (No. 28 Scott’s/KBR Development Chevrolet), from Portage, Michigan, followed that young driver template to perfection. He started in quarter midgets and earned more championships there than any driver in United States Auto Club history. He moved on to late models and became the youngest winner in the history of Berlin Raceway when he was just 14. He made his ARCA Menards Series debut at Toledo last year at the age of 15, just as he started high school.

He finished eleventh that afternoon but earned his first General Tire Pole Award later in the season at Berlin where he finished fourth. In six career ARCA Menards Series starts, he’s collected four top-five finishes including a career-best third at Salem in April. He was fourth the last time out at Nashville and is ready to get back to Toledo to improve on last year’s run.

“We’re real excited to return to Toledo. It will be the first time KBR and myself are revisiting a race track we have already been to for ARCA,” Hocevar said. “That was our debut last year and had a lot of speed, so it’s nice to have a notebook already filled up a bit going into the weekend.”

Hocevar, who drives for Mike Bursley’s Grand Rapids, Michigan-based team, is not near the front of the Short Track Challenge standings due to a faulty fuel pump at Five Flags in March. He knows he needs to be on it throughout the remaining eight events if he has any chance at taking home the championship.

“We have put together two good runs and should really be able to build on this momentum,” he said. “I think we are making strides with our new car and new package, so we should be even better come Toledo and continuing through the short track challenge season.”

ARCA Menards Series Championship Contender Heads to Toledo for the First Time

Self, himself a driver coach when not racing, has no qualms on leaning on that support system to find speed.

Toledoan Nic Moncher Returns to Hometown Looking to Lead Bret Holmes Racing to Victory

Auto racing, perhaps more than any other sport, is made up of participants who can trace their roots in the sport back generations. Some families, like the Petty family or the Andretti family, have three or four generations of drivers. Others, like the Marcum family, the founding family of the Automobile Racing Club of America, can also claim three generations of involvement in the sport.

It’s rare to find someone in the sport whose family was never around it as they were growing up.

For Nic Moncher, general manager at Bret Holmes Racing, that’s exactly what happened. Born in Toledo, Ohio and raised in Tiffin and Sandusky, Moncher and his family had no connection to racing. His family didn’t have a racer in it, in fact, they didn’t even know there were short tracks peppered throughout northwest Ohio. Yet somehow, Moncher found NASCAR racing on television and was enthralled.

“No one in my family knew anything about racing,” Moncher said. “We didn’t go to any of the short tracks around Ohio, we didn’t watch it on TV, nothing. We didn’t even know it was a thing. But somehow I found it one day when I was a kid and I couldn’t stop watching it. I became a huge Jeff Gordon fan. I went to my first race at Michigan International Speedway in 1999. From there on out it was all I wanted to do. We lived in Sandusky, and I found out there was a NASCAR team located there and I started banging on their door wanting to do anything I could to be involved.”

The team was ThorSport Racing. While the team is now one of the powerhouse organizations in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series at the time, in 2004, it was a small team still looking for long-term sustained success. And while any and all help was appreciated, Moncher still had to start on the ground floor.

“I would pound on (ThorSport team manager) David Pepper’s door all the time asking him, begging him, to hire me,” Moncher said. “Eventually he said I could work there but I would have to do all the jobs no one else wanted to do – sweeping the floors, taking out the trash, cleaning the bathrooms – for a year before they would let me start to work on the trucks. Eventually they started giving me more and more to do. I started installing decals and doing some of the graphics on the trucks.

“Some time in 2005 I told them I wanted to start to go to the racetrack, and eventually they let me. But I had to ride to and from the race in the hauler. I really got to see a lot about how the sport works from a lot of different perspectives.”

After a couple of years with ThorSport, Moncher decided he wanted to get even more involved in the management side of the sport so he departed Ohio to attend Belmont Abbey’s motorsports management program in Belmont, North Carolina.

“It was the first motorsports management program in the country,” he said. “It was led by Humpy Wheeler, who was promoter at Charlotte Motor Speedway for years, and John Bickford, who was Jeff Gordon’s stepfather and manager during the early part of his career. I was one of the first 20 people accepted into that program.”

After school, Moncher found himself in a wide variety of jobs in the racing industry, ranging from mechanic and pit crew member to producer of a motorsports talk show on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. He worked with legendary racing journalist Chris Economaki at National Speed Sport News and learned about the intricacies of the die cast collectible market at Motorsports Authentics. In 2009, while working with Venturini Motorsports, he started working in team management for the first time. He’s still at it a decade later.

“My first job with Venturini Motorsports I was strictly a mechanic and a crew member,” he said. “When Billy (Venturini) stepped out of the seat they started working more on driver development and I helped them get that program up and running. It was my first real foray into working in the front office of a race team.”

Moncher moved to Joey Coulter’s team in 2010 and followed Coulter to Richard Childress Racing in 2011 and 2012 before joining GMS Racing and driver Spencer Gallagher in 2013. He helped organize GMS’s efforts from a small one-car ARCA team to a championship team in both the ARCA Menards Series and the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. When GMS wanted to focus more on the NASCAR side of things, they sold their ARCA inventory to the Holmes family. Moncher was part of the deal.

“Maury Gallagher wanted to win an ARCA championship so we signed Grant Enfinger for a full season in 2015,” he said. “We won the first three races of the year and six overall. Grant won the championship and the Holmes family came in and wanted to get involved. They bought all of GMS’s ARCA inventory. Part of the deal was they would get all of the crew and me too.”

After a year with the Holmes team, Moncher had another offer to work with another NASCAR Truck team. In his absence, Holmes was competitive but not as competitive as they’d have liked. The team took the second half of 2018 off to reorganize, hoping for better results. They made two key moves. The first was hiring long-time crew chief Shane Huffman to oversee the racecars. The second was to bring Moncher back to manage the team and be Holmes’s eyes in the sky, communicating directly with the driver via two-way radio during the race.

“I always liked the management side of the sport,” he said. “I liked the mechanical side too, but I just felt I was better suited to be on the management side. Being the spotter keeps me involved on the competition side of things too.”

With Holmes currently sitting third in the series championship standings, Moncher is looking forward to returning to his home track for the May 19 ARCA Menards Series Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 with a chance to win.

“I never even knew Toledo Speedway existed growing up,” he said. “The first time I even heard about it was on a poster at a gas station when I was a kid. They were advertising the ARCA race and a poster was in the window. It had all of the previous race winners and champions on it. It would be pretty cool for us to add our names to that list.”

Daytona Winner Harrison Burton Leads ARCA Menards Series Open Test at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Harrison Burton, winner of the season-opening Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona, used a late day mock qualifying run to turn the fastest lap in ARCA Menards Series open testing at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Tuesday. A total of 22 teams and 27 drivers were present for the test, which ran from early afternoon to early evening.

Burton, driving for Venturini Motorsports, toured the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval at a speed of 182.242 mph, edging teammates Christian Eckes and Michael Self at the top of the speed chart. While Self was near the top of the charts all day, Eckes also used a late run to record the second fastest time of the day minutes before the session ended.

Riley Herbst, who sat at the top of the leader board for most of the day, wound up fourth quickest in one of the two Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camrys the team brought to the test.

“I like this place, but it’s tough,” Herbst commented. “Both of our cars were good today.”

Herbst, who finished second in ARCA’s return to Charlotte last spring, turned a fast lap at 179.587 mph.

Defending ARCA Menards Series champion Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five, at 178.247 mph in a GMS Racing Chevrolet.

“It feels different to be back in an ARCA car,” Creed stated. “This No. 21 GMS Chevrolet is a brand new car, and this place is tough. That’s probably as big a reason it feels different to me.”

Creed, who finished third behind Herbst last May at Charlotte is looking forward to his return to the series.

“I can’t wait!” Creed stated. “I hope I get to do more than just Charlotte.”

The test was slowed for a trio of incidents involving the No. 35 Toyota of Travis Millburn, the No. 32 Chevrolet of Gus Dean, and the No. 57 of Bryan Dauzat. None of the cars suffered significant damage and none of the drivers reported injury. A brief shower also delayed the session momentarily early in the afternoon.

The ARCA Menards Series returns to Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 23 for the General Tire 150. The race will be broadcast live on FS1 at 9 pm ET. ARCA for Me members can access free live timing & scoring, live track updates, and live chat at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free at ARCARacing.com/login.

Ty Gibbs Building an Impressive Resume as He Hunts First Career ARCA Menards Series Win at Toledo Speedway

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In 1981, forty-year-old Joe Gibbs started his professional football head coaching career with five straight losses. A tough start for sure, but his Washington Redskins team would recover to win eight of their final eleven games and end the season at 8-8.

The slow start belies what would become an NFL Hall of Fame career. The team would go to the Super Bowl the next two seasons, winning in 1982. Gibbs and the Redskins were perennial playoff contenders and won the Super Bowl a second time in 1987.

In 1992, while in his final year of his first stint as head coach of the Redskins, Gibbs created a NASCAR Cup Series race team. Much like his initial season as a football coach, his first season as a car owner was trying as well. But, in his second year, just as he did as coach of the Redskins, his race team won the “super bowl” of racing when driver Dale Jarrett won the Daytona 500 in 1993.

Now, 27 years later, Gibbs is perhaps more known for his NASCAR accomplishments than he is his hall of fame football career.

JGR has won 374 races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR XFINITY Series, NASCAR Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series, AMA Pro Motocross, and in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. And to further prove that Gibbs is more racer than footballer at this point is the fact his sons, J.D. and Coy, both followed him into racing.

J.D., who passed away in January after a long illness, was a former driver who was groomed to take over JGR when “Coach” retired. Coy, who was also a former driver and worked with his father during his second stint as head coach of the Redskins, is now back at JGR. In addition to his duties with the team, he’s also the father of the newest member of the family to pursue a career in motorsports.

Ty Gibbs, still just 16 years of age, made his ARCA Menards Series debut at Five Flags Speedway in March. He stayed in the fight all night long and made a pass for second in the final corner of the final lap. In his second start four weeks ago at Salem Speedway he recovered from a spin to finish sixth. He finished second in the most recent ARCA Menards Series race at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.

Not yet old enough to be eligible to race for the overall series championship, Gibbs will compete for the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge championship. The series within the series takes place on all tracks, paved and dirt, one mile in length and under. The Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 at Toledo Speedway will be the fourth start of Gibbs’ brief ARCA career.

Gibbs has tested a couple of times at the Glass City half mile last year in an effort to familiarize himself with the cars raced in the ARCA series. He will test again on Monday to work on race day setups and to continue to acclimate himself with crew chief Mark McFarland.

“Last year we came to Toledo Speedway to get some seat time in the ARCA car and some laps on the track knowing that we were going to be racing here during the 2019 season,” said Gibbs. “I was really surprised at how fast the track was but feel like I was able to learn some things that will help me when we get to the race weekend. I know Mark (McFarland, crew chief) and the No. 18 team will have a fast Monster Energy Camry and we’ll be ready to battle for the win at Toledo.”

Unlike his grandfather, who lost those first five games, Gibbs has come out of the box strong. In addition to his strong performances in the ARCA Menards Series, he also won a big late model event at Myrtle Beach Speedway to start the season off on the right foot.

“The 2019 season has started out awesome with a late-model win in Myrtle Beach and second at New Smyrna for the K&N East race and at Five Flags and Nashville for my first ARCA races. I feel I did a lot of preparation during the off season to make sure my fitness and driving skill set stayed sharp and I was ready to get in the car and contend for wins each week. I had a rough time a few weeks ago at Salem and didn’t finish where we wanted to, but I’m ready to rebound at Toledo.”

With a limited number of opportunities to win in 2019, Gibbs is forced to maximize every chance he has behind the wheel. That’s not to say he feels extra pressure to perform. He places a lot of pressure on himself, just as every driver in his position would. One person that doesn’t put any added pressure on him is his grandfather.

“Coach has always supported me in racing and anything I have been involved with,” continued Gibbs. “I feel like there isn’t too much pressure on me this year, but in the years to come they will be expecting results, just as they do from all of the JGR drivers.”

FAST FACTS: General Tire 200 Music City 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions

Where: Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, Nashville, Tennessee

When: Saturday, May 4, 2019, 9 pm ET/8 pm CT

Television: MAVTV, Live

Track Length: 0.596 miles

Banking: 18 degrees

Most Recent Winner: Zane Smith, April 7, 2018, 79.200 miles per hour

Most Recent Pole Winner: Chandler Smith, April 7, 2018, 114.322 mph

Track Qualifying Record: Chandler Smith, April 7, 2018, 114.322 mph

The ARCA Menards Series returns to Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville for the 29th time since the first series event, a 300 lapper, was held in June, 1959. Nelson Stacy won on the way to his second of three series championships.

Six drivers have earned their first ARCA Menards Series win at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville: Charles “Red” Farmer in 1970, Clifton “Coo Coo” Marlin in 1976, David Green in 1992, Josh Williams in 2016, Chad Finley in 2017, and Zane Smith in 2018.

Three drivers, Finley, Green, and Marlin, registered their only career victories at Fairgrounds Speedway.

Keith Ploughe, who won two races in his ARCA Menards Series career, is the only driver with multiple victories to earn his final career win at Fairgrounds Speedway.

The October 1981 race at Fairgrounds Speedway won by Bob Schacht served as the season opener for the 1982 season.

Three drivers have won three consecutive ARCA Menards Series races at Fairgrounds Speedway: Jack Bowsher won in 1963, 1964, and 1965; Andy Hampton won in 1967, 1968, and 1969, Bob Schacht won in 1981, 1982, and 1983. They are all tied for the most wins at Nashville.

Harold Smith, Bruce Gould, and Marvin Smith all have two wins a piece at Fairgrounds Speedway. Since race winners include Nelson Stacy, Don White, Keith Ploughe, Red Farmer, Ramo Stott, Woody Fisher, Coo Coo Marlin, Moose Myers, David Green, Grant Enfinger, Josh Williams, Chad Finley, and Zane Smith.

Three drivers with the surname Smith have won at Fairgrounds Speedway. Harold Smith is a two-time winner in 1961 and 1962, former series champion Marvin Smith won in 1978 and 1979, and Zane Smith won in 2018.

There was a nine-year gap between the 1983 race and the next ARCA Menards Series race at Fairgrounds Speedway. That 1992 event was won by David Green, who would go on to win the 1994 NASCAR Busch Series championship.

Following the 1992 race, the series would have a 23-year hiatus between races at Fairgrounds Speedway. The ARCA Menards Series returned in 2015 and Grant Enfinger won on his way to the series championship.

There have been five ARCA Menards Series races at Fairgrounds Speedway without a repeat winner. The last driver to repeat at Fairgrounds Speedway was Bob Schacht who won in 1982 and 1983.

The last driver to win back-to-back races at Nashville was Bob Schacht, who won three consecutive races in 1981, 1982, and 1983.

The first nine races at Nashville, from 1959, through May 1967, were 300 laps in length. The races from 1968 through 1971 were 200 laps long. The 1972 race was rained out. The races from 1973 through 1983 – with the exception of 1976 and 1982 – were 100 lap sprint races. The 1976 race was 250 laps and the 1982 race was 106 laps. The races since Fairgrounds Speedway was added back to the schedule in 2015 have all been 200 laps.

The record for most caution flags in an ARCA Menards Series race at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville is eleven for a record 95 laps, set in 2017 in a race won by Chad Finley.

The record for fewest caution flags in an ARCA Menards Series race at Fairgrounds Speedway is two for a record nine laps set in 1982 in a race won by Bob Schacht.

ARCA Menards Series Championship Battle Heats Up; Michael Self Leads Travis Braden by Five Points Headed to Nashville

The ARCA Menards Series championship battle has heated up going into Saturday’s General Tire Music City 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville. Leader Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota), driving for the powerhouse Venturini Motorsports organization, would seem to be the overwhelming favorite, but he has a slim five-point lead over second-place Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford) entering the season’s fifth race.

Self’s season got off to a rough start when he was involved in a lap three crash at Daytona. The resultant damage left him 31st at the finish and in a deep hole in the standings. He won the next time out at Five Flags but was penalized 25 points for a post-race technical violation. He won again at Salem in the season’s third race, moving within just five points of the lead heading into last Friday’s race at Talladega. Self finished fifth, two positions ahead of Braden, and heads into the Nashville event leading the ARCA standings for the first time in his career.

“It’s pretty awesome that we’ve bounced back from where we were after Daytona, to now leading the points heading in to race five, but it’s also a little stressful, because I know that everyone else can just as easily do the same thing,” said Self. “I’m definitely trying to enjoy it for now, and not overthink it, because we have a lot of racing left to do.”

Self comes to the ARCA Menards Series with eight career wins in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, five of which came on short tracks. When Self made the transition to ARCA through partial schedules in 2017 and 2018, he ran mainly on superspeedways – defined as tracks longer than one mile – and his success on the big tracks earned him a reputation as a superspeedway specialist. While he certainly enjoys racing on the big tracks, he’s hoping his streak of success on the bullrings gets him consideration as a well-rounded competitor that can challenge for wins on all types of tracks and contend for the series title.

“Winning at Pensacola and Salem were huge confidence builders for me,” Self says. “Those weren’t tracks that I had looked at and thought that I could capitalize at, but we were able to, which surprised me, but also gave me so much confidence in the team around me and the cars that are coming out of Venturini Motorsports. Nashville is another one of those tracks that I don’t have highlighted as a place that I really look forward to or feel like I just love, but after the success we had at Five Flags and Salem I’m definitely excited to see what we can do.”

Conversely, Braden could be seen as an unlikely contender for the series championship. It’s certainly not his credentials, he’s a two-time ARCA/CRA Super Series late model champion. And it’s not the credentials of his crew chief, Dan Glauz, who was an integral member of Tim Steele’s championship seasons in the 1990s. Braden’s Don Fike-owned team, RFMS Racing, is based in the heart of the Midwest racing scene in Brownsburg, Indiana just west of Indianapolis. Fike has built a solid core led by Glauz and Braden, but they are “the little team that could” in comparison to the Venturini organization.

Braden is one of three full-time employees. Not only does he drive the car, he works on them throughout the week putting his degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering from West Virginia University to good use. The fact that their smaller team is able to compete with what is arguably the series’ powerhouse organization is a source of pride for the Wheeling, West Virginia native.

“Everyone looks at us a smaller team, up against the powerhouses,” Braden said. “There's always a factor in the size and budget of a race team, but I feel we're really getting close to being able to do what those teams do. A lot has grown at RFMS Racing over the past 18 months, and I don't think we've even begun to show our true capabilities yet this season. I think you'll see a lot of eyes open up here over the next few weeks of racing. It's nice to be in such great position in the standings to capitalize on it, too.”

Braden is a short track specialist. Not only did he earn those two late model championships on the short tracks of the Midwest, he earned his first ARCA Menards Series win in his first series start at Lucas Oil Raceway just outside of Indy in 2015. Braden would like to use that experience, and his previous experience at Nashville, to retake the points lead from Self with a strong run on the historic fairgrounds oval.

“I spent a lot of time at the short track level, specifically in this region, compared to most of our competition,” Braden said. “It pays big dividends when I can show up with that experience at these tracks. If we can get on a roll on the short tracks, I think it will be really hard to stop us.”

Nashville the Launching Point for Many ARCA Menards Series Careers; Bret Holmes and Joe Graf, Jr. Return to Site of Series Debut Looking for First Win of 2019

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Krall, Charles <ckrall@arcaracing.com>

To:Krall, Charles

May 2 at 7:01 AM

For many drivers, they come to the ARCA Menards Series to gain experience as they attempt to move up the ladder to the upper levels of American stock car racing. A full-time career in racing in the NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series, XFINITY Series, or the Monster Energy Cup Series often starts in ARCA.

The drivers these days come younger and younger. ARCA rules allow drivers as young as 15 years of age to compete on tracks one mile in length and under. And drivers that hope to get approved for the high speeds at the big tracks, places like Daytona, Talladega, Pocono, Michigan, and Charlotte, are often encouraged to enter and compete on the smaller tracks before they race door to door at 190 miles per hour.

So it’s no surprise then that many drivers have made their series debut at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville. For the last four seasons, it served as the opening short track race of the year, meaning lots of fresh new faces have taken to the legendary Fairgrounds high banks over the years.

Munford, Alabama’s Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation/Southern States Bank Chevrolet) made his ARCA Menards Series debut at the Fairgrounds in 2016. Holmes finished fifth that evening, but still feels like he left something on the table.

“I still feel like Nashville owes me something,” he said. “The first time there I feel like we lost a win. It was based on tire strategy. The guys who won gambled on tire strategy. I feel like I have something to prove there and something to make up for. We were really good there and I wish we could have gotten our first win in our first start there.”

Holmes sits third in the ARCA Menards Series standings after the most recent race at Talladega Superspeedway. He is a building sciences major at Auburn University. He recently took a day off from classes – and missed a quiz in construction safety – to test at Toledo Speedway for the May 19 event there. Holmes said much of what he and his team, led by crew chief Shane Huffman, would transfer over to Nashville.

“Every track we go to is different, but as far as the car builds go, a lot of it transfers from one track to the next,” he said. “One of my professors is pretty cool with racing so he let me off the hook for today. He just asked me to put him on our list for Talladega.”

Another driver that made his debut at Fairgrounds Speedway is Joe Graf, Jr. (No. 77 EAT SLEEP RACE Ford), who made his first series start at the five-eighths mile oval last April. Graf parlayed pit strategy in the middle stages of the race to lead nine laps but he eventually lost six laps and finished 16th.

Graf had an adventurous rookie season in the ARCA Menards Series. He finished second in a statistical dead heat at Talladega – the scoring monitors showed a margin of victory of 0.000 seconds between he and race winner Zane Smith – and he won a slam-bang last lap short track duel at Berlin in August, ironically defeating Smith, to earn his first career series win.

A student at New York University in Manhattan, Graf is looking for another short track win to get back in the thick of the ARCA Menards Series championship battle.

“I had a lot of fun at Nashville last year despite having a broken leg,” said Graf. “I’m hoping that what I learned at Nashville last year can be applied to this weekend. I feel like we have some momentum right now with some solid finishes after Salem and Talladega – but we’re looking for more. A lot more.”

Graf recently signed on to a partial scheduled with the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR XFINITY Series program. Not only will he run races for the team he will also intern in the organization’s marketing and communications department. With big future plans in place, Graf could easily lose focus but he’s kept his eye on the ball heading into Nashville.

“Nashville is one of those places that really fits my driving style. We just need to go there this week, utilize practice and qualifying to our advantage,” he said. “Then, we need to stay out of trouble and have a solid finish and keep ourselves in this championship battle.”

Practice for the General Tire Music City 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions is set for 2:15 pm ET/1:15 pm CT, with General Tire Pole Qualifying slated for 5:15 pm ET/4:15 pm CT. The green flag on the super late model feature is 6:45 pm ET/5:45 pm CT, with the ARCA Menards Series headliner going green at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT. The race will be televised live flag-to-flag on MAVTV. ARCA for Me members can follow along with live timing & scoring, live track updates, and live chat at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login.

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Nashville ARCA Success Paved the Way to NASCAR XFINITY Series Championship for David Green

The ARCA Menards Series returns to Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville for the fifth consecutive year for the General Tire Music City 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions on Saturday, May 4. The 200-lap main event, scheduled for a 9 pm ET/8 pm CT green flag, will be preceded by a 100-lap super late model event co-sanctioned by the ARCA/CRA Super Series, the Southern Super Series, and the CARS Tour.

The event, promoted by long-time ARCA partner Track Enterprises, will serve as the season opener for the historic five-eighths mile oval. Two previously scheduled events were canceled due to inclement weather. Should weather become an issue on Saturday, a raindate of Sunday, May 5 has been established. If needed, the first green flag would wave at 1 pm CT on Sunday.

Previous winners at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville include former track regular and NASCAR XFINITY Series champion David Green, who won back in 1992. Green drove for the Roulo Brothers Racing team and used that win to propel himself into a competitive ride with a team owned by Bobby Labonte. Labonte won the series championship in 1991 and moved on to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Green took over Labonte’s car in 1993 and in 1994 went on to win the series championship.

Green, originally from Owensboro, Kentucky, is now the Safety Manager for NASCAR. He went on to win nine times in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, including a 1995 win on the high banks at the Fairgrounds. His final win came in 2005 at Pikes Peak International Raceway. But it was that 1992 ARCA win at Nashville that got the ball rolling.

“I have really fond memories of that race,” Green said. “First, it was the first race of any kind I was in that year. I was working for Bobby Labonte and spotting for him that year and I think he could see the bigger picture and he knew I would be driving the Slim Jim car the next year. I had asked him about some opportunities, and he said, “you know, I don’t think that’s a great idea”. But when the Roulo Brothers called me he said go ahead and do it. He knew it was a good opportunity and I would be competitive. But I was almost too nervous to even ask him.

“When they rolled the car out of the trailer, I think the paint was still wet on it,” he laughed. “They had just gotten the car done. But right away everything just clicked. We qualified really well and dominated the race. We were the only car on the lead lap at the finish. That says more about the team than it does about me, though. It was just a really smooth, easy weekend from the start.”

Although he never raced weekly at Nashville, unlike his brother Jeff who raced at Nashville weekly for several seasons, Green credits his experience at Nashville on pointing him towards a pathway to success in NASCAR.

“It was very instrumental in my career,” he said. “I ran there enough to get a real appreciation for the track and its history. The medium banking and the abrasive surface really helped prepare me for places like Rockingham and Darlington. I was fortunate to have that training ground to help make the transition into the higher levels of racing much smoother. It really gave me the tools I needed. And it was great to have the support of the community there too. It’s a great racing town and all of those people coming out every week really showed me the importance of being good with people and being good with sponsors, which helped me later in my career too.”

Another former ARCA Menards Series winner at Nashville that has gone on to the top levels of the sport is 2015 series champion Grant Enfinger. Now a championship contender driving for ThorSport Racing in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, Enfinger won at the Fairgrounds early in his championship season to establish himself as the man to beat for the title.

“Nashville was critical to our championship because we didn’t know if we were going to get to run the full season or not,” Enfinger said. “That win gave us the boost we needed to run the full season and go for the championship. The funny thing is we broke an upper control arm on the last lap of practice. We got it fixed and went out and won the race, but if that broke on the first lap of the race instead of the last lap of practice things could have been a lot different.”

Enfinger has a lot of experience on short tracks all across the southeast, and he’s spent a lot of time at the Fairgrounds but incredibly his ARCA Menards Series win there was his first race there.

“It’s still the only time I have raced there as a driver,” Enfinger said. “I have spent a lot of time there but it was usually working as a crew member for someone else. It was great to finally get there and race, though. It’s an incredible place. I love the history of it. It’s the perfect race track. You have the right amount of tire wear, the right amount of banking to get out there and go race.”

To win at the Fairgrounds, drivers need to outrace the other drivers but they also have to deal with the race track itself, which Enfinger said can be difficult to do.

“You need speed for sure, but you need to manage your race from the time it starts until the end,” he said. “You have to know when to go, and you have to know when to pace yourself and just get to the next pit stop. It’s all about balance. The driver needs to get it right and communicate with his crew chief because if you’re off even a little it’s going to magnify itself as the race goes on. If you’re a little tight in practice, you’re going to push through the center of the corner and snap loose on corner exit. If you’re loose, you’re going to be really loose and not be able to get down the straightaways at all. It’s a driver’s track but it’s a crew chief’s track too. The best drivers and crew chiefs rise to the top at Nashville.”

Today's ARCA Menards Series Drivers Looking for Follow Darrell Waltrip's Path to Success Starting at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville

Jerico Performance Products to Continue Support of CRA in 2019

Salem, IN (May 17, 2019) – Champion Racing Association Powered by JEGS officials and Jerico Performance Products representatives have announced that Jerico Performance Products has agreed to continue its support of CRA and its JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance and ARCA/CRA Super Series Powered by JEGS for the 2019 season.

Jerico Performance Products will be the sponsor of the Jerico Performance Products Fast Qualifier Award with the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour for the upcoming 2019 race season. The Jerico Performance Products Fast Qualifier Award will award each JEGS/CRA All-Star Tour regular events Fast Qualifier with a $100 cash bonus and the Fast Qualifier of the Master of the Pros 125 event with a $200 cash bonus. In addition, Jerico Performance Products will award each Jerico Performance Products Fast Qualifier Award winner with a $100 Product Certificate.

Jerico Performance Products will also be a Contingency Sponsor with the ARCA/CRA Super Series for the 2019 season. Jerico Performance Products will award a $100 Product Certificate to the 8th place finisher and the 11th place finisher at each series event. In addition, they will award a $500 Product Certificate by random draw of the top ten in final points for the ARCA/CRA Super Series and for the JEGS/CRA All-Star Tour at the 2019 CRA Awards Banquet.

“Jerico Performance Products is excited to be a sponsor with CRA and their top two series again in 2018,” remarked Kenny Shaw with Jerico Performance Products. “We look forward to all the great racing this season and having Jerico in the winner’s circle!”

“We greatly appreciate Jerico Performance Products continuing to support CRA,” remarked Glenn Luckett, Managing Partner with CRA. “The Jerico name has always stood for quality products that racers can always depend on. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Jerico Performance Products well into the future!”

Jerico Performance Products, along with their owners Winchester Capitol and New management, are looking forward to releasing new products. Jerico is going to reaffirm that they are the ‘innovators not the duplicators’. After a long road of engineering, testing & listening to the race teams and what they are looking for, their new Low Profile lighter top center shift transmission should completely make a splash. Jerico Performance Products invites anyone who would like to stop by and see their manufacturing facility in Concord, North Carolina, where all their transmissions are built in house and assembled in a clean room environment. Champions use Jerico!

More information on Jerico Performance Products is available at www.jericoperformance.com.

More information on all the CRA series is available at www.cra-racing.com.

CRA Late Model Sportsman Added to Baer Field Motorsports Park Crown Jewel Weekend

The Crown Jewel $20K Showdown set to take place on July 4th weekend at Baer Field Motorsports Park, now welcomes the Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman as part of this historic weekend of racing action that weekend, which will also include the $20K Showdown event for the Strike Force Energy All-Star Modifieds, a 60 lap $5,000 to win Street Stock event sanctioned by the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks, the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models and the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance.

The Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman were originally set to take to the 3/8-mile track at Baer Field Motorsports Park on May 11th. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans and just a little before race time the precipitation came, and the event had to be postponed. The Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman will now be part of the Crown Jewel $20K Showdown on July 5th, 6th, and 7th at Baer Field Motorsports Park. The Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman make up race will be part of the racing events on Saturday, July 6th.

As if the Crown Jewel weekend wasn't big enough already, "the Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman are a welcome addition to an already stacked program" stated track owner Dave Muzzillo.

An updated schedule of events will be available soon and can be found on the Strike Force Energy All-Star Modifieds Website www.icarallstartour.com/modcrownjewel.

Additional event and track information is available at www.baerfieldmotorpark.com.

Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Model Series Inaugural Event Saturday at Birch Run Speedway

Salem, Indiana (May 16, 2019): The newest series sanctioned by Champion Racing Association Powered by JEGS, the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models, will have their much-anticipated inaugural event this Saturday, on the 1/3 mile track at Birch Run Speedway, located just outside Birch Run, Michigan. The Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models originally scheduled to have their debut at Flat Rock Speedway on April 28th, but that event was canceled because of weather.

The Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models is a new racing series in 2019 to focus on a youth movement for short track stock car racing that will see 10 to 15-year-old drivers compete amongst themselves for both experience and recognition in full size late models with an economical drive train and suspension alternatives. Saturday’s race will be the first of eight scheduled for the series in 2019.

Some of the key components for the rule package for the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models will be the mandated use of the $3900 factory sealed Chevrolet Performance 602 crate engine. Teams will also be utilizing less expensive rear ends, transmissions and springs and spec KONI Shocks. The series will also be racing on 8-inch steel wheels and utilizing 8-inch Hoosier Racing tires.

There are eight teams currently registered to compete for the series inaugural Championship in 2019, with more expected as the season gets going. Drivers registered include Dawson Knaul from Marysville, Ohio, Chase Burda from Columbiaville, Michigan, brothers Zack and Luke Wilhelm from Clio, Michigan, Charlie Keeven from Hazelwood, Missouri, Evan Varney from Richmond, Michigan, Katelyn Hettinger from Dryden, Michigan and Jonathah Shafer from Ashland, Ohio.

Pits will open at 10 am on Saturday. Practice is set to begin at 1pm with the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models receiving two sessions, first a 30-minute session, then a second 15-minute practice and qualifying session. Racing action will begin at 6pm with the heat races for the Birch Run Late Model Sportsman followed by the eight lap heat races for the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models. Feature action will start with the 25 lap Birch Run Late Model Sportsman feature, then the 25-lap inaugural feature for the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models followed by the 100 lap JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour feature. A 30 lap $1500 to win Figure 8 Enduro will cap the evening of great racing action.

More event and track information are available at www.birchrunmispeedway.com.

More information on the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models is available at www.cra-racing.com.

jEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Season Opener at Birch Run Speedway This Weekend

Salem, IN (May 14, 2019) – The JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance is set to open its 2019 points season with this weekend’s event at beautiful Birch Run Speedway, located in Birch Run, Michigan, which will feature the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour in a 100 lap event presented by JEGS.com. The series was originally supposed to open it’s 2019 season at Flat Rock Speedway on April 28th, but weather forced that event to be rescheduled for June 16th.

This will be the ninth season of competition for the series whose last eight point champions include Erik Jones in 2011, Daniel Hemric in 2012, Cody Coughlin in 2013 and in 2016, Dan Leeck in 2014, Car Owner Champion Bill Burba and Driver Champion Dalton Armstrong in 2015 and Jack Dossey III in 2017 and again in 2018.

The stout 25 car field entry list to date is topped by series all-time victory leader Brian Campbell. The Michigan native came away with four series wins in 2018, giving him nine total wins in 13 total appearances with the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour, passing Daniel Hemric as the all-time series victory leader, who had eight wins. Campbell is the defending winner of this event, getting the win after leading the last 52 laps over Kyle Jones and local Birch Run native Dan Leeck.

Also entered is three-time ARCA/CRA Super Series Champion Johnny VanDoorn, who was last years event Fast Qualifier, but had his day end early after a lap seven accident. VanDoorn is tied for third on the ARCA/CRA Super Series all-time victory list with 22 but is still seeking his first ever JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour victory.

Two time series Champion Cody Coughlin is entered in his first series event since his 2016 second Championship season. Coughlin won a series event at Birch Run during his 2013 Championship season.

Also entered is series 2018 Rookie of the Year and runner up in series points Mason Keller, who was the only 2018 Chase for the Championship driver with a series win in 2018. Also, fourth in 2018 points Mandy Chick, fifth in 2018 points Tyler Hufford, and eighth in final points Trever McCoy are entered.

Other CRA competitors entered includes 2014 series Champion and former series Birch Run Speedway event winner Dan Leeck, former series Auto City Speedway winner Eric Lee, last year’s second place finisher Kyle Jones is entered driving the Myna Burba owned car that is usually piloted by ARCA Menards Racing Series competitor Travis Braden, Florida native Steve Dorer, Anthony Danta, Jerry Andrews, Shaw Szep and James Krueger.

There are four VanDoorn Racing Development Rookie of the Year candidates entered for Saturday’s event, including Michigan rookie racers Hayden Sprague and Jimmy Tucker along with Indiana rookies Jaden Cretacci and Jaren Crabtree.

ARCA/CRA Super Series competitor Hunter Jack is entered in his first of a hand full of selected series events he will compete in while also competing with the ARCA/CRA Super Series in 2019 after finishing third in the 2018 ARCA/CRA Super Series Chase for the Championship.

2018 Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stock Rookie of the Year Brandon Tregemmbo from Ray, Michigan is entered to make his series debut. Former ARCA/CRA Super Series Michigan competitors Jordan Pruitt and Aaron Hulings are entered. Michigan Outlaw Late Model competitor Brian Bergakker is entered to make his series debut. Wisconsin racer Peter McVey is entered to make his series debut.

Pits will open at 10 am on Saturday. Practice is set to begin at 1pm which includes a one-hour session for the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour followed by another 30-minute session after a 30-minute break. Qualifying for the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour will begin at 4:30pm. Racing action will begin at 6pm with the heat races for the Birch Run Late Model Sportsman followed by the eight lap heat races for the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late. Feature action will start with the 25 lap Birch Run Late Model Sportsman feature, then the 25-lap inaugural feature for the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models followed by the 100 lap JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour feature. A 30 lap $1500 to win Figure 8 Enduro will cap the evening of great racing action.

More event and track information are available at www.birchrunmispeedway.com.

More information on the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance is available at www.cra-racing.com.

Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks 2019 Four Crown Series Starts Sunday at Mt. Lawn Speedway

Salem, IN (May 15, 2019) – The Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS will kick off their 2019 Four Crown Series this Sunday at Mt. Lawn Speedway with the Bob Fields Memorial 200. The Four Crown Series will feature four 200 lap, $3000 minimum to win events. The second Four Crown event will be at Anderson Speedway on Saturday, June 15th, the third Four Crown event will be at the Indianapolis Speedrome on Sunday, July 14th. After being rescheduled from April 27th because of weather, the Four Crown Series Championship event will now be at Shadybowl Speedway on Saturday, August 24th.

The Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks had a very popular Triple Crown Series from 2014 through 2016 with the events at Shadybowl Speedway, Kentucky Motor Speedway and Anderson Speedway. Jason Atkinson won the Triple Crown Series Championship in 2014 and 2015 with Brett Hudson winning the 2016 Championship. The series was expanded to the Four Crown Series for 2017 with Chuck Barnes Jr. winning the title. The series was expanded to a Five Crown Series in 2018, but two events were cancelled because of weather, Jacob McElfresh was the 2018 Champion.

In addition to the $3000 minimum to win for each event, there will be a Points Champion from the four events who will receive a $1000 bonus. Second in points will receive a $600 bonus, third place a $400 bonus, then there will be two $250 bonuses from a random draw from the cars that attended all four events. Each of the Four Crown Series events will be 4 tire races, all four will have a break at lap 100 to add fuel and make adjustments. Each Four Crown event winner and the overall Champion will receive a specially designed buckle from Crumrine Buckle Manufacturing.

Mt. Lawn Speedway was scheduled to be part of the 2018 Five Crown series with the Bob Fields Memorial 200, but both the original and rescheduled event were canceled because of rain. Sunday’s Bob Fields Memorial 200 will be the first series event at Mt. Lawn Speedway since July 17th, 2010 were local driver Jason Atkinson took the win. In all there have been five series events total at Mt. Lawn, other winners include Joe Beaver with two wins, including the series’ first ever event at Mt. Lawn in 2006 as well as Jeff Lane and Jason Thompson with one win a piece. Atkinson and Thompson top a talented group of 24 drivers entered for Sunday’s Bob Fields Memorial 200.

Saturday will be the second event of the 2019 season for the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks after having two events canceled, one at Lucas Oil Raceway and this past Saturday at Salem Speedway. The series opened their 2019 season at Anderson Speedway on April 13th, were Bret Miles Jr. got the victory over hard charging Brett Hudson. Miles Jr. leads the series Championship points coming into Saturday’s event with Hudson in second. Andrew Teepe is in third place in points, Tyler Marsh in fourth and Josh Poore in fifth place.

Saturday’s race is the second and final race in the CRA Street Stocks “Road to Bristol” program, Saturday’s winner and second place finisher will have a guaranteed start at the Short Track U. S. Nationals presented by Vore’s Welding at Bristol Motor Speedway on June 1st in the CRA Street Stock A Feature, if they are CRA members and raced in the Anderson Speedway “Road to Bristol” event. With his win at Anderson, Bret Miles Jr. has a guaranteed starting spot at Bristol and so does second place finishing Brett Hudson, provided they compete in the Bob Fields Memorial 200 Sunday.

There will be an optional open practice at Mt. Lawn Speedway on Saturday from 12 to 5pm. On Sunday, pit gates open at 10am. Practice will begin at 11:30am with qualifying beginning at 1:20pm. The race program is set to begin at 3:00pm and will include the Bob Fields Memorial 200 Four Crown event for the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks. Also racing that night will be the Mt. Lawn Speedway Thunder Cars, Pro Compacts and Stock Compacts.

More event and track information are available at www.mtlawn.com.

More information on all the CRA Series is available at www.cra-racing.com

Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks Ready to Battle the High Banks of Salem Speedway

Salem, IN (May 8, 2019) – The Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS will be back in action this Saturday in the series third ever event on the famous High Banks of Salem Speedway, in the Third Annual Casey’s General Store GAS/CRA Challenge. The Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks and the Salem Speedway Lucas Oil Great American Stocks will each run separate 50-lap feature point’s events, with the top 12 finishers from each race transferring to the final 50-lap Casey’s General Store GAS/CRA Challenge Race that will pay $1000 to win.

In 2017 Brett Hudson went to victory in the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks 50 lap first ever feature at Salem Speedway, while Blake Hillard won the GAS/CRA Challenge 50 lap finally. In 2018 the two reversed their wins, with Hillard getting his first ever CRA victory in the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks 50 lap feature while Hudson won the GAS/CRA Challenge 50 lap finally.

“This is a great event bringing the best Street Stock drivers from CRA and Salem Speedway together for three great races,” remarked R.J. Scott, Managing Partner with CRA. “Salem Speedway has always been one of the top Street Stock race tracks in the country, with its traditional Firecracker 200 and Halloween 200 events. The event has a great format letting each series have their separate point’s events, then putting the top finishers together to race for bragging rights on the High Banks!”

Saturday’s event will be the second point’s event of the season for the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks. In the series season opener Brett Miles Jr. held off a hard charging Hudson to get the win on April 13th at Anderson Speedway. The series scheduled season opener at Lucas Oil Raceway was canceled because of weather. The series Four Crown opener at Shadybowl Speedway scheduled for Saturday, April 27 was postponed until August 24th because of weather.

Miles Jr. is the series current points leader after one event. Miles Jr. is the first driver locked into the Chase for the Championship as long as he competes in 70% of the series races leading up to the Chase. Hudson is in second place, three points behind Miles Jr. Andrew Teepe is in third place, three points behind Hudson. Tyler Marsh is in fourth place, two points behind Teepe. Josh Poore is in fifth place, two points behind Marsh.

Saturday’s race is the second race in the CRA Street Stocks “Road to Bristol” program, Saturday’s winner and second place finisher will have a guaranteed start at the Short Track U. S. Nationals presented by Vore’s Welding at Bristol Motor Speedway on June 1st in the CRA Street Stock A Feature, if they are CRA members and race in the remaining CRA Street Stocks “Road to Bristol” event, which will take place at Mt. Lawn Speedway on May 19th. With his win at Anderson, Bret Miles Jr. has a guaranteed starting spot at Bristol and so does second place finishing Brett Hudson, provided they compete in the remaining “Road to Bristol” events.

The Great American Stocks have had one event to date, with Kyle Hadley getting the win. With the win Hadley leads the GAS points heading into their Saturday night event. Brian Bayer is in second place, one point behind Hadley. Will Kimmel is in third place, one point behind Bayer.

Pits open on Saturday at 2pm. The CRA Street Stocks and Great American Stocks will each have a separate 30 minute practice session beginning at 4:15pm. Each series will also have separate qualifying sessions beginning at 5:45pm. The race program is set to begin at 7:10pm and will include each groups separate 50 lap points event. The Casey’s General Store GAS/CRA Challenge 50 will end the day’s racing action. The Two-Zone Kentuckiana Legend Series will also be in action that evening.

Additional track and event information can be found at www.salemspeedway.com.

For more information on all the CRA series go to www.cra-racing.com.

Baer Field Motorsports Park Up Next for Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman

Salem, IN (May 6, 2019) – The Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman Powered by JEGS will continue their 2019 season, this Saturday at Baer Field Motorsports Park, located just south of Fort Wayne, IN. Saturday’s event will be the first of two series events at Baer Field in 2019. Saturday’s event will be contested on the 3/8’s mile track at Baer Field. The series 2019 Triple Crown Series Championship event will be contested on the ½ mile track at Baer Field on Saturday, July 20th.

2018 series Triple Crown Champion Jeff Marcum won the series season opener at Anderson Speedway on April 13th after the scheduled season opener at Lucas Oil Raceway was canceled because of weather. The multi-time Anderson Speedway MEP Late Model Champion had a dominating performance in winning the event over Tommy Cook and Billy Hutson.

Marcum comes into Saturday’s event leading the series points. Cook is three points back in second. Hutson is three points behind Cook in third. R.J. Norton is two points behind Hutson in fourth with Zachary Tinkle two points behind Norton in fifth place.

2018 series winners at Baer Field Motorsports Park included Cook in the June 23rd 75 lap event. ARCA/CRA Super Series competitor Hunter Jack got the win in the Triple Crown event on August 18th, his first ever CRA feature win.

There will be an optional open practice at Baer Field Motorsports Park this Friday from 4 to 8pm. On Saturday, pit gates will now open at 11am with an expected larger car count with it now being Baer Field’s season opener. Practice will begin at 2pm with qualifying beginning at 5:00pm. The race program is set to begin at 7:00pm and will include a 75-lap feature for the Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman. Also racing that night will be the Baer Field Modifieds, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks and FWD’s.

More event and track information can be found at www.baerfieldmotorpark.com.

More information on all the CRA Series is available at www.cra-racing.com.

On-line Entry Form Available for the 3rd Annual Money in the Bank at Berlin Raceway

Salem, IN (May 2, 2019) – Berlin Raceway officials have released the online entry form for the 3rd Annual Money in the Bank Presented by Primera Plastics, which will take place at Berlin Raceway located in Marne, Michigan, on Monday, June 10th. The event will be a one day show on that Monday with two hours of practice, qualifying, last chance race if needed and is a sanctioned non-point ARCA/CRA Super Series Powered by JEGS event again this year.

The event is one of the highest paying Super Late Model events in the country, with a $20,000 first place payoff. Berlin officials have announced that Primera Plastics has once again stepped in to be the events presenting sponsor, giving the event an added boost.

“We felt last years $20,000-to-win Money in the Bank event was very successful as a one-day show, we decided to keep that format,” said Mike Bursley, President of Berlin Raceway. “Our goal has been to create a big money show without a huge expense to the racer and with the help of Primera Plastics, we have been able to do just that.”

The third running of the Money in the Bank will be a 150 green flag lap event with six-tires. The race will feature Controlled Cautions with a Competition Cautions at the end of any run of 50 green flag laps (except in the last 25 laps). Teams that register online by May 25 will have the opportunity to save money on their tire bill as four tires are included at a heavily discounted rate with each early entry fee.

Teams can register for the event through the on line registration link through the Berlin Raceway web site at www.berlinraceway.com. The order of entries will be the race tire selection order.

More event and track information on the 3rd Annual Money in the Bank Presented by Primera Plastics is also available on the Berlin Raceway web site.

More information on the ARCA/CRA Super Series is available at www.cra-racing.com.