Other Series PR

The ARCA Menards Series returns to Talladega Superspeedway for the General Tire 200, its 57th event at the high-banked 2.66-mile tri-oval since 1969.

Munford, Alabama is not one of the most easily-recognizable names to most citizens. It’s a tiny town in Talladega County, and at last count had approximately 1,300 people that lived there. Perhaps the only reason many would know its significance was if they were a Civil War buff, noting one of the last major battles east of the Mississippi River was fought there on April 23, 1865.

Intermittent rain played havoc with the first official on-track activity for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500. But, with patience and determination the NTT IndyCar Series teams and drivers were able to get the veteran drivers significant track time to get their preparations for the 500 well underway.

For the first time in his ARCA Menards Series career, Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford) leads the series championship standings. Braden, a two-time champion in the ARCA/CRA Super Series for late models, assumed the series lead after a 12th-place finish at Salem Speedway.

In less than two weeks, Joe Graf Jr. will be headed back to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, a track that was the background for the closest finish in the 67-year history of the ARCA Menards Series. The margin was so narrow it was a statistical dead heat, the margin of victory on the computerized scoring monitors showing 0.000 seconds. Only a video replay and the photo finish camera were able to determine Graf finished second by a matter of millimeters.

The ARCA Menards Series has been a part of Talladega Superspeedway’s history since the track’s inaugural season in 1969. Over the course of those 50 years, the series has run 55 races on the daunting 33-degree banks that sees speeds approach 200 miles per hour. The list of previous winners reads as a mixture of a who’s who of racing, and the greatest underdog stories in stock car racing.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: ON HIS RACE:“It’s tough when you’re not able to compete at the very, very front. We were at the front, but you want to be competing for first (place). That’s disappointing, but we gave it our all today and thought we had a pretty good race for the most part. The Hitachi car was fast, it was just a touch off what other cars had. Alex did a nice job; congrats to Andretti. We had good fuel mileage (and) Chevy did a good job for us. We just were a little short. It’s a good day, it’s just tough when you’re not competing for the win.”

For eighteen-year-old Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota), his first two seasons in the ARCA Menards Series were fraught with frustration. Coming to the ARCA after a brief but successful career in super late models, Eckes expected to find similar success in the heavier, full-bodied ARCA machinery.

After taking a frustrated second-place finish in Race One at Barber Motorsports Park, Bryan Ortiz relished his run to the top of the Battery Tender® Global Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires® podium in race two—his first victory of the 2019 season.

Discounted tickets to the April 14 ARCA Menards Series Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA 200 at Salem Speedway are available through April 13 at participating southern Indiana and northern Kentucky Menards locations. The race will serve as the second round of the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge, an eleven-race series within the overall ARCA Menards Series that crowns a separate champion for races contested on tracks one mile in length and under.