The ARCA Racing Series continues its diverse and unique schedule this weekend at the historic Talladega Superspeedway for the annual running of the General Tire 200.
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.
Sam Mayer and the GMS Racing team was racing with heavy hearts at Salem Speedway this weekend, as a co-worker, Jonathan Morrison, known as "Outlaw," passed away this weekend.
It was supposed to be an off weekend for Harrison Burton, the NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series driver. However, Burton got a call late Saturday night and flew to Salem, Indiana to substitute for Christian Eckes.
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.”
Scott Dixon parked his car right in front of Graham Rahal on pit road in the staging area, following the final lap of the NTT IndyCar Series' annual trip to Long Beach, Calif., because he believed Rahal would lose the final podium position for blocking him on the backstretch.
he Dirt Track at Charlotte kicked off the first of four days of action-packed racing with qualifying for all three of dirt racing’s biggest series Wednesday at the Dave Smith Motors World of Outlaws World Finals
