The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards heads to the 3/8 mile Elko Speedway in Minnesota this weekend. The track is the shortest on the circuit.
After running two consecutive superspeedway races, the series visits a short track for the first time since Toledo Speedway last month.
Venturini Motorsports driver Justin Boston was the last driver to win a short track race by taking the race at Toledo for his first career series win. Since the win, the No. 25 team hasn’t caught a break.
Boston led the most laps at New Jersey Motorsports until pitting for a cut tire late in the race. At Pocono, he was in a late wreck with Matt Tifft and the No. 25 car’s engine went at Michigan. The second-year ARCA driver will look to change his luck this week at Elko and try to win back-to-back short track races.
The driver who finished second to Boston at Toledo was Mason Mitchell.
Mitchell had a near-perfect weekend there by being fastest in both practices, winning the pole with a new track record and just came up short in the race. The 20-year-old can almost taste victory lane with two back-to-back runner-up finishes at Pocono and Michigan.
The No. 98 was the fastest car at Michigan, but a late race battle with Austin Theriault resulted in some beating and banging and Mitchell couldn’t recover. The Mason Mitchell Motorsports team is knocking on the door of victory lane.
Another driver looking to reclaim the short track magic is Kyle Benjamin. Benjamin finished second in his Roulo Brothers Racing début at Mobile International Speedway in March. The 16-year-old scored victories at Madison International Speedway and Salem Speedway last season and hopes to add another come Saturday night.
It’s hard to believe defending ARCA champ Frank Kimmel hasn’t found victory lane yet this season. The 52-year-old driver is the defending winner of the race and is no stranger to running on short tracks.
Another driver he may have to deal with is the ageless Ken Schrader. The Missouri driver became the oldest ever to win an ARCA race last year at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds last September
ARCA first visited Elko Speedway in 2012 as current Venturini Motorsports driver/coach Brennan Poole scored his first career win in the 200-lapper. The race just lasted an hour and an extra 50 laps added to the 2013 event.
The Akona 250 is live television on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network, the first of three races the network will broadcast. Rick Benjamin will do play-by-play duties as Andy Hillenburg will serve as color analyst. Joining them in the coverage will be Todd Lewis, a veteran of NASCAR Canadian Tire, Champ Car, and IndyCar coverage, handling the pit road duties.