The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), Track Enterprises and Menards have jointly announced that the Wisconsin-based home improvement retailer will become the race entitlement sponsor of the July 13 ARCA Menards Series event at Elko Speedway, located just outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Menards 250 will take the green flag at 10 pm ET/ 9 pm CT Saturday night, July 13, and is scheduled for live, flag-to-flag coverage on MAVTV.
“We’re excited to be a bigger part of the ARCA Menards Series event at Elko Speedway,” commented Jeff Abbott, Spokesperson and Promotions Manager for Menards. “The ARCA race at Elko has a real big-time feel, and we love the kind of short track racing ARCA brings to a place like Elko.”
The Menards 250 marks the sixth ARCA Menards Series event at Elko Speedway. Current NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver Brennan Poole won the inaugural race in 2012. Other ARCA winners at Elko include ARCA Menards Series national champions Frank Kimmel (2013), Grant Enfinger (2014) and Austin Theriault (2017). Current NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series rookie Gus Dean earned his second career ARCA Menards Series win in a late-race fender-banging shootout last July driving for former Elko Speedway late model champion Kevin Cywinski.
John Menard, along with NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton and ARCA President Ron Drager, announced earlier this year that Menards would increase their involvement with and support of ARCA by becoming the series’ entitlement and naming rights sponsor. The ARCA race at Elko Speedway is the closest to Menards headquarters, which is located ninety minutes east of the Twin Cities in Eau Clair, Wisconsin. The Minneapolis/St. Paul area is Menards’ second largest retail market.
“ARCA’s fans are Menards customers,” Abbott continued. “We enjoy the relationship we have with ARCA and (event promoter) Track Enterprises, and our customers support the events on a number of levels.”
The Menards 250 at Elko Speedway will be the sixth race of the 2019 Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge Series, a series within the overall ARCA Menards Series that crowns a champion on races held at tracks one mile in length at under. Kyle Weatherman was the inaugural Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge champion in 2015, while current NASCAR XFINITY Series driver Chase Briscoe won in 2016 followed by series champions Austin Theriault in 2017 and Sheldon Creed in 2018.
Race fans will have the opportunity to “Save Big Money” at more than thirty Twin Cities-area Menards stores by purchasing advanced adult tickets for just $20, a savings of $10 from the race day walkup price, starting on June 3. Discounted tickets for the Menards 250 will be available through July 12, the day before the race. Tickets are also available online at ElkoSpeedway.com.
“It’s an honor to have Menards sponsor the ARCA event at Elko Speedway,” commented Bob Sargent, president of Track Enterprises. ARCA is a big part of our business, and therefore, so is Menards. We’ve enjoyed working with the Menards folks and the people from their vendor partners over the years.”
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About Track Enterprises: Track Enterprises is a racing promotion company that oversees popular events that feature top touring series like the ARCA Racing Series, USAC Racing, DIRTcar UMP, POWRi Racing, All Star Circuit of Champions, Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, CRA, Southern Super Series, and more. The company also oversees all racing promotions at Macon Speedway, Lincoln Speedway, and the Terre Haute Action Track. For more information on the upcoming racing schedule, visit TrackEnterprises.com.
About ARCA: The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is among the leading and most versatile auto racing sanctioning bodies in the country. Now a part of NASCAR, ARCA was founded in 1953 by John and Mildred Marcum in Toledo, Ohio. ARCA is still headquartered in nearby Temperance, Michigan and led by the Marcum’s grandson, Ron Drager. The organization administers more than 100 events each year in multiple racing series, including the ARCA Menards Series, the ARCA/CRA Super Series and the ARCA Midwest Tour, plus weekly racing at Toledo and Flat Rock Speedways.
About Menards: A family owned company started in 1958, Menards is headquartered in Eau Claire, WI. Menards has more than 300 retail stores located throughout the Midwest in the states of IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI and WY. Menards is known throughout the home improvement industry as the low-price leader. Its famous slogan “Save Big Money at Menards” is widely known and easy to remember. For more information, visit Menards.com, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.