ELKO, Minn. – The Automobile Racing Club of America, 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.
The Menards 250 will take the green flag at 10 p.m. ET/ 9 p.m. CT July 13. It will be televised live 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 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, Wis. 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.