Race Weekend Central

ARCA Preview: 2019 FORTS USA 150

The ARCA Menards Series travels this weekend to Long Pond, Pa., for its second race of the 2019 seasonĀ  at Pocono Raceway.

The 2019 FORTS USA 150 will take place on Friday, July 26. It will be the first race of the tripleheader race weekend at Pocono; the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series will race there the following day, and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will wrap up the race weekend on Sunday, July 28.

The 150-mile race will consist of 60 laps around the 2.5-mile Tricky Triangle. 22 drivers are currently entered in the race, barring any entry list changes, and no driver entered has won at Pocono before, so the outcome of the race will differ from the ARCA race there earlier this season.

For starters, welcome back Bobby Gerhart. He will make his fourth start of the season driving his No. 5 Chevrolet and is seeking his first top 10 finish of this season.

In two ARCA races this season, Raphael Lessard has one top-five finish and two top-10 finishes. In fact, in the ARCA race at Pocono earlier this season, he finished fourth. The 18-year-old from St. Joseph, Quebec, will look to wheel the No. 28 KBR Development Chevrolet into victory lane.

When ARCA visited Pocono earlier this season, Harrison Burton won the pole, Riley Herbst led the most laps and Ty Majeski won the race. None of those three drivers are entered in the FORTS USA 150.

In place of Burton in the No. 20 Venturini Motorsports Toyota will be Chandler Smith. Smith has won four races this season, including winning back-to-back races entering the weekend.

Instead of Majeski, Corey Heim will drive the No. 22 Chad Bryant Racing Ford. Despite missing six races thus far this season, Heim is in 14th place in the point standings.

Todd Gilliland won the General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this season driving the No. 4 DGR-Crosley Toyota. This week, Gilliland will drive the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Gilliland, Christian Eckes and Austin Wayne Self will all pull double duty at Pocono as they will also compete in the Truck Series race earlier on Saturday afternoon.

In the FORTS USA 150, Self will drive the No. 32 Win-Tron Racing Chevrolet. It will be his second start of this season; he finished eighth in the Bounty 150 at Chicagoland Speedway.

The top four drivers in the point standings are separated by 120 points. Of those four, Eckes finished in third, Bret Holmes finished fifth, Travis Braden finished 10th and Michael Self finished 11th. Both Holmes and Braden are chasing their first win this season.

The FORTS USA 150 will begin at 4 p.m. ET. TV coverage will be provided by Fox Sports 1.

About the author

Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.

Sign up for the Frontstretch Newsletter

A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.

Share via