NASCAR’s return to the St. Louis area meant that many of its stars were in close proximity to Tri-City Speedway and many took advantage to sling dirt.
Dave Blaney
The former Cup Series regular made serious noise in his return to sprint car racing, scoring three top-two finishes in the final three races of Western Pennsylvania Speed Week, including a feature win at Sharon Speedway Saturday night (June 3).
Blaney also won his heat at Sharon as well as a heat race at Pittsburgh’s PA Motor Speedway Thursday night.
Chase Briscoe
The Cup Series regular shook off his troubles from last week at Millbridge Speedway in his return to competition with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series at Wayne County Speedway in Illinois. Briscoe scored top-10 finishes in both series features on Friday and Saturday, improving his finishing position in both features by seven positions.
Briscoe also won a Last Chance Showdown race Friday night.
Rajah Caruth
The Truck Series regular competed in the winged micro sprint division at Millbridge on Wednesday night, minding his business but running in the back of his heat race and towards the rear of the field in the A-main. Caruth gained four spots on the night, three of which were the result of disqualifications.
Stewart Friesen
The Truck Series regular contested the Mohawk Valley Showdown with the DIRTcar 358 modified tour at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park in New York Sunday night. Friesen started fourth and was a fixture in the top five all night, finishing fifth in a race where passing was at a premium.
Tanner Gray
The Truck Series regular contested the wingless micro sprint division at Millbridge on Wednesday and had a rough go of it, going for a flip five laps into the 30-lap feature. Gray was uninjured, but the incident nullified a strong evening that saw him qualify for the pole dash.
Kasey Kahne
The former Cup Series regular returned to regular competition with the World of Outlaws sprint cars in Minnesota this weekend, scoring 17th and 16-place finishes at River Cities Speedway and Ogilvie Raceway, respectively.
Kyle Larson
The Cup Series regular stayed busy close to NASCAR’s home base outside St. Louis this week. It started with a bang, as Larson won his second consecutive feature with his own High Limit Racing Series at Tri-City Speedway on Wednesday.
As I wrote last week, Larson’s win did not come without controversy and neither did my article judging from our readers’ reactions on the Frontstretch Facebook page. So I’ll shamelessly plug that piece here.
Larson returned to action at Tri-City Friday night with the World of Outlaws late model tour and had the exact opposite experience, scoring a 25th-place DNF that DirtVision’s stream seemed to all but gloss over. Kevin Rumley’s wife provided a little bit of clarity as to Larson’s woes on her Twitter page.
Jesse Love
The ARCA Racing Series regular had a busy week in the open-wheel ranks and posted solid results doing it. Love’s busy week started Wednesday night at Millbridge, where he won a heat race and finished second in the wingless micro sprint feature.
From there, Love turned to midget competition and proved up to the task, winning Thursday night’s Xtreme Outlaw midget feature at Tri-City on Thursday night.
Following his top-five run in the NASCAR truck race at Gateway, Love was immediately back in a racecar Sunday night, as it was announced that he would be contesting the entirety of Indiana Midget Week with the USAC national tour.
Love qualified for the first two features of the mini series at Tri-State Speedway and Circle City Raceway Sunday and Monday, finishing 19th and 15th in the A-mains.
Ken Schrader
The former Cup Series regular rebounded from hauler trouble to score a top-10 finish in IMCA modified competition at his own Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 Saturday night. The team had originally planned to race at Legit Raceway Park in Missouri before suffering trouble with their transport vehicle.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The Cup Series regular was actually the busiest of the current Cup regulars as far as dirt racing this weekend and it was a mixed bag of results, with Stenhouse making two starts in a sprint car and two in a midget.
The sprint car was where Stenhouse made the most noise. Wednesday night saw him qualify for his first High Limit A-main in three races, posting a 19th-place finish at Tri-City that was his best on tour this year. Stenhouse also finished second place in another sprint car race at Tri-City Friday night.
In midget competition, Stenhouse made headlines the wrong way running the Xtreme Outlaw feature at Tri-City on Thursday. Running 10th, Stenhouse lost an entire rear tire, relegating him to a 17th-place finish. Stenhouse also finished 14th with the Xtreme tour at Wayne County in Illinois Saturday night.
Kenny Wallace
The former Cup Series regular posted strong results racing close to home in his modified car with NASCAR in his hometown, finishing second at Tri-City Thursday night and winning the UMP modified feature at I-55 Saturday night. Anyone that watched the NASCAR Cup Series telecast on FOX Sunday is aware of that.
JJ Yeley
The part-time Cup Series competitor returned to his USAC ranks to run the Corn Belt Nationals at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa this weekend with the USAC national sprint car tour. Yeley won the Semi feature Saturday night and finished 17th in the A-main, the first car one lap down. Yeley only got to run one event after a Friday rainout at Knoxville.
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.