The ARCA Menards Series heads to The Tricky Triangle in the Pocono Mountains for the 10th event of the season in the Sunset Hill Shooting Range 150 from Pocono Raceway.
After this event, the series will officially be halfway home in its championship chase, with 10 races of 20 complete.
Jesse Love enters Pocono holding a 49-point lead over Frankie Muniz in the ARCA championship battle. Coming off an uncharacteristic weekend at Iowa Speedway during which he didn’t show enough speed to contend for the win, Love looks to rebound at a track type at which his Venturini Motorsports team has traditionally been successful.
Series newcomer Muniz will see a challenge unlike anything he has seen in his ARCA career this weekend when he tackles Pocono’s unique three-turn configuration. Consistency has been his calling card all year long, and Muniz hopes to perhaps pair that consistency with some more speed this weekend to challenge for the win at Pocono.
Several drivers will make their return to ARCA following a brief hiatus. The likes of Connor Mosack, Stephanie Moyer, Bryan Dauzat, Sean Corr, Ed Pompa, Cody Coughlin and Andy Jankowiak are in action for the first time since Charlotte Motor Speedway in late May.
Jake Finch, winner on the ARCA Menards Series East trail earlier this year at Dover Motor Speedway, returns to the ARCA national series this weekend. The young Lynn Haven, Fla., driver will look to improve upon his seventh-place effort last year in this race for Venturini.
Other headliners include Mosack and Dean Thompson, who will pull two variations of double duty this weekend. Mosack will contest the ARCA race and the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, while Thompson is driving both ARCA race and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event.
Thompson has recorded two runner-up finishes in only three ARCA starts this year, with second-place efforts at Kansas Speedway and Charlotte and another nice run at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course that did not yield the result he deserved due to a late-race incident after being spun by his teammate, Sean Hingorani, while running second. Mosack, who has likewise made only three ARCA starts this year, has recorded finishes of second, fourth and ninth at Daytona, Kansas and Charlotte respectively.
With no former Pocono winners on the entry list, ARCA is guaranteed to see a new face grace the newly renovated victory lane at the Pocono.
If past ARCA Pocono races are any indication of what this year’s race will look like, surely lots of action will be in order. Watch for chaos to play out on restarts as drivers fan out across the five-plus lanes of the Pocono frontstretch.
Be sure to tune in to FOX Sports 1 on Friday, July 21 at 6 p.m. ET to catch all the ARCA action from Pocono. FloRacing will also air live coverage of the race.
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