The ARCA Menards Series is coming off of an off-week and now enters a unique weekend in their 2024 schedule: a two-race, two-city doubleheader.
On Friday (Aug. 12), ARCA will head to Michigan International Speedway for the Henry Ford Health 200 before heading to the Illinois State Fairgrounds two days later for the Springfield ARCA 100.
Friday’s race sees 24 cars entered to tackle the two-mile speedway. Sunday’s race sees 21 cars entered to tackle the one-mile dirt oval.
When the series visited the pair of tracks in 2023, they were not linked on the same weekend. Michigan was paired with the NASCAR weekend, with the race being held two weeks before the annual doubleheader. Jesse Love proved victorious on that day after Andres Perez led the most laps and suffered a late-race mechanical failure, taking him out of contention.
The 2023 edition of the Springfield race was featured as a part of a doubleheader, with teams beginning in Watkins Glen, N.Y. on Friday and ending in Springfield on Sunday, similar to the 2024 schedule.
That race was dominated by Brent Crews, who won his first ARCA race in his second start on the dirt that day.
Venturini Motorsports will roll out their familiar three full-timers for both races: Toni Breidinger, Amber Balcaen and Kris Wright. Breidinger did not run either race in 2023, but has one previous Michigan start, finishing 11th in 2022.
She also has a best finish of 9th on the dirt track, coming back in 2021. As for Wright, he also has limited experience on this weekend’s set of tracks, only making one Michigan start — last season, finishing 11th.
He has yet to make an ARCA start on dirt, but does have a handful of Craftsman Truck Series starts on dirt, never finishing above 28th. Balcaen has one start at each track, coming back with her time with Rette-Jones Racing in 2022.
That season, she finished 18th at Michigan and 14th on the dirt in Springfield. Each of the three drivers enter the weekend in the top seven in points.
As for the team’s other two cars, Gus Dean will pilot the No. 55 at Michigan, with Jake Finch in the No. 20. Finch will run Michigan for the second time in his career, with the first coming in 2023. He finished 12th.
Dean will make his first start since Salem Speedway and enters Michigan with quite a bit of success in his past starts.
In four previous starts, Dean has never finished outside of the top five, and is coming off of a runner-up finish in 2023. As for Sunday in Springfield, Taylor Reimer will make her second career ARCA start in the No. 55, and Isabella Robusto will return to the series in the No. 20.
Current points leader Perez returns to Michigan for the first time since his dominating performance in 2023, a race in which he led 43 laps, but suffered a mechanical failure with less than 10 laps to go and finished 17th. The 19-year-old also finished runner-up at Springfield last season.
He enters the weekend on a streak of four consecutive top-five finishes and a streak of top-10 finishes going all the way back to the second race of the season at Phoenix Raceway.
Perez’s Rev Racing teammate Lavar Scott enters the doubleheader weekend as the hottest full-time driver in the series at the moment. Like Perez, Scott is on a streak of four consecutive top-five finishes, never finishing worth than fourth and coming across the line second twice.
At the most recent race at Elko Speedway, Scott missed out on his first career win by mere inches in a three-wide finish across the finish line. Scott has no previous starts at Springfield or Michigan in his ARCA career.
A debut of sorts is in line for Michigan as Connor Zilisch, widely considered one of NASCAR’s top prospects, will make his debut on a track larger than a mile. Having recently celebrated his 18th birthday, Zilisch is eligible to run every track on the schedule now. He’ll pilot the familiar Pinnacle Racing Group No. 28 and looks to continue his perfect 2024 season, having found victory lane in each of his three national division starts this year.
Andy Jankowiak returns to ARCA this weekend for the first time since Iowa back in June. The New York-based driver took most of the standalone short track races off and is only expected to run Michigan this weekend, not Springfield. Jankowiak is coming off of his best finish of the season, fifth at Iowa Speedway, and only has one previous Michigan start. That came last season, where he finished fourth.
Greg Van Alst, who currently sits third in points, will surrender his full-time status this weekend, skipping Springfield, opting only to run Michigan. Van Alst has been on a bit of a skid lately, not finishing inside of the top 10 since the season opener at Daytona International Speedway and only finishing higher than eighth once since that race. Van Alst has one previous start at Michigan, finishing ninth in 2021.
It’s also the second consecutive year he’s abandoned his full-time desires mid-season.
For the second-to-last time this season, Joe Gibbs Racing will have a pair of drivers in their No. 18 Toyota this weekend. Tanner Gray returns to the seat for the first time since his win at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. Gray has one more race scheduled this season, at Kansas Speedway, until William Sawalich turns 18 in October. As for Sawalich, he’ll run Springfield, winning four of the last five races he’s entered. In both of the dirt races in 2023, Sawalich finished fifth.
Frankie Muniz returns to ARCA for the second time this season and the first time since Talladega Superspeedway. While his last start came with Rette-Jones Racing, he’ll make this start with Reaume Brothers Racing, with sponsorship from VYPER. After his full-time ARCA season in 2023, Muniz has had to piece together races in 2024, running partial schedules in ARCA and both the Truck Series and Xfinity Series.
This is Muniz’s last scheduled ARCA race of 2024, though he does have a pair of truck races planned for next month, also with Reaume. In 2023, Muniz recorded his best career ARCA finish at Michigan, finishing fifth.
The annual dirt races brings a return of one driver to the entry lists, as Kelly Kovski is listed as the driver of the No. 16 at Springfield. Kovski is certainly no stranger to ARCA on dirt, running one or both scheduled races each year since 2004. The Brandt-sponsored driver is coming off a successful year in 2023, where he finished 4th at Springfield, and 6th at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds, averaging a fifth-place finish in his two starts.
The green flag for Friday’s Henry Ford Health 200 will fly at 6 p.m. ET, with television coverage on FOX Sports 1. As for Sunday’s Springfield ARCA 100, the race will go green at 2 p.m. ET with coverage also being carried by FS1.
Josh joined Frontstretch in 2023 and currently covers the ARCA Menards Series. Born and raised in Missouri, Josh has been watching motorsports since 2005. He currently is studying for a Mass Communication degree at Lindenwood University