The ARCA Menards Series continues its short track portion of the summer schedule, heading to Elko Speedway in Minnesota on Saturday, June 21.
Twenty-four drivers are entered for the race, the most since the inaugural one at the track in 2012, which had 28 entries.
Last season, the series competed at the track during NASCAR’s two-week Olympic break, allowing the race to be on full display for stock car racing fans. The race didn’t disappoint, as it was one of the best races all season.
William Sawalich won after coming from the back, getting spun halfway through the race by Michael Maples. Under a lightning-filled sky, Sawalich battled Lavar Scott on a late-race restart, passing him in the final turns for the win, as the two spun across the finish line side by side, joined by third-place Kris Wright, who had caught up to the battle as well.
This season, Sawalich isn’t entered in the race, and neither are any of the other winners of the previous 10 races at the track. That means this week, the track will see a new winner, ensuring 11 different winners in 11 races.
Beginning the trek down the entry list with Scott, he enters Elko this season the same way he did last season, still looking to break through for his first ARCA win. He led 100 laps in the race last year, well over half of his career total. The good news is that since that race, Scott has only finished outside the top 10 once, and outside the top five three times. Scott also has made himself a consistent threat on short tracks in the series, only finishing outside of the top five twice in 11 career races.
While Sawalich is absent from the list, Joe Gibbs Racing is not. The No. 18 will be piloted by 15-year-old Max Reaves, in just his second career national series start. Last week at Berlin Speedway, Reaves finished runner up to winner Treyten Lapcevich, but has proven to be a consistent threat on short tracks. This season in the ARCA Menards Series East, Reaves is undefeated, winning all three races he’s started, each coming on tracks under a mile in length.
Brenden Queen enters his first career ARCA race at Elko as the current points leader, holding a narrow seven-point gap over Scott and Lawless Alan. Queen might be relatively new to short tracks on the ARCA side, but is no stranger to success on short tracks in general. He has just one start on tracks that length, last week at Berlin, where he finished fourth. However, his strong start to the season, coupled with deep-rooted success in late models on similar-styled tracks, should make Queen an immediate threat. This week’s race also marks the first time his team, Pinnacle Racing Group, will compete at Elko.
As for Alan, he and his Venturini Motorsports No. 20 team enter Elko on a high, finishing inside of the top three in the previous two races, and the top five in five of the last six. Like Queen and many others entered this week, Alan has not seen the Minnesota short track before, however.
His Venturini Motorsports teammate, Isabella Robusto, has one previous start at the track. Robusto finished fourth last year, behind the chaos of the three-wide finish. She comes into Elko on a streak of two consecutive top 10s, a welcome turn around in luck from the start of her season. Like Queen, Robusto cut her teeth on short tracks through late models and nearly won an ARCA Menards Series West race at Irwindale Speedway in 2024, making her a driver to watch on Saturday.
In its third car, the No. 25, VMS features Ty Fredrickson, a 16-year-old who will make his ARCA debut. Fredrickson hails from nearby Northfield, Minn., situated about five miles south of the racetrack. He cut his teeth on the ASA Midwest Tour and claimed the Kulwicki Cup Championship in 2024, awarded to the best driver in the Kulwicki Driver Development Program each season.
The race-winning team last week at Berlin, Nitro Motorsports, will see a new driver behind the wheel on Saturday. Taylor Reimer will make her pavement debut in ARCA, driving the No. 70, with her three previous starts coming on dirt. She has had success in the series in those starts, finishing inside the top 10 each time, including a podium finish at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 2024. Reimer has been running late model races on short tracks around the Carolinas the last two years, but ARCA will provide a new test to the 25-year-old rookie.
A bit of series history will be made this weekend as well, as Brad Smith will make his 450th career ARCA start, well over the number his competitors have made combined. When Smith made his series debut in 1988, only a handful of his competitors this weekend had been born. The 56-year-old Smith has competed in at least one race each year since 2000, and has competed nearly full time since 2016. He had his best Elko finish of 14th in 2021.
It may be Jason Kitzmiller’s first full-time season, but his performance hasn’t made that an obvious fact. Despite missing the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway to attend his daughter’s high school graduation, Kitzmiller sits 57 points out of the championship lead, fourth in the standings. The 51-year-old almost exclusively ran big racetracks in his previous series starts, facing new challenges on the short tracks in 2025. Kitzmiller recorded an eighth-place run at Berlin and looks to replicate that at 3/8-mile Elko.
There are also a handful of new faces to the national division of ARCA at Elko, including Quinn Davis, Tony Musolino and Kadence Davenport.
Davis, a 16-year-old driver from Tennessee, has a bit of ARCA experience, finishing ninth at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in the East Series earlier this season. Davenport, a 20-year-old from Iowa, has run dirt tracks and karting events across the Midwest throughout her career. Musolino, hailing from Pennsylvania, competes in the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series. Davis will drive the No. 31 for Rise Motorsports, Davenport in the No. 7 for CCM Racing, and Musolino in the No. 10 for Fast Track Racing.
The green flag for the Shore Lunch 250 at Elko will fall at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 21. Teams will have two 20-minute practice sessions at 4:40 and 5:10 p.m. ET, with qualifying taking place shortly after at 6:20. The race will be televised live on FOX Sports 2 and the FOX Sports App.
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