Carson Hocevar, Travis Braden Keep Busy on ARCA Menards Series Off Weeks

With an off week for the ARCA Menards Series, you might think everyone would take the week off to rest, relax and regroup after a grueling eleven races-in-ten weeks stretch. With a couple of open weekends before the next race at the Illinois State Fairgrounds and then another open weekend before the annual Labor Day weekend visit to the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds, there’s plenty of work to be done on the racecars to get them ready for back-to-back dirt track battles.

Many drivers will indeed take the open weekends off to reconnect with family and friends, catch up on the honey-do list, or in the case of many of the under-18 drivers, get ready for the return to schooling and homework.

But a couple of them will stay busy with on-track action over the course of the next couple of weeks.

Carson Hocevar (No. 28 GMPartsNow.com/Scott’s/KBR Development Chevrolet) will make his NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series debut on Wednesday and Thursday in the seventh annual Eldora Dirt Derby. Competing for the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge in 2019, Hocevar has had a solid season to this point. He earned his second career General Tire Pole Award in the second short track race of the season at Salem Speedway and has recorded four top-five finishes and seven top-ten finishes in the eight races he’s been in so far.

Hocevar will drive the No. 3 Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing at the half-mile banked track located just to the east of the Ohio-Indiana border in Darke County. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran Ryan Newman drove for the team at this event in 2018 and finished 30th in the 32-truck field. This year’s race is set for Thursday evening and will be televised live on FS1 starting at 7 pm ET.

Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford) will return to his super late model roots in the ARCA/CRA Super Series portion of the annual Kalamazoo Klash at Kalamazoo Speedway on August 7. Braden is a two-time ARCA/CRA Super Series champion and won the template-bodied super late model portion of the Klash in 2017. The action at Kalamazoo, which will also include a 125-lap feature for wedge-bodied super late models, starts at 7 pm ET.

Braden will drive for Platinum Motorsports and team owner Bill Burba at Kalamazoo. Currently fourth in the ARCA Menards Series standings, Braden has racked up 12 top-ten finishes in fifteen races and sits just 120 points out of the championship lead headed into the next series race at Springfield.

Braden will continue his pursuit of Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota), Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota), and Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Chevrolet) in the Allen Crowe 100 on the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on Sunday August 18. Practice is set for 10 am ET, with General Tire Pole Qualifying scheduled for 12 n ET, and the green flag for the 100-mile headliner to follow at 2:30 pm ET. The race will be televised live on MAVTV. ARCA for Me members can access live timing & scoring, live track updates and live chat at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login. Please visit TrackEnterprises.com for ticket information.