Derek Kraus
Derek Kraus, driver of the No. 19 BMR Toyota, pictured before the General Tire 150 for the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series West at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, on March 12, 2021. (Adam Glanzman/ARCA Racing)

ARCA Midwest Tour field at Milwaukee Mile full of names familiar to ARCA Menards Series

www.arcaracing.com June 17, 2021

When the ARCA Menards Series rolls into West Allis, Wisconsin, for the Sprecher 150 on Aug. 29, it will mark the first time since 2007 that the series has ventured to the historic Milwaukee Mile for a race weekend.

While race dates have been scarce over the past decade at the century-old facility, the late model standouts of the ARCA Midwest Tour ushered stock car racing back to the Mile in 2019 and are set to do so again Sunday, June 20, ending a one-year hiatus with the running of the Father’s Day 100.

Eagle-eyed ARCA Menards Series fans may notice several familiar names among the 36 ARCA Midwest Tour entrants, including some that will reappear two months from now for the running of the Sprecher 150, a pivotal event on the series’ Sioux Chief Showdown calendar.

The ARCA Menards Series West will be well-represented with the series’ last two champions set to tackle the Mile. The 2019 ARCA Menards Series West champ, Derek Kraus, a Wisconsin native-turned-West Coast transplant, will utilize a break in his full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule to come back home and race. Kraus collected 10 West Series victories and the 2017 Bounty Rookie of the Year title before making the leap to go Truck racing with his Bill McAnally Racing team in 2020.

Staying true to the upcoming holiday, Derek’s father Mark Kraus, a veteran racer himself, is entered in the Father’s Day 100, as well.

Two of the brightest young stars across the ARCA Menards platform, Jesse Love and Sammy Smith, have already announced plans to run in the Sprecher 150 and will pull double-duty by using the late model event as a warm-up, of sorts. Love succeeded Derek Kraus to become the reigning ARCA Menards Series West champion, breaking records as he claimed the crown at just 15. Love will return to the Mile in August in a Venturini Motorsports ride, one of nine scheduled races for Love with the team.

Smith joined Joe Gibbs Racing for the full ARCA Menards Series East slate in 2021 and has been a one-man highlight reel after the first half of the season. The Iowa rookie has three wins through five races, surviving a tire blowout, multiple penalties and a maddening, late-night Florida rain shower on his way to the championship lead. Smith will make his ARCA Menards Series debut at Iowa Speedway in July, a race that will also count for points in the East Series title chase.

Longtime race fans will instantly recognize Rich Bickle’s presence in the field. Bickle previously announced that the 2021 season would be his last behind the wheel, and kicked off his retirement tour in February by returning to the ARCA Menards Series for the first time in 25 years to compete in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway. A fourth-place qualifying effort was soured by his involvement in an early wreck, but the veteran rebounded to cross the line 15th by the time the checkered flag waved.

Local hero Ty Majeski needs no introduction, as his midwestern late model exploits are already the stuff of legend. Majeski has three ARCA Menards Series wins under his belt while driving for team owner Chad Bryant and former Cup championship-winning crew chief Paul Andrews in 2019. Ironically, the short-track star’s three wins came on superspeedways, and he nearly added a fourth when he ran out of gas leading on the final lap at Michigan that year.

A number of drivers in the Midwest Tour field have seat time in an ARCA car at Daytona thanks to the series’ Road to Daytona initiative. The program allows select drivers from the grassroots level to take part in the annual test session at Daytona each January under the tutelage of former series champion Andy Hillenburg.

Majeski, Dalton Armstrong, Jonathan Eilen, Casey Johnson, Dalton Zehr and Justin Mondeik are among those who used the opportunity to turn laps at the famed “World Center of Racing” for the first time.