PIT BOX: ARCA Menards Series title races to get physical at Elko Speedway

There is short track racing, and then there is short track racing at Elko Speedway.

After a one-year hiatus, the ARCA Menards Series is back at the 3/8-mile paved oval in Elko New Market, Minnesota, for Saturday’s Menards 250, the ninth race of the 2021 season and the third round of this year’s Sioux Chief Showdown.

With tight title races ongoing in both series, Saturday night’s event is sure to be a spectacle at the smallest and most physical track the ARCA Menards Series visits. It’s also the first of a stretch of four Saturday night short track races on the series schedule through the end of July

Tickets to Saturday night’s race at Elko are available. The event will broadcast live on MAVTV Motorsports Network with a live stream available on NBC Sports Gold’s TrackPass.

Menards 250 at Elko Speedway

WHAT TO WATCH FOR:

Saturday night’s Menards 250 marks the seventh time the ARCA Menards Series has raced at Elko. The six previous events produced six different winners, and with none of those victors on the entry list for the 2021 edition, that streak is guaranteed to continue.

The last time the series competed on a short track, at Toledo Speedway in May, Ty Gibbs dominated en route to his third win of the season. (The 18-year-old now has a series-high five wins in 2021.) But Elko is a different breed of short track at just 3/8 of a mile.

Corey Heim, the championship points leader and the only driver not named Gibbs to reach Victory Lane (three times) in the series this season, will be among the drivers hoping to work the rough racing at Elko to his advantage and keep Gibbs away from another checkered flag.

Heim will have two Venturini Motorsports teammates on track with him Saturday night. One will be Jesse Love, the defending ARCA Menards Series West champion who is coming off a victory at a short track (Irwindale Speedway) in the West Series.

The other is Gracie Trotter, whose historic first ARCA Menards victory last season came at a track similar to Elko — The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The drivers who rank third and fourth in ARCA Menards Series points, Thad Moffitt and Nick Sanchez, respectively, are entered in Saturday night’s Elko race. And Moffitt will run with a notable teammate.

Taylor Gray at Elko will compete in an ARCA Menards race for the first time since he was involved in a street car accident in April; he has been sidelined from competition for 13 weeks. Gray’s last ARCA Menards Series start was his ninth-place run in March at Phoenix Raceway.

Saturday will begin a stretch of five straight weeks of racing for the 16-year-old Gray. He will follow the ARCA Menards Series schedule through Watkins Glen International, where he intends to do double duty with ARCA and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

The complete entry list for Saturday’s Menards 250 at Elko Speedway can be viewed here.

RACING REFERENCE:

• ARCA Menards Series Points
• Previous races at Elko
• ARCA Menards Series drivers at Elko

RACE FACTS

CREW CHIEF HANDOUT: The starting field for the Menards 250 is limited to 24 plus provisional positions. This event will be run under the 2021 ARCA Menards Series rules, procedures, regulations and specifications.

QUALIFYING: : Two consecutive laps qualifying. No adjustments or repairs may be made on car after taking the green flag at start/finish line. All cars must make a qualifying attempt, and all drivers must practice before they can qualify.

RACE PIT STOP: Break pit stop procedure. Breaks at or near the conclusion of Laps 100 and 175. All cars will be required to make at least one pit stop before the last 10 laps of the race. No adding or moving tires to or from pit box once race has started.

The maximum tire allotment available for this event is as follows: Per ARCA Rulebook, maximum number of tires allowed in pit box for use in race is six (6).