Chandler Smith and his Venturini Motorsports backed No.20 Craftsman Toyota team visit the Minneapolis area this weekend for Saturday night’s ARCA Menards Series Menards 250 at Elko Speedway.
Smith, 17, a four-time career ARCA Series winner and member of Toyota Racing Development’s (TRD) highly acclaimed TD2 development driver program looks to continue his early career dominance on Elko Speedway’s 3/8-mile short track.
Already with two victories in just six starts on the season, Smith leads all current drivers with 423 laps led on the season (1186 career laps led). Finishing outside the top-10 only once since making his series debut in 2018, the teenager from Talking Rock, GA looks to add to his already impressive resume which touts four wins and 11 top-5 finishes to go along with seven General Tire Pole Awards.
Unable to compete in the full ARCA Schedule due to minimum age requirements, Smith leads ARCA’s Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge, a series within a series that awards a championship for races held on tracks one mile in length and under.
Driving for Venturini Motorsports, winners of seven of the first twelve races of the 2019 season, Smith retakes the reigns of the series’ leading (Owner Points) No.20 Craftsman Toyota. One of four drivers to pilot the twenty-car throughout the season, Smith will run the lions share with 11 of 20 races in the seat.
Smith joins Venturini Motorsports’ teammates Christian Eckes, Michael Self and Hailie Deegan at Elko. VMS has one team win at Elko Speedway (Brennan Poole ’12) and two General Tire Pole Awards (Justin Haley ’14 and Christian Eckes ’18).
The ARCA Menards Series returns to action on Saturday July 13 in the Menards 250 at Elko Speedway. Practice at Elko Speedway is set for 2:15 pm ET/1:15 pm CT, General Tire Pole Qualifying is scheduled for 6:15 pm ET/5:15 pm CT, and the 250-lap feature event will go green shortly after 10 pm ET/9 pm CT. The race will be televised live on MAVTV.
Venturini Motorsports PR
