After a one-year hiatus, the full-bodied stock cars of the ARCA Menards Series return to Elko Speedway on Saturday, July 10 for the Menards 250. The Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based home improvement warehouse chain, which has served as the presenting sponsor and now the entitlement sponsor of the series for the past 13 years, is based just 90 minutes east of Elko, which is located just south of the Twin Cities in central Minnesota.
The ARCA Menards Series, a NASCAR touring division, competes at a wide range of venues, from the 2.66-mile high-banked Talladega Superspeedway where speeds routinely exceed 190 miles per hour, to road courses, one-mile dirt tracks and paved short tracks. Elko Speedway, at 0.375 miles in length, is the shortest track on the series’ 2021 schedule.
“We are thrilled the ARCA Menards Series is returning to Elko Speedway,” said Jeff Abbott, promotions manager for Menards. “We sponsored the race in 2019 and have had several of our vendor partners as sponsors in previous years. We love it because it’s the type of short track racing that has been the hallmark of the ARCA Menards Series since 1953. There’s someone trading paint just about every lap, and we’ve seen some of the most exciting finishes over the years too. It’s a great place to see a great race and we’re looking forward to seeing all of our upper Midwest racing fans back at the track again.”
The Menards 250 will feature a full day of on-track activity starting with one hour of practice for the ARCA Menards Series at 3:30 pm local time, followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 5:30 pm local, local division feature races at 6 pm local, and a 45-minute on-track autograph session at 7:45 pm local. The night’s 250-lap feature event will go green shortly after 9 pm local time.
“The Menards 250 at Elko Speedway has turned into a huge event in the upper Midwest,” said race promoter Bob Sargent, president of Track Enterprises. “Not only do the fans get to see 250 laps of great side-by-side, fender-banging action with the ARCA Menards Series cars they also will see three of the track’s regular divisions with over 300 laps of feature racing for the night.”
Previous ARCA Menards Series winners at Elko include Brennan Poole in 2012, Frank Kimmel in 2013, Grant Enfinger in 2014, Austin Theriault in 2017, Gus Dean in 2018, and Chandler Smith in 2019. Kimmel and Theriault both won en route to respective championships; Enfinger and Smith both won prior to making the leap into the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Current series championship contenders Corey Heim, the current points leader, and Ty Gibbs, currently second in the standings, finished fifth and second respectively in 2019.
The Menards 250 will also be the third round of the 2021 Sioux Chief Showdown, a series-within-the-series that allows drivers younger than 18 years of age to compete for a championship. The race will be televised live on MAVTV starting at 10 pm ET/9 pm local.
For ticket information, please visit TrackEnterprises.com. For updated event information, please visit ARCARacing.com.
ARCA PR
