- The Dawn 150 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is set to be the ninth race of the 2022 ARCA Menards Series season, and its first of two road course races.
- Sammy Smith will be looking for his third consecutive ARCA Menards Series victory, with his first career series win coming at Berlin Raceway three weeks ago, followed by his second career victory in the next series race at Elko Speedway two weeks ago.
- Smith was not age eligible to compete in the early-season superspeedway races so he is not in contention for the overall series championship, but he does have a commanding 17-point lead over Jesse Love in the Sioux Chief Showdown standings entering the Dawn 150.
- Jesse Love is no stranger to road course racing. The two-time defending ARCA Menards Series West champion earned his first career West Series win on the twisty Utah Motorsports Campus road course in 2020. Love’s victory at Utah Motorsports Campus was in the opening round of a same-day doubleheader. The nightcap was won by Blaine Perkins, who is also entered in the Dawn 150 in a Bill McAnally Racing Chevrolet.
- The ARCA Menards Series entry list at Mid-Ohio is bolstered by several NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers attempting to do double duty over the weekend. Perkins, Jack Wood, Kris Wright, John Hunter Nemechek, Colby Howard have all filed entries for the Dawn 150 to get extra laps and experience for their first NCWTS start at Mid-Ohio. ARCA Menards Series regular Taylor Gray has filed an entry for the NCWTS portion of the weekend as well.
- ARCA Menards Series championship leader Rajah Caruth will attempt to extend his lead in the standings over current runner-up, and Rev Racing teammate, Nick Sanchez. Caruth has yet to visit victory lane but has four top-five finishes so far in 2022, while Sanchez has two wins – Talladega Superspeedway and Kansas Speedway – but those victories represent his only top-five finishes so far this season.
- Daniel Dye enters the Dawn 150 in search of his first victory of 2022 in just his second career road course race. He made his road course debut earlier this season in the ARCA Menards Series West race at Portland International Raceway and claimed the General Tire Pole Award in qualifying. The race started in a driving rainstorm and Dye slid off the track in the race’s very first turn, but he did not make contact with anything and recovered to finish fourth.
- Hollywood stunt man Stanton Barrett returns to the ARCA Menards Series driving one of 1995 series champion Andy Hillenburg’s entries. Barrett finished sixth in last year’s Dawn 150, his first series appearance in 20 years.
- Six-time ARCA Menards Series East winner Dale Quarterley will make his second start of 2022. He finished 12th in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway. Quarterley also ran the two ARCA Menards Series West road course races, with a best finish of third atSonoma Raceway.
- The Dawn 150 is set for 5 pm ET on Friday, July 8 and will be televised live on FS1. The race will also be broadcast on select affiliates of the MRN Radio network nationwide.
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