- Reigning ARCA Menards Series East champion Sammy Smith returns to the track where his racing career began, Elko Speedway, coming off his first career ARCA Menards Series win in last Saturday night’s Zinsser SmartCoat 200 at Berlin Raceway. Smith started racing in Legends cars at Elko Speedway when he was 11 years old.
- Daniel Dye led 192 of the 200 laps at Berlin, dominating the race after starting from the General Tire Pole for the second consecutive season. Unlike last year, when Dye scored his first career ARCA Menards Series win, Dye’s racecar lost power with less than ten laps to go and gave up the lead – and the eventual victory – to Smith.
- Smith’s victory at Berlin vaulted him to a dominant lead in the Sioux Chief Showdown standings. Smith now has a commanding 14-point advantage over Nick Sanchez. Rajah Caruth is one point behind Sanchez, with Jesse Love, and Taylor Gray each an additional point back from each other to round out the top five in the standings.
- The Menards 250 is the fourth round of the 2022 Sioux Chief Showdown. The ten-race series-with-the-series allows drivers as young as 15 years of age to compete for a championship on paved tracks up to one mile in length, road courses, and dirt tracks. The remaining Showdown races are at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Watkins Glen International, The Milwaukee Mile, the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds, and Bristol Motor Speedway.
- Elko Speedway is the shortest track on the ARCA Menards Series schedule at just 0.375 miles. The back-to-back races at Berlin Raceway, at 0.438 miles, and Elko Speedway give the series consecutive races at its two shortest venues.
- There have been seven previous ARCA Menards Series races at Elko Speedway since 2012 and no one has ever won more than once. Brennan Poole won the inaugural, followed by Frank Kimmel in 2013 and Grant Enfinger in 2014. After a two-year hiatus, the series returned in 2017 with Austin Theriault winning en route to the championship. Gus Dean won in 2018 and Chandler Smith in 2019. Last year, Corey Heim nudged eventual series champion Ty Gibbs on the final restart with two laps to go to take the victory.
- Christian Eckes is the only driver to earn more than one General Tire Pole Award at Elko Speedway, doing so in 2018 and 2019. Other pole winners include Alex Bowman, Ken Schrader, Justin Haley, Riley Herbst, and Ty Gibbs.
- Last year’s Menards 250 at Elko Speedway was a 1-2-3 sweep for Venturini Motorsports. Winner Corey Heim was followed by Jesse Love in second and Gracie Trotter in third.
- Elko Speedway also hosted a combination race for what is now the ARCA Menards Series East and West divisions. Sean Caisse won over Byron Chew, Mike David, Rogelio Lopez and Mike Olsen in a 150-lap main event in 2007. That race also featured future ARCA Menards Series champion Justin Lofton, who finished eighth, and future Daytona 500 winner and NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who finished 19th.
- Current NASCAR Xfinity Series championship contender Justin Haley holds the track qualifying record at Elko Speedway, set in 2014. Haley timed in at 14.282 seconds, which translates to a 94.525 miles per hour average speed.
- Brennan Poole set the Elko Speedway race record in 2012, winning a 200-lap main event at 74.090 miles per hour.
- The Menards 250 will be broadcast live on MAVTV and streamed live on FloRacing starting at 9:30 pm ET on Saturday night, June 25.
ARCA PR
