For the second time this season, the ARCA Menards Series visits a short track. This time, ARCA drivers will race 150 laps at the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway in the Calypso Lemonade 150.
Ty Gibbs won back-to-back ARCA races at Iowa. Gibbs now competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but his successor Sammy Smith takes the reins of the No. 18 Toyota for the rest of this main ARCA season.
Smith enters as the ARCA Menards Series East reigning champion and current East points leader. The Calypso Lemonade 150 is a combination race for the main and East drivers. As such, the main ARCA drivers will battle on track with the East competitors, especially the top three in the East: Smith, Taylor Gray, and Leland Honeyman.
Smith qualified fourth for the ARCA race at Iowa last year, but a DNF relegated him to an 18th-place finish.
While Smith’s teammate Gibbs won last year, Gibbs’ Xfinity teammate Brandon Jones will seek his second victory at Iowa. Jones won a combination NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West race at Iowa in 2014.
In 23 career starts at this short track, Jones has one win, seven top fives and 10 top 10s. In addition, Jones won the most recent ARCA race this season at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Jones is a favorite to win the Calypso Lemonade 150.
Although Smith leads the East standings by nine points over Gray, Gray is confident he can capture his second main and East victories this season.
“Obviously, we have to go out there and run well,” Gray told Frontstretch. “Keep up with Sammy [Smith] in the points. We are only nine out right now. I think we will have a good day out there. Our car is good on the intermediate type [short tracks]. We still have to figure out our really short, short track program. We are getting really close though.”
Other than road courses, Gray cannot at normal intermediate-length tracks. He described intermediate short tracks as short tracks that race like intermediate-length tracks aero-wise. Iowa fits his…
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