Dale Shearer Running ARCA East, Superspeedway Races

Chillicothe, Mo. native Dale Shearer told Frontstretch he will enter two ARCA Menards Series this season along with the full ARCA Menards Series East schedule. Shearer’s two planned races will be at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

Shearer will drive his self-owned Shearer Speed Racing No. 98. Ian Egert will be his crew chief.

“I have Josh’s Eggs as an associate sponsor for the whole ARCA East series and Daytona and Talladega in ARCA main,” Shearer said. “We’re gonna see what happens… first time I ran Daytona there was a 10-car pileup on the first lap.”

As primarily an old-school, one-man operation, Shearer knows getting into the show will be the first challenge, but he’s confident he’ll be able to do it.

“I may have to beat five or six on time,” he continued. “I’ve got an Ilmor (engine). I’ve got the same body, I’ve got the same engine, but the other big teams have a lot of tweaks that I do not know. My attitude is if I don’t make the show, and I wanna make the show, but if I don’t make the show, I have a car for Talladega. I’ll take the car to Talladega and run it. There will be less cars at Talladega.”

While Talladega is squarely in the plans, Shearer is aware that plans can change in racing.

“You go down there and make the show for Daytona and get caught up in a big crash, the car is done.”

Weighing the possible outcomes, Shearer elaborated, “It’s a double-edged sword. You want to be in Daytona so bad, you want to start the race. But you go down there and junk the car…” He’d rather not finish the sentence.

“The goal is the make the race. I think I should be in on time.”

The 64-year-old was absent on the preseason testing speed chart but still viewed the test positively.

“I got down there and I had a radiator leak I couldn’t overcome. We still got the engine teched and the car teched. We still got a lot of stuff accomplished.”

Shearer ran four ARCA races in 2023, with a best finish of 18th. In the ARCA East series, he ran the full schedule. He finished sixth in points.