The ARCA Menards Series is coming off of an off-week and now enters a unique weekend in their 2024 schedule: a two-race, two-city doubleheader.
On Friday (Aug. 12), ARCA will head to Michigan International Speedway for the Henry Ford Health 200 before heading to the Illinois State Fairgrounds two days later for the Springfield ARCA 100.
Friday’s race sees 24 cars entered to tackle the two-mile speedway. Sunday’s race sees 21 cars entered to tackle the one-mile dirt oval.
When the series visited the pair of tracks in 2023, they were not linked on the same weekend. Michigan was paired with the NASCAR weekend, with the race being held two weeks before the annual doubleheader. Jesse Love proved victorious on that day after Andres Perez led the most laps and suffered a late-race mechanical failure, taking him out of contention.
The 2023 edition of the Springfield race was featured as a part of a doubleheader, with teams beginning in Watkins Glen, N.Y. on Friday and ending in Springfield on Sunday, similar to the 2024 schedule.
That race was dominated by Brent Crews, who won his first ARCA race in his second start on the dirt that day.
Venturini Motorsports will roll out their familiar three full-timers for both races: Toni Breidinger, Amber Balcaen and Kris Wright. Breidinger did not run either race in 2023, but has one previous Michigan start, finishing 11th in 2022.
She also has a best finish of 9th on the dirt track, coming back in 2021. As for Wright, he also has limited experience on this weekend’s set of tracks, only making one Michigan start — last season, finishing 11th.
He has yet to make an ARCA start on dirt, but does have a handful of Craftsman Truck Series starts on dirt, never finishing above 28th. Balcaen has one start at each track, coming back with her time with Rette-Jones Racing in 2022.
That season, she finished 18th at Michigan and 14th on the dirt in Springfield. Each of the three drivers enter the weekend in the top seven in points.
As for the team’s other two cars, Gus Dean will pilot the No. 55 at Michigan, with Jake Finch in the No. 20. Finch will run Michigan for the second time in his career, with the first coming in 2023. He finished 12th.
Dean will make his first start since Salem Speedway and enters Michigan with quite a bit of success in his past starts.
In four previous starts, Dean has never finished outside of the top five, and is coming off of a…
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