The ARCA Racing Series heads to the Kentucky Speedway for the ZLOOP 150 on Friday night. The championship battle between Mason Mitchell and Grant Enfinger is only separated by 50 points coming into the Bluegrass State.
Mtichell dominated last weekend at Salem, before engaging in a late-race battle with Tom Hessert for the win. The two beat and bang in the final laps, until coming to the final turn with Hessert hanging on for his third win at Salem and Mitchell crossing the finish line backwards in second.
The current ARCA points leader ran in last year’s race at Kentucky with Empire Motorsports and finished runner-up to Corey LaJoie. The finish propelled Mitchell to another second-place finish the next week at Kansas and the momentum carried into the 2014 season.
LaJoie won the race with the Roulo Brothers, who are entered this weekend with 17-year-old Kyle Weatherman. The teenager has never raced at the 1.5 mile track and will make his superspeedway debut. This is the first event for the Roulo team on a track 1.5 mile or larger since New Jersey Motorsports Park in June.
Another driver getting his feet wet at a bigger race track is Daniel Suarez. The frequent NASCAR K&N East and Mexico Series competitor will run full-time for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) and 2015 and Friday’s night race will allow Suarez to gain valuable experience with Venturini Motorsports, as he transitions into NASCAR’s top three series.
Suarez’s teammate, John Wes Townley, will not race at Kentucky, as he will run the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Townley suffered a concussion after an ARCA qualifying accident at Pocono Raceway and forcing him to miss five ARCA races and out of championship contention. Venturini driver coach and spotter Brennan Poole will take the reigns of the No. 15 Toyota at Kentucky. Also, Justin Boston will run double-duty in the ARCA race with his No. 25 Venturini Toyota Friday night and run the No. 20 ZLOOP Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing in Saturday’s NNS race.
The ZLOOP 150 is a home game for Ben Rhodes, who hails from Kentucky. Rhodes attended the Sprint Cup race at the track in June and announced in the last few weeks that the 2014 K&N Pro Series East champion would run at Kentucky in the No. 41 Chevrolet for Turner Scott Motorsports (TSM). Rhodes has won five times during his championship run with one more race to go at Dover next Friday.
Staying on the subject of current and former K&N East drivers, Cunningham Motorsports will field a third entry for 2013 winner Brandon Gdovic at the 1.5 mile track. Gdovic doesn’t have experience on superspeedways and Friday night’s race will help expand his learning curve by making his ARCA debut. The Cunningham team won the Kentucky race with Parker Kligerman in 2009.
Defending ARCA champ Frank Kimmel is still looking for his first win on the season with Win-Tron Racing. Their Camping World Truck Series driver, Mason Mingus, announced this week that he would head to Billy Boat Motorsports for the rest of the 2014 season, starting at Las Vegas next weekend. Their future is uncertain whether Win-Tron will either shut down the truck team and/or put more focus on the ARCA effort. The team finished second last year with Mingus in the ARCA championship.
34 cars were on the entry list for the ZLOOP 150. Drivers such as Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Chad Boat and Corey LaJoie were a few of the names who ran in last year’s race in ARCA’s return to Kentucky Speedway. The race starts shortly after 8 p.m. ET Friday night and will be shown live on FOX Sports 1.
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