Crosley Brands 150 Preview

The ARCA Racing Series thunders into Kentucky Speedway for the penultimate race of the 2016 season, the Crosley Brands 150. ARCA is the most raced series at Kentucky Speedway. The series has been coming to Kentucky since the tracks inception in 2000. The race will be 100 laps.

35 drivers are scheduled to compete in the race. Some notable drivers in the race are Matt Tifft, Brandon Jones, and John Wes Townley.

This will be the 23rd ARCA race at Kentucky Speedway. Brian Ickler set the qualifying back in 2009 at a speed of 179.247 mph. In 2013, the race record was set by Corey LaJoie at 124.138 mph. Four races have been won from the pole. 17 different drivers have won at Kentucky. Frank Kimmel has the most wins at Kentucky with four.

ARCA had two test sessions earlier in the week. In the first session, Austin Cindric was the fastest with a speed of 180.409 mph, Kyle Weatherman was second with a speed of 180.246 mph, Myatt Snider was third at 178.672 mph, Dalton Sergeant was fourth at 178.477 mph, and John Wes Townley rounded out the top-five in the first session at 176.806 mph. In the second session, Tifft topped the chart at a speed of 182.322 mph, Cindric was second at a speed of 182.205 mph, Zane Smith was third at 180.349 mph, Bret Holmes was third at 179.904 mph, and Snider rounded out the top-five at a speed of 179.021 mph.

Drivers are excited about returning to a new Kentucky Speedway.

“You know I’ve been here a couple of times with the old track so this is my first time getting on the new surface. Earlier this year I was supposed to do the truck race here so it’s my first time. To go on the new pavement…that was a little bit of learning curve. But joining Ranier Racing for the first time is pretty cool to be out here for the ARCA Series and then we’re racing with Joe Gibbs Racing the next day in the Xfinity Series, too, so a big weekend for us,” said Tifft.

“We’ve got a good package for Friday night…proud of our effort as a team and how the test went. Kentucky is now a really tricky race track with two completely different corners which made it a little tough at the beginning but thankfully because of this extra time we figured it out. Looking forward to the race on Friday night and excited to navigate traffic and compete against a really solid field,” said Sergeant.

“They did an awesome job repaving the track here at Kentucky Speedway. It’s super smooth; there’s one little bump here and there but…tons of grip…really fast. I feel like the groove will widen out a little bit here when we race. You saw it with some of the other series that raced here earlier this year. The track’s very, very different. The shape’s the same…a little more banking at the one end…but the track was really rough before and you kind of raced a little bit off the bottom and now it’s a lot of throttle and you can stay tight to that yellow line,” said Tom Hessert.

ARCA Racing Series will have one more practice session on Friday before qualifying. Qualifying for the Crosley Brands 150 will begin at 4:40PM EST. The race will be on Fox Sports 2 beginning at 8:00PM EST.

Caleb Whisler
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