While all three National Series for NASCAR are off, it’s time to have some short track Saturday night racing for the ARCA Menards Series as they travel north to Michigan and the 7/16th-mile oval of Berlin Raceway for the ARCA 200.
This weekend’s race will mark the 33rd visit for the season at the short track, dating back to ARCA’s first visit in 1958 when Les Snow and Nelson Stacy were the first two winners at the track. Other notable winners throughout its history include Bob Keselowski, Frank Kimmel, Brian Keselowski, Scott Speed, Justin Lofton, Chris Buescher, Erik Jones, and several others.
Beating at the Berlin Bullring
As the ARCA Menards Series returns to action after a hiatus since Charlotte, Jesse Love and Venturini Motorsports no. 20 are on a tear after winning the last three races at Talladega, Kansas, and Charlotte. The Menlo Park, CA native will be looking to change VMS’ luck on the story tracks this weekend though.
Joining him in ‘Flying the V’ is Sean Hingorani, who will be making his second career ARCA Menards Series start, and Toni Breidinger who will be making her second career Truck Series start in a few weeks with TRICON Garage at Nashville.
Joining in on his second ARCA Menards start is Joe Gibbs Racing driver William Sawalich. The Eden Prairie, MN, and ARCA East Points leader has success on the short tracks with wins at Five Flags and Flat Rock in the 2023 East Series season. He’ll be looking to turn that over into his first career ARCA Main Series win.
Other notables include Andres Perez de Lara and the no. 2 for Rev Racing, Frankie Muniz, who looks to retake the points lead from Love. He sits just 13 points back. Christian Rose, who just announced his Truck Series debut with AM Racing at Richmond. Tony Cosentino, sitting sixth in ARCA points, and more.
One driver who will not be at this weekend’s race is Daytona winner Greg Van Alst. He announced earlier that he would be scaling his team back to a part-time basis. “I saw my volunteer crew scrambling to give up their everyday life so I could continue my racing dream. Then, I took a moment when we were all stressing out whether or not we were going to be able to repair our cars in time for the upcoming races or whether we would even make it to Berlin Raceway this weekend – that our priorities needed to change,” Van Alst said.
The team will release an updated 2023 schedule soon.
Official Entry List for the ARCA 200 at Berlin
Entry | No. | Driver | Team | Crew chief |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 03 | Roger Carter | Clubb Racing Inc. Mosquito Mob Michigan Ford | Alex Clubb |
2 | 06 | A.J. Moyer | Wayne Peterson Racing River’s Edge Cottages & RV Park-JRCPays.com Toyota | Wayne Peterson |
3 | 2 | Andres Perez de Lara | Rev Racing Max Siegel Inc Chevrolet | Jamie Jones |
4 | 10 | Tim Monroe | Fast Track Racing Toyota | Dustin Hillenburg |
5 | 11 | Zachary Tinkle | Fast Track Racing Racing For Rescues Toyota | Todd Parrott |
6 | 12 | Matt Kemp | Fast Track Racing Lake Michigan College / PSS&C / RE/MAX Ford | Dick Doheny |
7 | 15 | Sean Hingorani | Venturini Motorsports GEARWRENCH Toyota | Kevin Reed Jr. |
8 | 18 | William Sawalich | Joe Gibbs Racing Starkey / Sound Gear Toyota | Matt Ross |
9 | 20 | Jesse Love | Venturini Motorsports JBL Toyota | Shannon Rursch |
10 | 25 | Toni Breidinger | Venturini Motorsports FP Movement Toyota | Cayden Lapcevich |
11 | 30 | Frankie Muniz | Rette Jones Racing ReSkills Ford | Mark Rette |
12 | 31 | Tim Goulet | Rise Motorsports DNA Collision and Detail Chevrolet | Rita Goulet |
13 | 32 | Christian Rose | AM Racing West Virginia Department of Tourism Ford | Ryan London |
14 | 45 | Tony Cosentino | Tamayo Cosentino Racing Ford | Matt Weber |
15 | 48 | Brad Smith | Brad Smith Motorsports Copraya Chevrolet | Jeff Smith |
16 | 49 | Jeff Smith | Brad Smith Motorsports Copraya Ford | Aaron Burzynski |
17 | 66 | Jon Garrett | Veer Motorsports Venture Foods Chevrolet | Mike Sroufe |
You can watch the ARCA 200 at Berlin on Saturday at 8 PM EST on Fox Sports 2.