Once per year NASCAR, in the form of the ARCA Menards series, comes to Elko Minnesota, the smallest track on their 20 race circuit. This series races on the same weekend and on the same track as the Cup series at Daytona, Talladega, Watkins Glen, Michigan, Pocono, the Naval Base Coronado, Chicagoland, Iowa Speedway, Bristol and Kansas. These are all huge facilities that have seating of 50,000 or more. At those events they are usually squeezed into a small window of time between Cup practice or qualifying, usually two days before the big event.
Sometimes their race is an afterthought, certainly not a priority, and the garage space they are given is not always ideal for the fans or the competitors. But at the Shore Lunch 250 presented by Dutchboy at Elko Speedway, the 3/8th mile track with a 5,000 seat capacity located in the heart of Menards county is the perfect size to put on a great show and they are treated that way. The local fans appreciate the one time per year that NASCAR comes to us. It's fun to see NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby LaBonte appear as a driver coach, Daytona 500 Champion Derek Cope is a spotter, Tony Glover who won the Daytona 500 three times as a crew chief was there in the garage, as was NASCAR driver Phil Parsons who was in person broadcasting the race on Fox Sports 2.
Many drivers who are now racing in the Cup series participated in this race on their way up through the NASCAR ranks. Jesse Love who will be driving for the Wood Brothers in 2027 won the ELKO race in 2023, Ty Gibbs won the pole in 2021, and recent Cup winner Corey Heim won the race that same year. New NASCAR bad boy Carson Hocevar finished 6th in 2019. Riley Herbst who will be racing for Jimmie Johnson in Cup next year won the pole in 2017, that very same year Zane Smith nearly won but crashed at the flag stand on the last lap and was awarded 6th place.
Four time Cup series winner Ken Schrader raced ARCA at ELKO and got the pole in 2013. The very first race was in 2012, that event had three drivers participate who have now become Cup series regulars; Chris Buescher, Erik Jones and Alex Bowman who won the pole at that inaugural race. Minnesota has never had a driver who has won a Cup series race but Eden Prairie native William Sawalich did just recently win an O’Reilly Auto Parts series event at Rockingham Speedway on Easter weekend. The Sawalich three-wide finish and win by 0.011 seconds in 2024 is a moment that many race fans will never forget.
In all those years of ARCA racing at Elko Speedway nobody has ever won the race twice, 11 races and 11 different winners until 2026. 16 year old Max Reaves from Trinity North Carolina won driving the #18 car for Joe Gibbs, the same car he drove to victory last year. Reaves blew the engine on the last lap of practice so his crew had to change engines and miss qualifying, requiring him to start the race at the back of the 21 car field. It took 82 laps for Reaves to make his way to the lead, he had to fight back many challenges from #28 Landon S Huffman who later dropped numerous laps down due to a mechanical problem.
At a 3/8th mile track like ELKO the lapped cars have a tough time getting out of the way, which provides unending entertainment for the crowd as the faster cars have to go side by side or even three-wide to pass. Taylor Reimer #77 thrilled the crowd by racing up to the second position mid-race, she was in contention to become the first ever female driver to win an ARCA National series race, but she faded back to fourth during the last segment of racing. Point leader #20 Jake Bollman was his usual consistent self, he made zero mistakes and finished a strong runner up, he was 5.432 seconds behind at the checkers. The thrill of the night was from rising Webster Minnesota star #25 Ty Fredrickson, he fought a car that was ill-handling early in the race and stayed on the lead lap throughout the night, he raced his way up to finish a strong 3rd place.
That was one position better than his 2025 ARCA race and it tied Jonathan Eilen (who finished 3rd in 2013) as the best finish for a local racer in an ARCA event at Elko Speedway. “Nitro and Shane Wilson gave me a good car today, every pit stop we got better each time, I just need to do this more often and get more laps so we can go for wins,” said Fredrickson. “These ARCA cars are a lot different, the races are fun, it's just a lot different than my Super Late Model.” Racers from 17 different states and even one driver from Japan made their way to Elko Speedway this year and they put on a great show as per normal. Friday night August 28th the ARCA Menards series will return to the Northland with a race at Madison International Speedway in Wisconsin, another track where they will be the Main show on a short track, a winning combination for the ARCA series and for race fans alike.
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