July 7, 2021 (Concord, NC) – The Land of 10,000 Lakes welcomes back the ARCA Menards Series for this weekend’s Menards 250 at Elko Speedway. Located 30-minutes outside of Minneapolis, Elko Speedway has been a mainstay on the ARCA schedule since former Venturini Motorsports’ driver Brennan Poole won the inaugural race in 2012.
Consistently packed with enthusiastic race fans, Elko’s top-notch facility features a tight 3/8-mile paved oval which year-after-year delivers exciting racing action from the drop of the green flag. Falling off the schedule last season due to Covid-19, VMS returns to defend Chandler Smith’s team victory in 2019.
Leading the way back to Elko for VMS is current ARCA Menards Series’ championship points leader Corey Heim (No.20 Craftsman Toyota). Coming off his third win of the season two weeks ago at Pocono Raceway, the 19-year old driver hopes to keep the pressure on his competition. Holding a slim 3-point advantage over Ty Gibbs for top spot, the two Toyota Racing Development drivers have delivered back-and-forth blows all season long – expect nothing else this weekend as the rivalry continues.
Boasting a 2.4 average finish over the first eight races of 2021, Heim, with four ARCA career wins since 2019 has accumulated seven top-5 and eight top-10 finishes to go along with his 2021 season victories at Daytona, Talladega and Pocono.
Expecting to challenge Heim at Elko is 16-year old teammate Jesse Love who returns to ARCA’s premier series to pilot VMS’ No.15 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry for his second ARCA Menards Series appearance of the 2021 season. Love, the defending ARCA West Champion, is coming off a dramatic West Series win over 4thof July weekend at Irwindale Speedway. The second of nine scheduled ARCA Menards Series events with VMS in 2021, the Menlo Park, California teen finished fourth at Toledo Speedway back in May.
Also making her first team driving appearance since Toledo is 19-year old short track vixen Gracie Trotter (No.25 Calico Toyota). After an inconspicuous start to her season, Trotter rebounded the last time out with a sixth-place finish. Running an abbreviated 10-race ARCA Menards Schedule this season, the Denver, NC native became the first female driver in history to win an ARCA sanctioned event after capturing the checkered flag in 2020 during the ARCA West race at the Bullring in Las Vegas.
Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series’ Menards 250 from Elko Speedway is scheduled to broadcast live on MAVTV starting at 9 p.m. CT / 10 p.m. ET.
