The ARCA Racing Series strolls right into the Talladega Superspeedway for the General Tire 200 at the 2.66-mile oval. The General Tire 200 will serve as the fourth race of the season for the series and the final plate race of the year.
Blake Jones, a Tennessee native, captured his first career ARCA Racing Series victory last season at Talladega. Jones led only eight laps of the event and passed leader Tom Hessert with two laps remaining. Hessert, who dominated the race by leading 60 laps, walked away with a 15th place finish in his No. 77 Cunningham Motorsports Dodge.
A total of 36 drivers are featured on the entry list. Some of the faces include John Wes Townley, Andy Seuss, Bobby Gerhart, Thomas Praytor, Tyler Audie, Brady Boswell, Tom Hessert, Shane Lee, Dalton Sargeant, Kyle Weatherman, Korbin Forrister, Bobby Hamilton Jr. and Chase Briscoe.
Dalton Sargeant will make his second career ARCA Racing Series start at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday. Sargeant made his ARCA debut last weekend at Salem Speedway where he took his No. 55 Venturini Motorsports Toyota to a third-place finish.
Sargeant spoke about the new set of challenges he faces at Talladega this weekend.
“It’s been quite a week,” said Sargeant in a release. “Talladega will definitely be a whole new set of challenges that I haven’t faced in my career quite yet. It will be my first time to Talladega, first time ever racing on a super speedway, and for that matter, first time I’ll ever be on a race track that’s over 1 mile in length.”
Gus Dean has partnered with Mason Mitchell Motorsports to pilot the No. 98 GREE Chevrolet on Friday at Talladega. Dean will make his second career ARCA Racing Series start as he made his debut in the season opener at Daytona in February. The South Carolina native finished 35th after starting in 15th.
Dean likes the idea of having a quick weekend schedule.
“It’s a quick schedule Friday, practice, qualify and race,” said Dean in a release. “I’m used to that. Just not in ARCA. I think that’s a good thing though – it will keep us focused and not have worrying about what we should be doing. I understand the draft, even though I don’t have a lot of experience with it. I’ll be relying on my team and veteran spotter Tyler Green a lot. We don’t have a teammate Friday, but I know our of goals during practice and qualifying is to find some drivers that we can work with that can help us no matter the situation during the race. “For us, we just have to stay focused, do our thing and hope luck is on our side.”
There have been three different winners through the first three races of the season. John Wes Townley, who scored the win in the season opener at Daytona, is entered into the General Tire 200 this weekend. The Georgia native holds two career ARCA victories. Josh Williams is another driver looking to become the first driver with multiple wins in 2016. Williams scored his first career ARCA victory at Nashville earlier this month in his No. 6 Chevrolet. Williams will be back behind the wheel of that car on Friday. Christopher Bell, who is not entered into the General Tire 200, spoiled the show last weekend at Salem Speedway. Bell dominated the field after leading 91 of the 200 laps of the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200.
The General Tire 200 will air live on FOX Sports 1 at 6:00 p.m. ET. on Friday. You can also watch the race on FOX Sports Go or with the live leaderboard and audio on ARCARacing.com. Thunder 92.7 will provide the radio coverage.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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