SALEM, Ind. — For the 112th time since 1955, the ARCA Menards Series returns to southern Indiana to take on the legendary high banks at Salem Speedway in Saturday’s Spruce 212.
The race will be the first ARCA Menards Series short track race televised live on over-the-air television, live on FOX, at 8 pm ET.
Musco Lighting enhanced Salem Speedway’s light system for the track’s national network television debut. Musco, which recently commenced a project to update and upgrade the entire lighting system at Daytona International Speedway, provided two additional LED light towers to Salem Speedway to ensure the track’s 35-degree corners are well lit once the sun goes down on Saturday night.
Series and track officials collaborated to add 12 laps to the traditional race distance to honor the ARCA Menards Series’ 112th visit to Salem Speedway. Despite track being closed for much of the 1980s, Salem has hosted more ARCA Menards Series races than any other in series history.
• Jake Bollman (No. 20 Nitro Motorsports Toyota) also enhanced his lead in the ARCA Menards Series championship points standings, escaping the dirt at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds with an eight-point advantage over his teammate Thomas Annunziata (No. 70 JBL Audio Toyota) headed into the Spruce 212.
Bollman collected his fourth runner-up finish of the season at DuQuoin but it still looking for his first career ARCA Menards Series victory while Annunziata has won at Lime Rock Park in each of the last two seasons but is looking for his first career series victory on an oval track.
• Max Reaves (No. 18 Cook Out Toyota) looks to rebound from a 17th-place finish at DuQuoin after his race was cut short 22 laps from the finish due to an accident. The result was the second-worst of his ARCA Menards Series career.
Ironically, he’s headed Salem Speedway, where he led for 111 laps last year before being taken out in a crash 27 laps from the finish, resulting in a career-worst 18th-place finish. Despite the uncharacteristic finish in 2025, Reaves has been victorious five times on paved short tracks – Elko Speedway, Madison International Speedway, and Toledo Speedway in 2025 and Berlin Raceway and again at Elko in 2026 – so he enters the Spruce 212 as one of the drivers to beat.
Joe Gibbs Racing has won at Salem two times before, both in dominant fashion. The team won in 2019 with Ty Gibbs and again in 2024 with William Sawalich; Gibbs led 196 of the race’s 200 laps while Sawalich led them all.
• Carson Brown (No. 28 Grizzly Coolers Chevrolet) started his ARCA Menards Series career with a trip to victory lane in his debut race at Phoenix Raceway in March, becoming the 39th driver since 1979 to win in his first career series start.
Brown has been a study in consistency since then, racking up three runner-up finishes and four third-place finishes before returning to victory lane last Sunday at DuQuoin. Brown’s only finish outside the top three was a 13th-place finish at the Illinois State Fairgrounds due to a flat right rear tire necessitated an unscheduled pit stop just after the race’s last restart.
• Both Pinnacle Racing Group drivers on the entry list, Brown and teammate Tristan McKee (No. 77 Spectrum Chevrolet), won in their most recent ARCA Menards Series start.
Brown won last Sunday at DuQuoin while McKee took his third checkered flag of the season in his most recent start of the season at Madison International Speedway two races ago.
McKee, who became the second-youngest ARCA Menards Series winner when he won in his series debut at Watkins Glen International at 15 years, 4 days of age in 2025, also has wins at Toledo Speedway and Iowa Speedway; additionally, McKee leads the ARCA Menards Series East standings by just one point over Max Reaves with one race remaining at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 17.
• Isabella Robusto (No. 55 Mobil 1 Toyota) will look to bounce back from a disappointing 14th-place finish at DuQuoin due to overheating issues with another top-five performance at Salem.
She finished fifth in her first Salem appearance in 2025, one of 13 career top-five finishes, more than any other female driver in ARCA Menards Series history. Erin Crocker previous held that record with 12.
• The CR7 Motorsports team will field two entries in the Spruce 212: the team will field Matt Kemp (No. 79 A.L.L. Construction / Carter CAT Chevrolet) and Landon S. Huffman (No. 97 Hoosier Daddy / Hoosier Momma Car Care Products Chevrolet).
Huffman, son of Pinnacle Racing Group team manager Shane Huffman, finished third in his most recent start at Chicagoland Speedway in July. He will be substituting for Jason Kitzmiller, who will not compete at Salem despite sitting third in the ARCA Menards Series standings. Kemp will be driving the car normally piloted by Isaac Kitzmiller, reigning ARCA Menards Series East champion.
• Salem Speedway is the site of the most recent 500-lap race in ARCA Menards Series history. Two 500-lappers were held at Salem, in 1988 and 1989, won by Bob Brevak and Bob Schacht respectively. The 1989 race was a grueling three-hour, 50-minute affair that had 11 cautions for 109 laps.
• Chandler Smith holds the ARCA Menards Series track qualifying record at Salem Speedway, set in 2018, at 16.844 seconds/118.618 miles per hour.
• Tom Hessert III holds the ARCA Menards Series track race record at Salem Speedway, set in 2014, at 95.736 miles per hour.
