WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. – The Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Hometown Challenge comes home to Riverside Int’l Speedway in West Memphis, Ark., on April 2-3 for a USAC Midget non-point event.
The Clayton Allen-promoted event will feature two complete shows at the track on April 2-3 and marks the first time for midget competition at West Memphis since 2016, when Tanner Thorson and Bryan Clauson collected the top honors as feature winner on each of the two nights.
The event will pay $3,000-to-win each night and $300-to-start. Start times and tickets prices for the event will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Hometown Challenge is named for current NASCAR Cup Series driver and two-time series winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The native of nearby Olive Branch, Miss., located about 30 miles southeast of West Memphis, cut his teeth racing at the quarter-mile, gumbo-surfaced high-banked track.
West Memphis has been a family tradition for the Stenhouse family with young Ricky Stenhouse Jr. practically growing up at the place as he watched his father race there on a weekly basis before taking the wheel himself and going on to become the Rookie of the Year for both the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship and the AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship in 2007, and twice earning the NASCAR Xfinity Series title in 2011-12.
The Hometown Challenge will not pay points toward the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship due to a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car event being scheduled at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway on its traditional date on the first weekend of April – Saturday, April 3.
Only two previous USAC-sanctioned midget events have taken place in the state of Arkansas, both at West Memphis in 2016. Meanwhile, Arkansas has hosted USAC National Sprint Cars on four occasions, three of which were held at West Memphis, races won by Mike Ward (1985), Brady Bacon (2012) and Dave Darland (2013).