Michael Earns Two Dash Appearances & Top 10 In Midwest Road Trip

Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / TJ MICHAEL MOTORSPORTS – FREMONT, OH – Joining Tony Stewart’s Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions for the first and only visits to Illinois and Iowa in 2017, the “Texas Traveler” T.J. Michael represented his fan base well during his trip to the Midwest, qualifying for all three contested main events, as well as earning his first top-ten finish of the 2017 Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions season.

The Plano, Texas, native recorded two JE Pistons Dash starts during his weekend campaign, one of which the result of a heat race victory at Lincoln (IL) Speedway on Friday, June 9.

The pilot of the Michael Motorsports/Advanced Cast Stone/Fremont Fence Company/No. 8M highlighted his entire road trip with an eighth place finish on Saturday, June 10, at the Macon Speedway in Macon, Illinois; the “World’s Fastest 1/5-Mile Clay Oval.” Michael earned his way into the 40-lap program by finishing second during his respective heat race.

“We had an awesome weekend. It was a major confidence booster for all of us,” Michael explained. “I can’t thank my crew for all of their hard work the last few weeks. We’ve been changing just about everything within our program. I think we finally found something that works for us. We learned a lot this weekend, so hopefully we can put that to good use when Ohio Sprint Speedweek starts on Friday.”

In addition to his top-ten performance at Macon Speedway, Michael recorded an 18th place finish at Lincoln (IL) Speedway on Friday, and a 19th place finish after starting 24th on Sunday evening at 34 Raceway in Burlington, Iowa. It was Michael’s first visit to all three facilities.

T.J. Michael will now transfer all of his attention back to The Buckeye State where he will participate in the 35th edition of Ohio Sprint Speedweek presented by Cometic Gasket. Scheduled to ignite on Friday at Attica Raceway Park, Ohio Sprint Speedweek will feature eight events at eight different facilities throughout all four corners of Ohio, all of which conducted over a nine-day period. Michael will enter Ohio Sprint Speedweek sixth in the current Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions standings, trailing rookie contender Max Stambaugh by a mere 90 markers.