All Star Sprints To Conclude Busy June Schedule With Starts In Indiana & Illinois
Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / ALL STAR CIRCUIT OF CHAMPIONS – BROWNSBURG, IN – With Cometic Gasket Ohio Sprint Speedweek presented by C&R Racing officially in the books, the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 will set their focus on a pair of ovals outside of the Buckeye State, this time venturing a little further west to areas in northern Indiana, as well as northern Illinois.
The All Star Circuit of Champions will kick-off the final weekend of June with a visit to the Hoosier State on Friday evening, June 29. Dubbed the “Playground of Power,” Plymouth Speedway in Plymouth, Ind., will host the traveling All Stars for only the second time in Series history on Friday night giving local fans the first of two opportunities to watch Tony Stewart’s All Stars in the state of Indiana in 2018. The second Indiana invasion, the 2018 season finale, is scheduled for Saturday, October 6, at Kokomo Speedway.
Adding extra hype to NASCAR weekend at the nearby Chicagoland Speedway, the Dirt Oval at Route 66 in Joliet, Ill., will welcome the All Star Circuit of Champions for the second time in Series history on Saturday, June 30. Joining the stars and cars of the IRA Outlaw Sprint Series, the “Summer Slash” event at the state-of-the-art motorsports complex, the first and only All Star visit to the Land of Lincoln in 2018, will be a “must see” experience for any open wheel enthusiast. The All Star Circuit of Champions will face-off against many of the IRA’s best including multi-time IRA champion Bill Balog, current Series point leader and two-time winner Scotty Thiel, 2018 championship contenders Jake Blackhurst and Jeremy Schultz, and the 2018 IRA opening night winner Steve Meyer.
As announced, three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and All Star Circuit of Champions owner, Tony Stewart, will be on hand with the All Stars all weekend, scheduled to enter action aboard his Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing/Rush Truck Centers/Textron Off Road/No. 14 sprint car.
Lemoore, California’s Carson Macedo will lead the All Star Circuit of Champions into action on Friday and Saturday as the current Series driver championship point leader. The two-time winner aboard the familiar Norman/Gaerte No. 3G owns a 22-point cushion in the standings over Clute, Texas’ Aaron Reutzel. Macedo, a standout rookie with the All Stars, owns 13 top-ten finishes in 18 feature starts. Reutzel, who owned the driver championship lead during certain segments of the 2018 season, also owns 13 top-ten finishes in 2018, but sits ahead of Macedo in the win category with three; Sharon (Ohio) Speedway, Lernerville (Pa.) Speedway, and Waynesfield (Ohio) Raceway Park. Macedo’s victories, occurring in back-to-back fashion, were accomplished at Stateline (N.Y.) Speedway and Weedsport (N.Y.) Speedway.
Six-time and defending Series champion Chad Kemenah is currently third in the All Star driver championship chase, just 28 points out of the top spot, followed by the “Wild Child” Jac Haudenschild and Kokomo, Indiana’s Parker Price-Miller.
Sprint car veteran and former World of Outlaws champion Dave Blaney will enter the Indiana/Illinois swing sixth in the driver title chase, followed by the recently crowned Ohio Sprint Speedweek champion Paul McMahan, West Virginia’s Cale Conley, All Star sophomore Brandon Spithaler, and former Lernerville Speedway champion Carl Bowser.
MAVTV Motorsports Network, the official television home of the All Star Circuit of Champions in 2018, will be on hand to capture all of the action from the Dirt Oval at Route 66 on Saturday evening. The entire program will be recorded for a tape-delay broadcast set for later in the year. An updated MAVTV/All Star broadcast schedule will be published later this summer.
Plymouth Speedway in Plymouth, Ind., will open pit gates at 12 p.m. on Friday afternoon, June 29. An All Star drivers meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., followed by hot laps at 6 p.m. If needed, Sunday, July 1, will be utilized as a rain date.
Dirt Oval at Route 66 will also open pit gates at 12 p.m. with an All Star drivers meeting to follow at 6 p.m. Hot laps will hit the speedway at 7 p.m., sharp.