The Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge Award is given to the owner of the ARCA Racing Series team scoring the most race points – not counting qualifying or lap bonuses – in the eight races at Daytona International Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Pocono Raceway (two), Michigan International Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, and Kansas Speedway.
Sheltra, in addition to becoming the sixth driver/owner to win the ARCA Racing Series championship, is the first driver/owner to win the Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge Award since Davey Allison won in 1984.
“Man, what a huge accomplishment this was for our Sheltra Motorsports team this year. Over the years of our presence in ARCA, I feel we have lacked on the bigger tracks. This year, we knew we had to step up the program in order to have a shot at winning the Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge,” said the winner. “Overall, our intent was to use those speedway events to aid us in our bid towards the championship. But to have the honor to take home the Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge championship trophy as well is a real honor.”
The driver of the No. 60 Sheltra Motorsports car – a Dodge at Daytona and Talladega and a Toyota at the other six races – finished with 1475 points in the competition, beating by a margin of 115 points the No. 32 Win-Tron Racing entry owned by Kevin Cywinski and driven by Justin Marks.
Eddie Sharp (No. 81 Eddie Sharp Racing; driver Craig Goess) finished third with 1350 points. Frank Kimmel (No. 44 Kimmel Racing; driver Frank Kimmel) was fourth with 1290 points, and Cathy Ventruini (No. 25 Venturini Motorsports; driver Mikey Kile) was fifth with 1285 points.
Sheltra finished fifth at Daytona and seventh at Texas before a runner-up result at Talladega in April gave him the Superspeedway lead for good. He finished fourth at Pocono and third at Michigan in back-to-back weeks, and returned to Pocono in July with a sixth-place finish.
One week after winning his first race of 2010 on the dirt mile of the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Ill., Sheltra scored his first speedway victory of the year at Chicagoland. At that point, Sheltra had completed seven Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge races and had finished in each of the top seven positions exactly once.
Sheltra finished fifth at Kansas on the final day in September to complete a run of eight top-10 finishes in eight races – a feat accomplished by no other driver – and clinch the Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge Award.
Sheltra credited crew chief Jon Wolfe for being keenly decisive in pursuit of the series and Superspeedway Challenge championships.
“We added Jon Wolfe at the beginning of the year to help steer the Sheltra Motorsports ship towards a championship effort this year. With his presence came exceptional knowledge and experience not only on the intermediate tracks but with every track in general,” Sheltra said. “With his assistance we also decided to switch our entire mile-and-a-half program over to Toyota this year compared to Dodge and Toyota last year. It proved to be a strong and the right move for the team and with support from Triad and the hard work of the Sheltra Motorsports team it allowed us to contend for the Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge. Thankfully, all of our hard work paid off.”
Based in Lakeville, Ind., Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. produces the Official Tire of the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards and is part of one of the longest-standing sponsor relationships in ARCA’s 58-year history. Hoosier has participated as a supplier for ARCA-sanctioned events since the 1960s and has been the exclusive tire provider for the ARCA Racing Series since 1995.
“You cannot say enough about Hoosier’s commitment to the ARCA Racing Series. They have been so good for the series for a long time and are often overlooked for their involvement,” Sheltra said. “Dave Wroblewski and his staff made sure that our team was taken care of at every race this year and that means a lot. I thank Hoosier for sponsoring a championship within a championship and I hope we make them proud!”
The 2010 ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards Championship Awards Banquet will take place Saturday, December 4 at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Ky., near Cincinnati.
The ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards has crowned an ARCA national champion each year since its inaugural season in 1953, and has toured over 200 racetracks in 28 states since its inception. The series tests the abilities of drivers and race teams over the most diverse schedule of stock car racing events in the world, annually visiting tracks ranging from 0.4 mile to 2.66 miles in length, on both paved and dirt surfaces as well as left- and right-turn street and road courses.
Founded by John Marcum in 1953 in Toledo, Ohio, the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is recognized among the leading sanctioning bodies in the country. Closing in on completing its sixth decade after hundreds of thousands of miles of racing, ARCA administers over 100 race events each season in two professional touring series and local weekly events.
- Automobile Racing Club of America Press Release