(TOLEDO, Ohio – September 16, 2014) – Mason Mitchell has his eye on the big prize – the 2014 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards national championship. Currently atop the standings with just two races remaining, it’s going to come down to the wire in the season finale at Kansas Speedway October 3.

But that’s not the only title Mitchell’s thinking about as ARCA’s 62nd season winds down. The West Des Moines, Iowa driver is also ARCA’s Hoosier Superspeedway Challenge title leader, which will also be decided at the ARCA 98.9 at Kansas.

While Mitchell holds a slim 50-point advantage over Grant Enfinger for the overall championship, the spread in the Hoosier Superspeedway Challenge title is a little more comforting for Mitchell. Currently, Mitchell leads the No. 77 Cunningham Motorsports team (Driver Tom Hessert/Owner Briggs Cunningham) by 110 points.

Ironically, it was Mitchell and Hessert who battled in the final laps on the Salem Speedway short track last Saturday night, bouncing off one another coming to the checkered flag – Hessert getting the win while Mitchell came under the checkered flag backwards.

“Thought we were faster than Hessert, but lapped traffic played a huge role,” Mitchell said. “As far as the contact…that was just two guys going for the win on the last lap, and I think Tom (Hessert) would say the same thing.”

Short tracks aside, the Hoosier Superspeedway Challenge title consists of race points accumulated on all of ARCA’s superspeedway tracks: Daytona, Talladega, Pocono, Michigan, Chicagoland, Kentucky and Kansas.

“That’s one we want pretty bad,” Mitchell added, regarding ARCA’s Superspeedway title. “There are a lot of special awards the series provides for the competitors; the speedway title we know is one of the biggest. It would mean a lot for the team and a big honor to win it.

“You want to win the overall title – that’s the big prize – but it means a lot more if you can win the superspeedway championship too. It would be so much better winning both. Winning the speedway title along with the overall championship just completes the deal.”

Mitchell finished second at Kansas in 2013, while Hessert finished 13th. Mitchell has six runner-up runs in 2014, and one win – on the intermediate Chicagoland Speedway.

“As good as we were at Salem, I’ve always thought our intermediate program was our better program. The intermediates just fit my style…you drive it in deep and stay in the gas pedal…you can’t lift. We’re all really confident in our intermediate program and we expect to compete for wins at Kentucky and Kansas.

“It’d be so cool to win the superspeedway championship. We have our eyes on the big prize, but we want that speedway title too.”

Both the overall ARCA Racing Series national championship and Hoosier Superspeedway Challenge title will be celebrated in post-race activities at Kansas.

Former Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge champions include Davey Allison, Bill Venturini, Bob Keselowski, Bob Strait, Jeff Purvis, Tim Steele, Bobby Gerhart, Frank Kimmel, and Chris Buescher, to name a few.

The ARCA 98.9 at Kansas Speedway marks the 14th consecutive ARCA race at Kansas since the series debuted on the 1.5-mile track in 2001 – Jason Jarrett, the inaugural winner. Other ARCA winners at Kansas include Kimmel, Scott Speed, Parker Kligerman, Ty Dillon and Alex Bowman, to name a few.

Practice for the ARCA 98.9 is from 9:00 a.m. to 10:50, with Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell following at 1:35 p.m. The ARCA 98.9 is scheduled to start at 7:30, with live coverage on FOX Sports 2. ARCAracing.com will also feature live timing and scoring of all on-track activities.

@DonRadebaugh
dradebaugh@arcaracing.com

ARCA Hoosier Superspeedway Challenge Champions