Racing action Saturday at Salem Speedway

Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks Ready to Battle the High Banks of Salem Speedway

The Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS will be back in action this Saturday in the series fourth ever event on the famous High Banks of Salem Speedway, in the GAS/CRA Challenge. The Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks and the Salem Speedway Lucas Oil Great American Stocks will compete head-to-head in a 75-lap feature that will pay the winner $1,000. In addition, there will be bonuses paid to top five finishers in each group: $500, $300, $200, $150, $100.

In 2017 Brett Hudson went to victory in the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks 50 lap first ever feature at Salem Speedway, while Blake Hillard won the GAS/CRA Challenge 50 lap finally. In 2018 the two reversed their wins, with Hillard getting his first ever CRA victory in the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks 50 lap feature while Hudson won the GAS/CRA Challenge 50 lap finally.

The series competed as part of the Midwest 250 on April 25th where long time Salem Speedway racer Chuck Barnes Sr. held off his son Chuck Barnes Jr. to get the win, his first ever Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks victory and added to his all time wins total at Salem Speedway. GAS Series regular Skeeter Crum finished in third, with Hudson fourth and former NASCAR competitor Ken Schrader in fifth place.

Saturday’s event will be the fourth event of the season for the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks. Jason Atkinson got the win in the series season points opener on April 17th at Anderson Speedway. Atkinson followed that up with a win in the series third event of the season and second points event at Shadybowl Speedway on May 1st, that event was the first event in the series Four Crown Mini-series.

With his two wins Atkinson comes into Saturday nights event as the series points leader. Alan Williams Jr. and Andrew Teepe are tied for second, 16 points behind Atkinson. Josh Poore is fourth in points, 10 points back. Matt Barnes is fifth in series points, he is nine points behind Poore.

With his third-place finish on April 25th, Crum leads the Lucas Oil Great American Stocks points going into Saturday nights Challenge. Schrader is in second place, four points behind Crum. Brian Bayer is in third place, six points behind Schrader. Tommy Brown Jr. is in fourth place, one point behind Bayer. Jamie Goodman is in fifth place, he is four points behind Brown Jr.

There is an open practice on Friday, pits open at 2pm with practice going from 4 to dark. Pits open on Saturday at 1pm. The CRA Street Stocks and Great American Stocks will have a 55-minute practice session beginning at 4:05pm. The CRA Street Stocks and Great American Stocks will have group qualifying at about 5:45pm. The race program is set to begin at 6:30pm and will include the season opening heat races and feature for the Victory Custom Trailers CRA Junior Late Models, the season opening events for the Salem Speedway Crown Vic’s on the quarter mile oval and figure eight. There will be an autograph session prior to the GAS/CRA Challenge 75, which will be the final feature of the night.

Additional track and event information and advance ticket sales can be found at www.salemspeedway.com.

More information on all the CRA series is available at www.cra-racing.com.