(TOLEDO, Ohio) – The pursuit of the Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge Award will feature eight races in 2013, up from seven in 2012, following yesterday’s announcement of a September 20 ARCA Racing Series event at Kentucky Speedway.

In addition to the Kentucky race – the 20th for ARCA at the 1.5-mile track but the first since 2009 – seven other speedway events are confirmed for the 2013 season.

ARCA’s 61st season will open at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, February 16; the race will be ARCA’s 50th at Daytona, continuing a tradition that dates back to 1964.

The 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway will host an ARCA race for the 51st time on Friday, May 3. 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway will host ARCA twice for the 27th consecutive year and its 55th and 56th ARCA events, on its traditional race weekends in early June and early August.

Michigan International Speedway’s two-mile oval will be the host for ARCA’s fourth speedway event of the year – and 31st at the track – on Friday, June 14. On July 21, Chicagoland Speedway will welcome ARCA on a Sunday for the first time in 13 races at the 1.5-mile oval.

After the second Pocono event and the Kentucky race in September, the speedway schedule will conclude in ARCA’s season finale on Friday, October 4 at Kansas Speedway. Chris Buescher completed his first ARCA championship season at the 1.5-mile oval last month, as the track hosted ARCA’s final race for the first time in 12 years. In the same race, Brennan Poole clinched the 2012 Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge for owner Cathy Venturini.

The Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge is scored on race points only at the above events, all contested on paved ovals one mile or longer. Past Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge owner champions are listed below, with the respective drivers in parentheses.

Year – Winning Owner and Driver(s)

1984 – Davey Allison (Davey Allison)

1985 – Bill Collins (Davey Allison)

1986 – Jim Coyle (Lee Raymond)

1987 – Cathy Venturini (Bill Venturini)

1988 – Don Biederman (Tracy Leslie)

1989 – Hank Jones (Ben Hess)

1990 – Shelly Brevak (Bob Brevak)

1991 – Cathy Venturini (Bill Venturini)

1992 – Ron Keselowski (Bob Keselowski)

1993 – James Finch (Jeff Purvis)

1994 – James Finch (Jeff Purvis)

1995 – Barry Owen (Mike Wallace)

1996 – Harold Steele (Tim Steele)

1997 – Kerry Scherer (Mark Gibson)

1998 – Larry Clement (Frank Kimmel)

1999 – Ken Schrader (Bill Baird)

2000 – Mark Thompson (Bob Strait)

2001 – Larry Clement (Frank Kimmel)

2002 – Todd Braun (Chad Blount)

2003 – Larry Clement (Frank Kimmel)

2004 – Bill Gerhart (Bobby Gerhart, Blake Feese, Kyle Krisiloff)

2005 – Larry Clement (Frank Kimmel)

2006 – Larry Clement (Frank Kimmel)

2007 – Ray Evernham (Erin Crocker)

2008 – Eddie Sharp (Scott Speed)

2009 – Jessica Sharp (Justin Lofton)

2010 – Patrick Sheltra (Patrick Sheltra)

2011 – Russell Roulo (Chris Buescher)

2012 – Cathy Venturini (Brennan Poole)

 

Races on March 9 at Mobile and June 22 at Road America are also scheduled, so 10 events are now confirmed on ARCA’s 2013 schedule – with more to come early next week.

The 2012 ARCA Racing Series Championship Awards Banquet is scheduled for Saturday, December 8, and will be held in conjunction with the International Motorsports Industry Show (IMIS), which will begin two days prior. The banquet will take place in a new location, the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis.

Testing for the ARCA Racing Series’ 50th appearance at Daytona International Speedway, in February 2013, will take place from December 14-16.

The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards has crowned 30 ARCA national champions in 60 seasons since 1953, and has toured over 200 race tracks in 26 states since its inception. The series has tested the abilities of drivers and race teams over the most diverse schedule of stock car racing events in the world, visiting tracks ranging from 0.375 mile to 2.66 miles in length, on both paved and dirt surfaces as well as a left- and right-turn road course in its most recent season. This year, the series visited Alabama’s Mobile International Speedway and Minnesota’s Elko Speedway for the first time. Next season, ARCA will appear for the first time at Road America in Wisconsin.

Founded by John and Mildred 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 four professional touring series and local weekly events.