Lots of Talent in the Early Entries for the 47th Annual Winchester 400
Advanced Entry Deadline is October 1st
Salem, IN (September 27, 2018) – There are already several of the top racers from around the country entered for the upcoming 47th Annual Winchester 400 Presented by Vore’s Welding and Steel, which takes place on the famous High Banks of Winchester Speedway in Winchester, Indiana on Sunday, October 14th. The ARCA/CRA Super Series Powered by JEGS sanctioned event is one of the top short track events in the country. Some of the past winners since CRA began sanctioning the event include names like Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, David Stremme, Ross Kenseth, Scott Hantz, Brian Ross, Travis Braden, Ryan Lawler, Boris Jurkovic, Bobby Parsley, and last year’s winner Noah Gragson.
To date, 2016 Winchester 400 winner Travis Braden is the only former event winner entered for the 400, but there are several great drivers looking to be able to stand in Winchester 400 victory lane holding the rifle. Two time ARCA/CRA Super Series Champion Braden has been racing full-time with the ARCA Racing Series in 2018, where he is fifth in points with four top five finishes.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitor Harrison Burton, son of former NASCAR competitor and now NBC NASCAR racing commentator Jeff Burton, looked to have last year’s Winchester 400 won until having to come to pit road on lap 393 with broken wheel studs, which ended his day. Burton is entered to try and get that victory that eluded him last year.
2018 CRA SpeedFest winner Chandler Smith is entered looking to improve upon his third place finish in last year’s 400. The Georgia native has been racing mostly with the ARCA Racing Series in 2018, were he has two wins so far this season.
Kyle Busch Motorsports late model racer Rapheal Lessard is entered to try and pick up another big victory in 2018. The Canadian racer won the Super Late Model event with the Short Track U.S. Nationals event at Bristol Motor Speedway in May and won the Redbud 400 at Anderson Speedway in July. Lessard led 46 laps of the 2016 400 before his day ended with a wreck on lap 395.
California racer Tyler Ankrum is entered to compete in his first 400. Ankrum picked up his first CRA win in the ARCA/CRA Super Series Glass City event at Toledo Speedway on September 15th. Ankrum is the 2018 NASCAR K & N Pro East Series Champion, he got four wins with that series this season.
Steve Wallace, son of NASCAR legend Rusty Wallace, is entered to make a return to the 400 in hopes of claiming the 400 rifle trophy. The 2017 Redbud 400 winner finished in fourth place in last year’s 400.
Former Southern Super Series Champion Donnie Wilson is entered. The Oklahoma native always has a fast car at Winchester, he just needs some good luck to get him to victory lane.
The Jett Motorsports Team is bringing a pair of Florida natives to try and get their first Winchester 400 win. Steve Nasse has several 400 starts, including a fifth place finish in last year’s event. Jeff Choquette, a two time CRA SpeedFest winner, will be making his Winchester debut, but is always a threat to get the win.
Three time ARCA/CRA Super Series Champion Johnny VanDoorn is the series all-time winner at Winchester Speedway with five wins, he is entered for this year’s 400 seeking his first victory in that prestigious event. VanDoorn has one series win in 2018, which was at Kalamazoo Speedway.
Georgia native Corey Heim is entered to compete in his first ever Winchester 400. He is currently third in Southern Super Series points.
The four Chase for the Championship drivers who will compete for the 2018 ARCA/CRA Super Series Championship in the Winchester 400 are entered including Josh Brock, who picked up his first series win in May at Anderson Speedway, Senneker Performance Rookie of the Year points leader Austin Kunert, who picked up his first series win at Kil-Kare Raceway in June, Hunter Jack and fellow rookie Jon Beach.
Other top CRA drivers entered for the 400 include 2017 Winchester Labor Day Weekend series winner Dalton Armstrong, 2016 400 runner-up Eddie Van Meter, 2017 JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Champion Jack Dossey III who got a series high second place finish at Winchester on Labor Day, 2014 JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Champion Dan Leeck, 2017 JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Rookie of the Year and 2017 JEGS Tour Labor Day Weekend Winchester event winner Carson Hocevar, Kyle Crump who led the first 90 laps of the series Winchester race on Labor Day, Greg Van Alst and Michael Simko.
Teams are reminded that this Monday, October 1st is the last day teams can enter in advance for the Winchester 400. Teams entering after that date will have to pay an additional $50 for a late entry. The entire 47th Annual Winchester 400 entry list will be released on the CRA web site early next week.
The Winchester 400 is 400 laps counting cautions and is a 12 tire race. The event will once again feature Controlled Cautions in an effort to save teams the cost of bringing in professional pit crews. When a yellow comes out teams will have two laps to service their race car without losing laps or positions on pit road. Those cars will then line up behind the cars that did not pit at that yellow. Teams not getting out of the pits in the two laps will have to fall to the tail of the field and will risk losing laps. As in the past, teams will only be allowed to change a max of two tires per yellow.
The event will pay $16,000 to win plus bonuses, which includes $10,000 in lap leader money, which is $25 per lap led. There will be bonuses of $1000, $600 and $400 to the top three finishing traveling non-regular CRA teams. There is a $1000 bonus to the highest finishing Crate Engine car and another $1000 to the highest finishing driver who has never raced in the Winchester 400 before. In addition EDCO Welding will pay a $400 bonus to the events Fast Qualifier and Hamner Racing Engines will pay a $200 bonus to the driver who advances the most positions. As previously announced the Winchester 400 will be featured in a National TV Broadcast on MAV TV.
Pits open on Saturday, October 13th at 8:00am, rotating practice for all divisions will begin at 10:45am. The ARCA/CRA Super Series teams will have a one hour practice session beginning at 11:05am and a one hour final practice session at 1:30pm on Saturday. EDCO Welding Pole Qualifying for the Winchester 400 will begin at 4:00pm on Saturday.
On Sunday, October 14th the pits will open at 9am. There will be an on track autograph session with all the Winchester 400 drivers starting at 12:30. Opening ceremonies will begin at 1:30 pm with the 47th Annual Winchester 400 taking the green flag at 2pm.
Additional track and event information can be found at www.winchesterspeedway.com.
The Winchester 400 entry form and more information on all the CRA Series is available at www.cra-racing.com.
