NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is returning to a track he loves, driving the type of race car he enjoys more than any other to honor a man who was integral in developing his career.
The United States Auto Club’s national midget series will visit Arkansas for the first time tonight and Saturday for the inaugural 40 for Shorty event at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis.
Stenhouse, who is in his fourth season driving for Roush Fenway Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, will compete both nights at what he considers his home track, known to locals as “The Ditch,” where he began his career in sprint cars as a teenager.
“Racing a midget at Riverside International Speedway has been a dream of mine,” Stenhouse, a native of Olive Branch, Miss., told usacracing.com. “It’s one of the tracks I loved racing at growing up combined with a car [midget] that is probably my favorite to drive of any. In 2007, the midget was my calling, I feel like, and we won enough that it helped continue my rise through my racing career.”
The event honors Howard “Shorty” Chambliss of Southaven, Miss., who was a force in the region’s sprint car ranks for more than 60 years, originally as a driver of his No. 40 sprinter and in later years as a car owner. Chambliss died in 2014 at 80.
“Having this event in honor of the Shortman is something that is very close to the heart,” Stenhouse said. “He was a longtime family friend who I’d known forever. Dad and him would always be working on their race cars in the garage, and Dad took care of his cars when he was racing at the end.
“He gave me a chance and helped push me to be better with lots of advice that he had learned racing all the years he did. Even in NASCAR, he was one of my biggest supporters.”
Stenhouse was the national rookie of the year for USAC’s midget series and its sprint car series in 2007. It was the only season he raced full-time with USAC, earning five victories in 25 midget starts and one victory in 26 sprint starts.
This weekend’s event marks the first time USAC’s national midget series has made a visit to a new state since 1985.
Many current and recent NASCAR stars were first seen on the national scene while racing in the USAC midget series. Since 1990, series champions have included eventual NASCAR stars Jeff Gordon (1990), Tony Stewart (1994-1995), Kenny Irwin (1996), Jason Leffler (1997-1999), Kasey Kahne (2000), J.J. Yeley (2003), Cole Whitt (2008), Christopher Bell (2013) and Rico Abreu (2014).
Among those racing this weekend will be Bryan Clauson of Noblesville, Ind., the 2010 and 2011 USAC midget national champion. During this season, Clauson is on a much-publicized quest to compete in 200 events, mostly in the USAC, World of Outlaws, All-Star and ASCS openwheel series. The Riverside events will be Nos. 81 and 82.
May 29 was a particularly busy day for Clauson. In the afternoon, he finished 23rd in Race 58, his third career start in the Indianapolis 500. That night, he won Race 59 in a sprint car at Kokomo, Ind.
Stenhouse is taking advantage of an off-week for the Sprint Cup series to turn laps at The Ditch. In addition to racing in USAC’s $3,000-towin event tonight and the $4,040-to-win race Saturday night, he also will jump behind the wheel of a 360-cubic inch sprint car tonight and a 305 sprinter Saturday.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back home and racing with the friends I grew up around and getting back into a midget and sprint car,” he said. “It’s been about 2009 since I’ve raced at Riverside, and it’s a place a lot of great racers learned to race on.”