ARCA Fest at the Milwaukee Mile takes over traditional IndyCar weekend

Here's the trade-off. Among the drivers you won't see at ARCA Fest and the Howie Lettow 150 next year are Matt Kenseth and defending winner Kyle Busch. But the event should be easier for many fans to attend and could attract more national-level competition from drivers who someday may replace those two among NASCAR's top stars.

Moving ARCA Fest to June 6-8 puts the super-late model event at the Milwaukee Mile in head-to-head conflict with the Sprint Cup Series at Pocono.

The Camping World Truck Series competes that Friday night at Texas and the Nationwide Seires runs Saturday at Iowa Speedway. Truck regular Johnny Sauter, a big supporter of the event and of short-track late-model racing, said he didn't think the date would be a problem for him.

The preliminary ARCA Midwest Tour schedule announced Thursday shows 12 races, including one TBA. Of those, five are in Wisconsin, including a return to Wisconsin International Raceway on Aug. 9 and the traditional finale at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway on Oct. 4-5.

An informal survey of fans showed potential ticket-buyers were more interested in seeing a weekend event than, for example, another Busch victory (right), said series vice president Steve Einhaus.

With the IndyCar Series event at the Mile moving to August, early June became more appealing. The Lettow 150 has run on Tuesdays the past two years, under the lights in June 2012 and then in the evening in July 2013. The 2013 version was cut short because of sunset. This time expect the feature to start sometime in the afternoon with plenty of time to get the whole show in (assuming cooperation from the weather, as always).

Other divisions to compete at ARCA Fest include the ARCA/CRA Jegs All-Stars Tour, a cost-conscious series requiring sealed engines and with other money-saving rules. The cars are particularly popular in the South, Einhaus said, so he would expect some of the travelling drivers to compete in that race — probably a 100-miler — as well as the main event. JSonline.com