Rush Truck Centers 400

The Rush Truck Centers 400 will be a 400 mi annual race in the NASCAR Cup Series race held at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. The race will be held in August 2022 and will replace the spring race at Kansas.

History
When the World of Outlaws sprint car series was launched in 1978, Baltes recognized the promotional potential of the group and quickly booked several events at Eldora. It was a key partnership for the fledgling series, giving them much-needed credibility and momentum. Eldora hosted the season finale in October, where Steve Kinser captured the inaugural WoO championship and was proclaimed "King of the Outlaws." In the years that have followed Eldora has remained a mainstay venue on the WoO circuit and annual The King's Royal race.

While the pit wall bore "HOME OF THE SPRINT" for many years, Eldora started as a track for "Jalopy" cars, then "New Cars/Stock Cars" which eventually into the modern day Dirt Late Model. In 1971, Baltes posted a $4,000 winner's purse for the "World 100" which many racers and fans thought was a misprint in the advertising. Promising to raise the winner's share by $1,000 every year, the World 100 annually attracts the largest field of Dirt Late Model racers in the world and is Eldora's largest attended event of the season. The 2017 event paid a record purse of $425,800 and attracted the largest crowd in the history of Eldora Speedway – while Eldora does not typically release attendance figures, the winner's share of the Tony Stewart Foundation 50/50 Raffle (often an indication of a short-track's attendance as they are sold by hand for $1 per ticket) on the Saturday night was over $38,000.

In the late 1970s, as the crossover between the stars of Indianapolis and USAC dwindled and the era's super-modified cars began to decline, Baltes took notice of a brash Texas promoter named Ted Johnson organizing a "band of outlaw" sprint car drivers racing for larger purses and, in most cases, with aerodynamic wings on their cars. Eldora's high-banks became Ohio and the midwest's home to the World of Outlaws and, in 1984, Baltes pulled off another one of his firsts when he announced the '$50,000-to-win Kings Royal." In recent years, the event has grown into a three-day extravaganza offering over $385,000 in prize money and awards with regional satellite events in the week leading up to it.

Longtime USAC official, car owner and sponsor, Johnny Vance of Aristocrat Products in Dayton, Ohio approached Baltes in 1980 about trying an event in 1981 featuring all four of USAC's divisions in one show and call it "The 4-Crown Nationals." At the time, USAC sanctioned the Champ Cars (a/k/a Silver Crown), National Sprint Cars, National Sprint Tour and a Stock Car division similar to NASCAR's Grand National Division. The event was a success and will celebrate its 37th running in 2018. It has seen several different iterations over the years and it has not run every year having been completely rained out/not rescheduled and replaced by the Mopar Million. When USAC dropped its stock car division, they were replaced by Dirt Late Models and as the World 100 grew the Late Models were replaced by the UMP Modifieds. As interest in the event waned, the World of Outlaws were added for a Friday show and USAC's remaining three divisions raced solely on Saturday. The event is currently enjoying a renaissance with a weekend full of activity consisting of the World of Outlaws on Friday, USAC's three divisions plus the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars on Saturday, vintage car displays and three days of racing for 300 USAC .25 Midgets competitors and their families at Little Eldora. The 4-Crown Nationals has hosted two of short-track racing's most impressive performances: Jack Hewitt's sweep of the three USAC divisions and UMP Modified feature in one night and Kyle Larson's sweep of the three USAC divisions (there was not a fourth division that night).

In 2001 Baltes held the "Eldora Million", his defining achievement as a race promoter. Offering a $1 million prize to the winner, the race remains by far the richest short track race in history. Donnie Moran captured the event and the top money, and was christened "the Million Dollar Man."

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart purchased the speedway in late 2004 from Baltes. Upon his retirement, the state of Ohio honored Baltes by renaming Hwy. 118 "Earl Baltes National Highway" from Ansonia to the south to St. Henry to the north.

In 2011, Stewart hired former Charlotte Motor Speedway vice president of events, Roger Slack, a protégé of legendary promoter Humpy Wheeler, away from World Racing Group where he had served as executive vice president of the new event promotions department since 2009. Slack leads Eldora's day-to-day operations as general manager and speedway promoter. The historic racing oval has continued an aggressive capital improvement program with state-of-the-art luxury suites atop the turn three area, while fans also enjoy live coverage and replays of the on-track action via the large HD Coca-Cola video board in turn two. Additional catch fencing, attenuators, a widened pit road, a dedicated helipad for Premier Health's CareFlight and Infield Care Center providing on-site facilities for Level 1 Trauma and ER staff are recent additions to benefit both fan and competitors in recent years.