Milwaukee 150

The Milwaukee 150 is a race in the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East which takes place at the Milwaukee Mile, Famous racers who have competed at the track include: Barney Oldfield, Ralph DePalma, Walt Faulkner, Parnelli Jones, A. J. Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal, Jim Clark, Darrell Waltrip, Alan Kulwicki, Emerson Fittipaldi, Bobby Allison, Davey Allison, Nigel Mansell, Rick Mears, Michael Andretti, Alex Zanardi, Harry Gant, Rusty Wallace, Walker Evans, Dario Franchitti and Bernie Eccelstone as well as current racing stars Danica Patrick, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Hélio Castroneves, A. J. Foyt IV, Simona de Silvestro, Colin Braun, James Davison, Paul Newman, Jay Drake, Nick Bussell, Sage Karam and many others.

In December 16, 2009, Wisconsin State Fair Park officials confirmed that the Milwaukee Mile would not host any NASCAR or IndyCar races in 2010. NASCAR confirmed that their June Nationwide Series date would remain in Wisconsin for 2010, as they announced they would hold a race at Road America for the first time since the Grand National Series raced there in 1956. NASCAR also announced on January 20, 2010 that the Milwaukee date for the truck series would be moved to August. The track hosted two ASA Late Model Series races in 2010.

ARCA announced its national series schedule Tuesday with an Aug. 29 date at the Mile, and Sargent said the Midwest Tour super-late models would return on weekend, June 20.

The national series has raced at the Mile five times, most recently from 2005-07, both as a headliner and as a support event, with relatively low interest. ARCA also has raced at Road America in Elkhart Lake and Madison International Speedway in the Town of Rutland.

Eleven of the events on ARCA’s 20-race schedule are in conjunction with NASCAR national series. NASCAR acquired ARCA in 2018, and the ARCA Menards series and regional ARCA Menards Series East and ARCA Menards Series West divisions all have been used as training grounds for NASCAR hopefuls.

Sargent’s company, Track Enterprises, promoted an ARCA Midwest Tour race at the Mile in 2019, ending three seasons of dormancy for the oval.

Sargent hinted at an additional weekend as soon as 2022 but did not offer details. Track Enterprises promotes about 80 races a year, many of them involving grassroots-type open-wheel series.

The Milwaukee ARCA Midwest Tour race was one of countless events affected by the. Sargent said Track Enterprises is proceeding with its 2021 schedule as normal, albeit cautiously.

“We’re obviously watching the coronavirus obstacles and issues, progress, setbacks,” he said. “We’re being cautiously optimistic, hopeful that we will be improving by spring. We’re realists. We realize there could still be issues going on in the mid-summer.

“When I say ‘cautiously optimistic,’ we’ve been through a year of it with a lot of events, we know how to proceed with a lot of protocols – percentages of grandstands, etc. – so we feel we can make this work. There are different ways to maneuver through this now; hopefully we’ll be past the worst of it next June.”