The Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 NASCAR Nationwide Preview

It’s Nationwide Racing in full force this weekend! With the Cup boys taking off, your choice is already made for you so watch some Nationwide Action this weekend. We stay in Mid-West for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 from Gateway. Good lord that’s a long name. They are gonna need a pretty wide trophy for that one.

Even with the Cup boys taking the week off, we don’t have Logano, Busch or Hamlin in this race. We do have Kevin Harvick, though. No Danica Patrick this week either. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have great racing to bring you.

We head to Gateway this weekend, where Kyle Busch is the defending......well, I guess he’s not really defending his win from last year, is he? We may see the debut of a future star in Ryan Truex, and we have another opportunity for a first time winner. Last weekend gave us David Reutimann winning just his second ever cup win, just a day after finishing in the top 5 in the Nationwide Race, and the day after that Austin Dillon (who will be driving for Childress next season in the Nationwide Series) picked up his first career win in the Truck Series. Who will begin the drive to history this week? Let’s tune in to see.

Entry List and more after the JUMP!

A few new faces in new places this week.

As you can see many cars are without sponsors, one of which is Carl Edwards - which is a bit of a surprise.

This is the first attempt by Martin’s little brother Ryan Truex. Ryan is last year’s K&N East series Champion, as well as the current points leader in the K&N East Series. He has 4 career wins in the series and this will be his first attempt at one of Nascar’s big three. Ryan was hired by Michael Waltrip Racing to eventually move up the latter. Next year Ryan will run full time in the Nationwide Series in the #00 Toyota for Diamond Waltrip Racing, where he will partner with Trevor Bayne. Five drivers will miss the show this week and the hope is that Ryan will not be one of them.

Josh Wise returns to the #7 Chevy this week, and Steve Arpin will drive in the #88 Chevy this week for JR/Hendrick Motorsports.

Landon Cassill returns to the #09 Ford, sadly he will most likely start and park yet again. Landon hasn’t entered a race yet that he intended to finish, and it really is a waste of talent.

The #21 will yet again be driven by Morgan Shepherd, with Johnny Chapman in the #89 again.

Alex Kennedy returns to the #23 Chevy this week. Kennedy is the Mexican born driver who finished 28th at Road America this year. Chances look good that Kennedy will be back in the #23 when the series goes to Watkins Glen and Montreal August 7th and 29th respectivly. Gateway is a 1.25 mile track, and is as close to a road course as you can get without actually going to a road course.

It is great to see Kelly Bires back in a Nationwide car again. He will be in the #27 Ford for Baker Curb, who is about to fall outside the top 30 in points if Brad Baker yet again start and parks the #43. Hopefully Bires is set to go for a win this week. They also have Kevin Swindell in the #37 this week, meaning that he will probably also start and park.

We have another Front Row/Smith entry this week as Johnny Sauter takes the wheel of the Long John Silvers #36. I haven’t heard of them start and parking, so expect to see Johnny race the entire race. But I have been led astray before.

So, tune in Saturday at 8pm eastern to ESPN2 For great ‘Under the Lights’ racing in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 from Gateway! Enjoy!