By: Kevin Ramsell
Jefferson, WI – Fresh off his third-place finish in the ASA Midwest Tour Joe Shear Classic presented by Toyota season opener at Madison International Speedway, Justin Mondeik hopes to turn his luck around at the “old cornfield” on Saturday night.
The Mondovi, Wisconsin driver, who finished third in the 2024 season championship, hopes to change past luck at Jefferson Speedway in Jefferson, Wisconsin, in the Salute the Troops 100.
In the Joe Shear Classic, Mondeik came from his 20th starting position to finish third. But, in the past, he has seen the opposite results at “Wisconsin’s Action Track.”
“It’s kind of the opposite there, honestly,” Mondeik explained. “Jefferson, we always qualify really well and kind of struggle in race pace. I mean, we’re always able to stay in the top 10. We just want better results than that. But we’ll work on it.”
With Jefferson being half the size of Madison, Mondeik feels that his team can put something together to go for his fourth ASAMT victory.
“I think this package was good here on the longer run,” Mondeik said. “Jefferson’s a totally different animal, but we’ll work on what we got and see where it takes us.”
Last year, Mondeik picked up two wins in the Midwest Tour, one at State Park Speedway in Rib Mountain, Wisconsin, and at Elko Speedway in Elko, Minnesota. Jefferson Speedway has a mix of characteristics to those two tracks.
Jefferson Speedway is a competitor’s track and provides great two-wide, sometimes three-wide, racing. What makes the track unique is the different lower progressive banking in turns one and two compared to higher progressive banking in turns three and four. Many times, the driver on the inside will have the advantage in turns one and two, but the outside driver will have the advantage in turns three and four, creating close door-to-door action.
The ASA Midwest Tour appeared at Jefferson Speedway during its first two seasons in 2007 and 2008. Nathan Haseleu won his ASAMT event en route to being the first ever champion that year while Jonathan Eilen took the victory in 2018.
After a nine-year hiatus, the tour returned in 2017 with five-time Midwest Tour champion and 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Ty Majeski winning that event. Majeski is the only three-time winner of the event.
The Salute the Troops 100 will also feature the Sportsman and Legends divisions on Saturday night.
Spectator gates open at 2 p.m. with qualifying at 4:30 p.m. Racing will get underway at 6 p.m.
Advance tickets are on sale now at midwesttour.racing.
Past Winners ASAMT Jefferson Speedway/Salute the Troops 100
2007 Nathan Haseleu
2008 Jonathan Eilen
2017 Ty Majeski
2018 Paul Shafer, Jr.
2019 Casey Johnson
2021 Ty Majeski
2022 Jacob Nottestad
2023 Dalton Zehr
2024 Ty Majeski
