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Two-Time ARCA/CRA Super Series Champion Enters This Sunday’s “Father’s Day 100” at The Milwaukee Mile

Travis Braden Stays Busy Racing, Has Success in Bigtime Short Track Events

West Allis, WI – Add one more touring series champion to the growing drivers list entered to compete this Sunday in the ARCA Midwest Tour-sanctioned “Father’s Day 100” race at the Milwaukee Mile Speedway on the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds.

West Virginia native Travis Braden found himself traveling two hours one way to Columbus, Ohio and Xenia, Ohio short tracks to hone his skills on third-mile and quarter-mile tracks. By the age of 18, he was a Columbus Motor Speedway weekly track champion.

Subsequently, traveling to several more tracks produced positive results in two regional touring series, namely on the CRA Jeg’s All-Star Late Model Tour, in which he’s earned six wins in 27 career races. After he stepped up into the ARCA/CRA Super Late Model Series, he won two consecutive series championships in 2013 and 2014, tallying a total of ten checkered flags in 64 starts on some of Indiana, Ohio and Michigan’s finest short tracks.

While racing his way to consecutive championships, Braden was also a full-time college student at West Virginia University, from which he successfully earned dual degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

His passion for short track racing turned into an all-out pursuit to drive race cars for a living. His family-run team bought an ARCA Menards Series car and won with it in their debut event at Lucas Oil Raceway in Clermont, Indiana in 2015.

Partially due to that victory, Braden earned the opportunity in 2017 to test then race full-time for the RFMS Racing team in the national ARCA Menards Series.

All the while, he has entered as many bigtime super late model races as possible. On his impressive resume is a victory and second place finish in the prestigious “Winchester 400” at Indiana’s Winchester Speedway in 2016 and 2017.

Consider the easy-going 25 year-old one who likes to challenge himself at every opportunity. In a nine day stretch concluding at The Milwaukee Mile this Sunday, Braden will have raced at four completely different tracks in three different types of race cars.

Braden’s sixth place finish in the ARCA Menards Series last Friday, in a super speedway-tuned RFMS Racing Ford on the Michigan International Speedway two-mile oval started his upper Midwest racing journey. Braden is currently 3rd in that series’ national point standings after nine events.

On Monday night, he raced his Platinum Express Chevrolet super late model to second place in the 150-lap “Money In The Bank” super late model race at Berlin Raceway in Marne, Mich. This is the same car he’ll bring to The Mile that will undergo wholesale suspension changes to convert the car from the tight confines of the 4/10ths mile Michigan short track to the demands of the high-speed, flat one mile oval in Milwaukee.

Braden will slide back behind the steering wheel of a different short track-prepared RFMS Racing Ford this coming Friday night, competing in a 200-lap ARCA Menards Series race at the Madison International Speedway, located in Oregon, Wis., before turning his attention to practice laps at The Milwaukee Mile on Saturday in preparation for Sunday afternoon’s 100-mile contest.

Braden has not raced previously on The Milwaukee Mile, nor against many of his accomplished competitors, but he undoubtedly will be ready for the challenge.

Braden is among a stellar list of super late model touring series champions facing the ‘Stars and Cars’ of the ARCA Midwest Tour this Sunday afternoon. Joining the Midwest Tour Super Late Models will be the Vintage Indy Registry, Midwest Truck Tour, Mid-American Stock Car Series and Upper Midwest Vintage Series. Grandstand gates open Sunday, June 16 at 9:00 AM, with practice at 9:30, qualifying at 11:00, and racing to take the green at 1:00 PM.

Reserved tickets are available for $25 in advance or $30 on raceday. General admission tickets are $25. Tickets for children aged 11 and under are $5. Raceday infield tickets will be $20 each for adults and $5 for kids. Advance sale discount tickets as well as more information is available online at www.trackenterprises.com or by calling the office at 217-764-3200. Tickets will also be available at the gate on raceday.