Fresno-area racers Scelzi, Swanson have enjoyed a lot of firsts. Saturday’s will be unique

UPDATE: Kody Swanson finished eighth and Giovanni Scelzi 11th in Saturday’s ARCA Menards stock car race.

Valley racers Giovanni Scelzi and Kody Swanson are each accomplishing firsts Saturday in Iowa.

Scelzi will do something that’s quite possibly a first for anyone: Drive in races on asphalt and dirt at major tracks on the same day.

He’s scheduled to continue his rookie season in the ARCA Menards stock car series racing in the Shore Lunch 150 on the 7/8-mile paved Iowa Speedway in Newton. The race is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time and be shown on MAVTV.

That evening, Scelzi is set to join his Midwest-based sprint car team for a race on the 1/2-mile dirt Knoxville Raceway. The tracks are about 28 miles apart.

“It will be a long day running the ARCA race and then heading to Knoxville, but I’m really looking forward to it,” Scelzi said in a release.

The Fresno 18-year-old is the youngest winner in the history of the World of Outlaws tour and the youngest winner at Knoxville, home of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum. He is a past rookie of the year at the Chili Bowl, the country’s biggest indoor race, and the Knoxville Nationals.

Scelzi’s career path toward a seat in a major national series took a turn from open-wheel racing last year when he won the first stock car race he entered. This year, he’s driving for the premier team in ARCA West, Bill McAnally Racing, with two top-fives and two top-10s in seven starts.

Swanson jumps to stock cars

Swanson, the 32-year-old Kingsburg native now living in Indiana, has stamped himself as a premier open-wheel racer. He has won a record five U.S. Auto Club Silver Crown series titles and 29 races. He has won the Little 500, a 500-lap sprint car race on a 1/4-mile Indiana track, three times.

With his sights still set on an Indy-car ride, Swanson tested earlier this year in an Indy Pro 2000 car.

But he jumped at the opportunity to race stock cars. His grandfather Bill and father Mike were champion stock car drivers at Madera Speedway.

“I am trying to learn as much as I can so I will be up to speed when we get to the track on Saturday,” Swanson said in a release.

The ARCA race is part of an Indy-car doubleheader weekend at Iowa Speedway.

This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 11:35 AM.