Dominion's Davey Callihan ready to turn heads in ARCA Menards Series debut at Elko Speedway

It‘s no secret that Davey Callihan has been friends with Willie and Dinah Mullins, the owners of Mullins Racing, for several years.

Callihan, a veteran competitor at Virginia‘s Dominion Raceway, is a valued member of the Mullins Racing family. He helps the team prepare for ARCA events at the shop, has been part of the team‘s crew at the track and even competed in an ARCA Menards Series East event for the team at North Carolina‘s Southern National Motorsports Park in 2021.

“The Mullins‘ and I are great friends,” Callihan said. “I‘m around their body shop just about every day because we work close to each other.”

Mullins Racing recently added to its fleet of race cars a Limited Late Model — called a Virginia Racer at Dominion Raceway. As they prepared to race the car for the first time, the team was looking for somebody to race the car and give them a good baseline.

Callihan was the obvious choice, and he paid them back in spades by sweeping a pair of twin features at Dominion.

Once again impressed by Callihan‘s ability behind the wheel, Willie and Dinah decided to give him an opportunity to make his ARCA Menards Series debut this Saturday at Minnesota‘s Elko Speedway in the Menards 250 (8 p.m. CT / 9 p.m. ET on FS2/FloRacing).

“Davey did such a great job in our Virginia Racer Late Model class that we have here at Dominion,” Willie said. “He hopped in our car there and got two wins, so we decided to give him another opportunity to go ARCA racing.”

If Callihan‘s name sounds familiar, it‘s because he went viral on social media late last year after an incident at Martinsville Speedway during the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 that saw him have a disagreement with fellow competitor Andrew Grady.

Callihan has put that incident behind him and is focus is on racing weekly at Dominion, where he ranks fourth in the track‘s Late Model Stock Car point standings.

“I‘m kind of the local Late Model short track guy in the area. I guess they think I can get the job done,” Callihan said.

However, a race at Elko Speedway presents a multitude of challenges that Callihan has never faced. For one, Callihan has never competed outside the Southeast, with most of his racing taking place in Virginia or North Carolina.

This also will mark just the second time Callihan has even laid eyes on Elko. He visited the track last season as part of the Mullins Racing crew when Willie drove to a ninth-place finish in the Menards 250.

He‘ll have a strong support system helping him get up to speed at the 3/8-mile oval, the shortest track on the ARCA Menards Series schedule. That includes veteran crew chief Kevin Reed Sr., who will be acting as his crew chief during the Menards 250.

The goal for Callihan, according to Willie, is a finish inside the top five. But more importantly, Willie wants Callihan to “aggravate the big teams and make sure they know we‘re there.”

Callihan is ready for the challenge.

“They‘ve really set me up with a really good race car,” Callihan said. “They‘ve given me a race-winning crew chief. Kevin Reed is going to be the crew chief, so I‘ll have a lot of experience on the box. That‘s going to help me. I‘m going to lean on him to try and get sped up on the race track and what I need to be doing.

“I‘m going to try to go there, and I really, truly believe with the equipment provided and with the crew chief they‘ve provided, that we should be able to go there and definitely run top five. And my expectation is maybe even a little better than that. My expectation to get Mullins Racing their best short-track finish to date.

“Anything fourth or better would be really what I think we can do.”