Toledo Speedway

Christian Rose has one of the most unique paths to a racing career of any driver running in the Toledo Speedway Shore Lunch 200 presented by CGS Imaging on October 7th. This former Division I college baseball pitcher has taken a swing at success in racing, finishing up his first full-time season in the ARCA Menards Series for AM Racing. Rose is currently third in the overall point standings, and runs a striking car with the West Virginia tourism board as his primary sponsor.

Toledo Speedway spoke with Rose at Michigan Speedway in advance of the final stretch of the ARCA Menards Series season. The driver of the number 32 car spoke about Toledo, West Virginia, the Baltimore Orioles, Raisin' Canes, visiting schools, as well as what he looks forward to in the final ARCA Menards Series race of the season - the Toledo Speedway Shore Lunch 200 presented by CGS Imaging on October 7th.

Tickets for this event are available now, and can be picked up at a discount at select Menards locations.

Introduce yourself to the fans

Christian Rose. I'm the driver of the 32 AM Racing Ford Mustang with West Virginia tourism, Secure Testing services, the Disability Opportunity Fund… You go down the list. We have a lot of great partners. So very thankful to have this opportunity to talk to you guys. 

Tell me about your season so far 

We took this year as a learning year, right? I don't have a lot of experience, a lot of people don't know my story. 

I was a baseball player that transitioned into being a race car driver out of college. The big thing is just get all the laps. 

So I think our main goal was to run all the laps, and I think we’ve run more laps than anybody in the ARCA platform this year. So we're sitting fourth in the points (now third). I'd like to be a little higher there, but I think Phoenix kind of sets back when you got a 35 car field there and you have an incident versus some tracks when you got 20 cars, that sets you back early in the year. 

I think we've done a good job finishing races and building some momentum for this second half stretch. 

And what's been the race that's taught you the most so far? 

I would say Charlotte was the biggest learning curve. I think we've gotten better at those places. Like, we led laps at both of them. And we were in position in Charlotte to steal a win there. 

That experience on a green-white-checker on older tires and to hold our ground the way we did, I think those are all building blocks that when we come back next year and try to run for a championship again, I think that will transition into top fives and hopefully fight for some wins. 

Are you looking to get that win this year? What's the goal? 

Yeah, I do think there are some places that I’m cautiously optimistic about… Kansas is another one. Obviously, I think if we can take where I thought we could have run sixth at Pocono, and we can build on that and start clicking off the 4th, the 6th, maybe towards the last half of the race or half of the season, we can fight for those wins and that's kind of what we're doing. 

But the same goal is just to keep finishing all the laps. If we run 15th, we run 15th. If we win five in a row, we win five in a row. It's just to keep building experience for next year.

Going into Toledo…

I didn’t run it last year, but Toledo is a place that was an absolutely beautiful place we went up to last year. My wife is from Cleveland. So kind of a family home track for us when we go. 

Yeah, I mean, what a great way to close the season out, right? The ARCA headquarters are there. We get to go up there and do some experience, and hopefully go back to a school this year and bring a car up or something. I really enjoyed that [last year] with Charlie and yourself and everybody in ARCA. 

You guys do a great job putting that championship race on there, especially with the Menards store there. 

So the school visit was unique for you. Have you done anything similar this year so far? 

So we [threw the first pitch at] the Cannonballers a couple of weeks ago, and then we have done the Guardians this year.

Any chance I get to go back and pretend to be a baseball player again is pretty cool. 

I think we're going to try to get back to my hometown this year, do a school visit, talk to some kids and talk about, like, how I never thought this was an opportunity. 

If you would have told me [where I am] five years ago, I’d laugh at you. Getting youth into this sport is a big thing, and there's a lot of people like myself who didn't know how, and didn't know what to do with it. 

So any kid we can reach out to and kind of share that story through the ARCA platform, or through our platform or whatever it is, I’d love to share that story. 

Let's talk to baseball then. I’m a big Tiger fan myself. A lot of people are obviously Mudhead fans. 

Yeah, I'm a diehard Orioles fan, so to say I’ve gone through the ringer my entire life is an understatement. 

But to see where they're at this year, and then we just went out and got Jack Flaherty and he started last night and went six innings of incredible baseball. I’m a big fan of the Baltimore Orioles, and very excited because they're young, and they're a top farm system in baseball. 

But minor leagues. I watch the Tides, the Keys, the stuff that are in the Orioles organization, but still keep up with the college programs and all that, too.

What's the most exciting team in baseball?

Right now, for me it's Baltimore. 

But it's because you got Adley Rutschman, you got Gunnar Henderson, you got Cower, Westberg, all guys that all got drafted together, and they're all best friends. So they're 22 to 25 years old. 

As a former player, the excitement to see guys, you know, that chemistry that go through the system together and get to the show, it's got to be a dream come true for those guys. 

Obviously what Shohei is doing.. In my opinion, Shohei is the best player to ever play the game and I don't think there's a debate about it. 

To do what he does, he makes everybody else look like they're playing little league and it's incredible. 

So I was very excited when I saw Baltimore was one of the tops to go get him, and the angels held on to him there. So that kind of sucked. But angels are pretty exciting. 

The Braves are still very exciting. And I think Baltimore will be for the next or for probably five to ten years to come. 

World Series Pick?

I'm going to go with the Braves and Orioles. I got a lot of Braves fans on this team and in the shop. So I've already said I don't care what the ticket price is. If they both make it, we're going to go to a game. 

Tell me more about the track at Toledo

Yeah, I mean, it's a challenging racetrack, right? It's very technical. 

I'm going to be honest, I struggle with short track racing. These bigger tracks have been more my bread and butter, so using as a tool to go in there and hopefully come out with a great learning experience and fight for a top five there would be a win for us. 

Obviously with what Jesse 's doing, he's good at everything he does - so I’ll try to run with him. That's pretty hard for any of us to do right now, but now our goal is to go out there and continue to run those laps. And Toledo is a great track to build on for short track racing for 2024. 

What's the type of thing that you can go to in Toledo that you can't find in West Virginia? You got Culver’s down there, don't you? 

We don't. So, Culver's [laughs]. Do you guys have Raisin’ Cane’s? 

We do got- well, not in Toledo, I don't think. 

Okay. Say, honestly, the food… 

But, what I like about Toledo is it's got a bit of a city feel, but also not too big. Right. West Virginia. We're very country. We're very rural. Charleston's got that city vibe, but it's its own unique opportunity. 

You got racing, you got a little bit of everything in the area. You're not far from Cleveland. You're not far from Detroit. 

You're in a really prime location to put on a good race.

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About the Shore Lunch 200

The ARCA Menards Series crowns a champion on Saturday, October 7th with the Shore Lunch 200 at Toledo Speedway. This historic race has created many memorable moments over the years as a season finale, with big finishes and a high amount of action. Tickets for this event are available now at local Menards stores! You can click here to learn more about where to pick up your tickets for this championship event. You can also follow along with Toledo Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.