Corydon, Indiana – Brad Smith, driver of ApplianceZone.com Racing’s #26 Ford, is looking for a “Rise of the Phoenix”-like performance when he returns to the Salem Speedway oval for the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA 200 on Sunday, April 11th.

The car he’s bringing has a new front and rear clip on it after having been destroyed at Salem a few years back in the last turn of the last lap of the last race of the season.“We’ve had some good runs at Salem and would like to continue to do so,” Smith said, “but we’ve also had a disaster there and would really like to avoid a repeat. Salem is probably the toughest track on the ARCA series. It’s extremely fast, with a very narrow groove, and nowhere to pass. That’s why there gets to be so much beating & banging on each other there.”

Smith says the Salem race is also important because it’s “in ApplianceZone’s backyard” (just forty miles from the company’s headquarters in Corydon ) and ApplianceZone is presenting the event as a sponsor. “Jim (Jim Allen, ApplianceZone’s founder and CEO) is bringing in staff and business associates for a day at the track and I want to give them something to cheer about,” said Smith.

“They’ve given our team a tremendous boost since coming on board last year so the Salem car will have a fresh motor, body and paint on it –more new stuff than we’ve brought to the track in a while.

The Salem race will be ApplianceZone.com’s first corporate event at a motorsports track and this is their first full year as a motorsports team sponsor. Incorporated in 2008, the company is already the fourth largest online retailer of appliance parts and accessories for do-it-yourself homeowners.“It’s incredibly satisfying to see the ApplianceZone.com name and logo going around the track and I’m looking forward to being with my family and friends for the day at Salem,” Allen commented. “It’ll be a lot of fun celebrating our teamwork as a company and as a competitor in stock car racing.”