2020 ARCA Menards Series East

The 2020 ARCA Menards Series East season is the 34th season of the ARCA Menards Series East, a regional stock car racing series sanctioned by NASCAR. It began on February 10 at New Smyrna Speedway with the Skip's Western Outfitters 175, and will conclude on October 10 at Five Flags Speedway with the Pensacola 200.

2020 ARCA Menards Series East
Previous: 2019 Next: 2021
Champions | Seasons
Sam Mayer, the defending champion and current points leader.

2020 marks the first season the series was known as the ARCA Menards Series East, as it was known as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for the previous ten years. Sam Mayer enters as defending champion, and will return to seek his second straight title.

When the season was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, drivers from all NASCAR series, including some ARCA East Series drivers, participated in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series during that time.

Teams and drivers

Complete schedule
Manufacturer Team No. Driver Crew chief
Chevrolet GMS Racing 21 Sam Mayer[1] Mardy Lindley
Visconti Motorsports 74 Giovanni Bromante (R)[2] Steven Keller
Ford DGR-Crosley[3] 17 Tanner Gray[4] 1 Blake Bainbridge
Taylor Gray (R)[4] 6
Bubba Pollard 1[N 1]
Toyota Cook-Finley Racing 42 Parker Retzlaff[5] Charles Hoffmeyer
Hattori Racing Enterprises 1 Max McLaughlin Dan Stillman 1
Dave McCarty 1
Rev Racing 4 Chase Cabre[6] Glenn Parker
6 Nick Sanchez (R)[6] Steve Plattenberger
Venturini Motorsports[7] 25 Mason Diaz[8] Kevin Reed

Limited schedule
Manufacturer Team No. Driver Crew chief Rounds
Chevrolet Ben Kennedy Racing 43 Daniel Dye Glenn Garrison 4[9][N 1]
Brad Smith Motorsports 48 Brad Smith John Ward 1
Bret Holmes Racing[10] 23 Bret Holmes Shane Huffman 2[N 1]
Connor Okrzesik Racing 14 Connor Okrzesik Jeff McClure 1[N 1]
Finney Racing Enterprises 80 Brian Finney Wally Finney 1
Robert Pawlowski Racing 11E Robert Pawlowski Aaron Brown 2
Ford Chad Bryant Racing 2 Derek Griffith[11] Chad Bryant 1
DGR-Crosley TBA Tanner Gray[12] TBA TBA
Jett Motorsports 09 Stephen Nasse Chris Tater 2[N 1]
Mullins Racing 3 Willie Mullins Tony Furr 1
Rette Jones Racing 30 Tristan Van Wieringen[13] Mark Rette 1
Toyota Bill McAnally Racing 16 Giovanni Scelzi John Camilleri 1
19 Jesse Love Kyle Wolosek 1
50 Holley Hollan Henry Nascimento 1
99 Gracie Trotter Roger Bracken 1
Brandon Oakley Racing 22 Brandon Oakley TBA 1[N 1]
Fast Track Racing 11 Chuck Hiers Mike Sroufe 1
Mike Basham Andy Hillenburg 1
Joe Gibbs Racing 18 Ty Gibbs Mark McFarland 3[N 1]
TC Motorsports 91 Justin S. Carroll Terry Carroll 1
Jim Long 1		 2[N 1]
Venturini Motorsports 20 Corey Heim Shannon Rursch 3[N 1][14]
Ryan Repko 1

Notes
  1. Before race #2 at Five Flags was rescheduled, this team/driver was scheduled to attempt that race on its originally scheduled date of March 14.

Changes

Teams
  • Longtime ARCA Menards Series team Venturini Motorsports indicated on September 5, 2019, that they were interested at fielding a team in the East Series for the first time as a result of the unification of the ARCA Series with the East and West Series under one banner starting in 2020.[15] Furthermore, on January 16, 2020, Venturini announced that they would field another car for Corey Heim in three races this season.[14] The numbers ended up being No. 25 for Diaz's full-time car and No. 20 for Heim's part-time car.
  • On January 30, 2020, Cook-Finley Racing, formerly Chad Finley Racing, a Truck Series team, announced that they would be returning in 2020 after briefly shutting down and would be fielding the No. 42 Toyota in the East Series for Parker Retzlaff.[5]
  • On February 4, 2020, it was announced that Tony Cosentino Racing would debut at Toledo with Kyle Lockrow driving the team's car (the number and manufacturer were not announced).[16] However, on June 5, 2020, Lockrow revealed on his website that after the postponement of the Toledo race to June 13 to due COVID-19 pandemic, the team would not be entering the race because they would not have enough time to prepare the car.[17] They now have the Watkins Glen and Memphis races in the 20-race ARCA Menards Series on their schedule.[18]
  • Ben Kennedy renumbered his team's car from the No. 20 to the No. 43, which opened the door for Venturini to use the No. 20 for Heim's car.

Drivers
  • On November 20, 2019, it was announced that Nick Sanchez would be driving full-time and for rookie of the year in the East Series for Rev Racing in 2020 (as well as the races in the ARCA Showdown). He ran three races with the team last season.[6] Sanchez replaces Rubén García Jr. in the No. 6.
  • On December 11, 2019, it was announced that Giovanni Bromante would drive full-time for Visconti Motorsports, running for rookie of the year in the No. 74 car.[2] He replaces Brandon McReynolds, Parker Retzlaff, and Josh Berry, who shared the car in 2019.
  • On December 14, 2019, it was announced that Mason Diaz would drive the Venturini Motorsports car for the full season as part of the team's expansion into the East Series.[8] He had previously fielded his own team (the No. 24 car) part-time in ARCA East last year as well as some races in the Truck and Xfinity Series for Brandonbilt Motorsports for the past three years. It was later decided that Diaz's number would be the No. 25.
  • On December 16, 2019, it was announced that Tanner Gray would be moving up to the Truck Series full-time with DGR-Crosley, who he had driven for full-time in 2019 in the East Series in their No. 15 car. However, he will still run a part-time schedule of races in ARCA East in 2020.[19]
  • On December 18, 2019, it was announced that Taylor Gray would run full-time and for rookie of the year in the No. 17 for DGR-Crosley in all races after he turns 15 on March 25, 2020, and will be old enough to race in the series.[4] He replaces Ty Gibbs, Riley Herbst, and Drew Dollar, who shared the car in 2019. Taylor is the younger brother of Tanner Gray, who also drives for the team and substituted for him at New Smyrna. It is unclear if Tanner or someone else will do so at Five Flags.
  • On January 16, 2020, it was announced that Corey Heim would be driving in three ARCA East races for Venturini, which puts him in a second car (the No. 20) for the team to Diaz's full-time entry (the No. 25). He will be in the first two races of the year at New Smyrna, Five Flags, and the season-finale at New Hampshire, and these will be his first races in the East Series. He has made thirteen starts in the big 20-race ARCA Menards Series along with one start in the West Series, all coming in 2019.[14]
  • On January 30, 2020, it was announced that Parker Retzlaff would be driving the new No. 42 for Cook-Finley Racing part-time with the possibility of a full season. He moves over from Visconti Motorsports where he drove the No. 74 part-time in 2019.[5]
  • On February 6, 2020, Rette Jones Racing announced that Tristan Van Wieringen would drive the No. 30 full-time and for rookie of the year with the team. He joins the team along with his older sister Dominique, who will compete part-time for RJR in the big ARCA Series this season.[13] However due to the COVID-19 pandemic the team will now run select races instead of full-time.[20]
  • On February 7, 2020, it was announced that Daniel Dye, the 2019 Pro Late Model track champion at New Smyrna Speedway, would be making his series debut at the same track in its East Series race driving for Ben Kennedy in his No. 43 (formerly the No. 20). He will also compete in the races at Five Flags, Nashville, Toledo, and Berlin.[9]
  • On March 10, 2020, it was announced that Derek Griffith would be running the full season and for rookie of the year with Chad Bryant Racing in their No. 2 car after securing sponsorship following an amazing debut for them at New Smyrna,[21] where he won the pole,[22] led the most laps, and finished second in that race. However due to the COVID-19 pandemic the team will now run select races instead of full-time.[23]

Manufacturers
  • On December 11, 2019, DGR-Crosley announced that they would be switching from Toyota to Ford beginning in 2020.[24]

Rule changes

Beginning this season, NASCAR allowed ARCA teams in the East, West, and the big 20-race ARCA Menards Series to run the same car number in a race together like in lower levels of racing. This is the first time this has occurred when Chuck Hiers and Robert Pawlowski both used the No. 11 at the East Series opener at New Smyrna, with Pawlowski as the No. 11E. The reason for which teams had the letter "E" or "W" next to their number was because those teams come from the ARCA East and West Series. Previously, under the old format of the NASCAR K&N East and West Series, when teams from both of those series held combination races each year at Iowa Speedway, one team was forced to switch their car number after qualifying if they were slower than the other. For example, the No. 6 Rev Racing team in the East Series and the No. 6 Sunrise Ford Racing team in the West Series would race together, and one of those teams would usually use the No. 66 or No. 69 in the race.

Schedule

On November 6, 2019, NASCAR released the schedule for the 2020 season.[25] As part of the unification of the East and West series with the ARCA Menards Series, the schedule decreased from fourteen races in 2019 to eight races in 2020. The number of races was originally seven, however, an additional race at Fairgrounds Speedway was announced on December 14, 2019.[26]

The races at Memphis International Raceway, Iowa Speedway, Watkins Glen International as well as Bristol Motor Speedway's second race were taken and moved from the East Series schedule to the ARCA Menards Series schedule. All four of those races are also Sioux Chief Showdown events. New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which had two East Series races in 2019, was reduced to have only one race in 2020. Five Flags Speedway, Fairgrounds Speedway and Toledo Speedway were added to the East Series schedule, moving over from the ARCA schedule. Berlin Raceway, which hosted an ARCA race from 1999–2016 and 2018 with an East Series race in 2017 instead, but no race in either series in 2019, was added back on the schedule as an East Series event. The races at South Boston Speedway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway were completely dropped from the schedule. Gateway previously had an East/West combination race as well as an ARCA race, but will now only have one ARCA race, also a Sioux Chief Showdown event.

In terms of TV, NBC will continue to broadcast the East Series schedule on tape delay as they have in the past.[27]

Race start times have yet to be announced.

No. Race title Track Date
1 Skip's Western Outfitters 175 New Smyrna Speedway, New Smyrna Beach February 10
2 Herr's Potato Chips 200 presented by Federated Car Care Toledo Speedway, Toledo June 13[28]
3 Stars & Stripes 150 Berlin Raceway, Marne July 25
4 General Tire 125 Dover International Speedway, Dover August 21
5 Apple Barrel 125 New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon September 12
6 Pensacola 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions Five Flags Speedway, Pensacola October 10[28]
Postponed events
TBA[N 1] Zombie Auto 150 Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol TBA
TBA[N 2] TBA Fairgrounds Speedway, Nashville
  1. This was race #3 on the original schedule before COVID-19
  2. This was race #4 on the original schedule before COVID-19

Schedule changes due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

The Pensacola 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions (at Five Flags Speedway), originally scheduled for March 14, was postponed due to the coronavirus[29] It was later announced that all ARCA (and NASCAR) races would be postponed through May 3, meaning the race at Bristol, which was to be held on April 4, will also have to be run at another time.[30] The race would later be rescheduled to October 10,[28] which made it the season-finale instead of the race at New Hampshire in September.

Results and standings

Races
No. Race Pole Position Most laps led Winning driver Manufacturer No. Winning team
1 Skip's Western Outfitters 175 Derek Griffith Derek Griffith Sam Mayer Chevrolet 21 GMS Racing
2 Herr's Potato Chips 200 Sam Mayer Ty Gibbs Ty Gibbs Toyota 18 Joe Gibbs Racing
3 Stars & Stripes 150

Drivers' championship
Further information: List of NASCAR points scoring systems

Note: The pole-winner also receives 1 bonus point, similar to the previous ARCA points system used until 2019 and unlike NASCAR.

(key) Bold – Pole position awarded by time. Italics – Pole position set by final practice results or rainout. * – Most laps led.

Pos Driver NSM TOL BRI NSH BLN DOV NHA FFL Points
1 Sam Mayer 1 2 92
2 Ty Gibbs 3 1* 90
3 Nick Sanchez (R) 4 5 79
4 Chase Cabre 9 4 75
5 Parker Retzlaff 8 7 73
6 Giovanni Bromante (R) 5 11 72
7 Max McLaughlin 10 12 66
8 Justin S. Carroll 21 6 61
9 Mason Diaz 17 14 57
10 Robert Pawlowski 23 10 55
11 Derek Griffith (R) 2* 45
12 Bret Holmes 3 41
13 Stephen Nasse 6 38
14 Corey Heim 7 37
15 Taylor Gray (R) 8 36
16 Ryan Repko 9 35
17 Tristan Van Wieringen (R) 11 33
18 Jesse Love 12 32
19 Giovanni Scelzi 13 31
20 Mike Basham 13 31
21 Brian Finney 14 30
22 Holley Hollan 15 29
23 Brad Smith 15 29
24 Gracie Trotter 16 28
25 Tanner Gray 18 26
26 Daniel Dye 19 25
27 Willie Mullins 20 24
28 Chuck Hiers 22 22

See also

References
  1. "GMS Racing sets 2020 Gander Trucks lineup". Official Site Of NASCAR. 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  2. Krall, Charles (December 11, 2019). "Late Model Hot Shoe Giovanni Bromante Signs with Visconti Motorsports for ARCA Menards Series East Rookie Run in 2020". ARCARacing.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  3. "DGR-Crosley, Ford Performance announce partnership". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. December 11, 2019.
  4. Tomlinson, Joy (December 18, 2019). "Taylor Gray Running Full ARCA Schedule for DGR-Crosley". Frontstretch.
  5. Christley, Jason (January 30, 2020). "Opportunity Knocks For Parker Retzlaff". ARCARacing.com. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  6. "NASCAR, Rev Racing Announce 2020 Drive for Diversity Driver Development Team". Motor Racing Network. November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  7. "Venturini Motorsports looks to expand to NASCAR K&N Pro Series competition in 2020 season". Catchfence. September 5, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  8. Fenwick, Adam (December 14, 2019). "Mason Diaz Joins Venturini For ARCA East Schedule". Speed Sport.
  9. "Florida Young Gun Making Five ARCA Starts in 2020". Speed 51. February 7, 2020. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  10. "Bret Holmes Racing Announces 2020 Plans". ARCARacing.com. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  11. Owens, Chris (March 11, 2020). "Derek Griffith looking to put a 'licking' on the ARCA Menards Series East competition". Chad Bryant Racing. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  12. Page, Scott (December 16, 2019). "Gray set to run full Truck series schedule in 2020". Jayski's Silly Season Site. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  13. "Van Wieringen's Double Down With Rette Jones Racing". Speed Sport. February 6, 2020. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  14. Krall, Charles (January 16, 2020). "Corey Heim Joins Venturini Motorsports for Seven-race ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East/West Run". ARCARacing.com.
  15. "Venturini Motorsports looks to expand to NASCAR K&N Pro Series competition in 2020 season". Catchfence. September 5, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  16. Koelle, Christian (February 4, 2020). "Kyle Lockrow Set for ARCA East Debut at Toledo". Frontstretch.
  17. "Kyle Lockrow Mid-Season Update; Scheduled for On-Track Return at Charlotte ROVAL in August". Kyle Lockrow. GoDaddy.com. June 5, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  18. "2020 Racing Schedule". Kyle Lockrow. GoDaddy.com. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  19. Page, Scott (December 16, 2019). "Gray set to run full Truck series schedule in 2020". Jayski's Silly Season Site. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  20. "Rette Jones Racing adjusts ARCA Menards Series East plans". Rettejonesracing.com. Rette Jones Racing. June 11, 2020.
  21. Srigley, Joseph (March 10, 2020). "Derek Griffith to Return to ARCA East Series at Pensacola, Despite Funding Uncertainty". TobyChristie.com. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  22. Segal, Davey (February 10, 2020). "QUALIFYING: Derek Griffith Scores First Career Pole". ARCARacing.com.
  23. "Chad Bryant Racing adjusts ARCA Menards Series East plans". Chadbryantracing.com. Chad Bryant Racing. June 11, 2020.
  24. "DGR-Crosley, Ford Performance announce partnership". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. December 11, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  25. Coburn, Wesley. "2020 ARCA Menards Series". Frontstretch. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  26. Christie, Toby. "Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville to Host ARCA Menards Series East Race in May". TobyChristie.com. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  27. "NASCAR, ARCA announce framework for four championship series in 2020". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media Group, LLC. October 2, 2019. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
  28. "ARCA Menards East Races At Toledo, Five Flags Rescheduled". ARCARacing.com. May 23, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  29. "ARCA Menards East Race At Pensacola Postponed". ARCARacing.com. March 12, 2020.
  30. "Statement From ARCA Racing". ARCARacing.com. March 16, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
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