ARCA Menards Series East


The ARCA Menards Series East is a regional stock car racing series owned and operated by the Automobile Racing Club of America and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.
Races are held at oval tracks ranging from in length and on two road courses, in length. Most races are stand-alone events, but there are three race weekends that are in combination with the NASCAR Cup Series.
Many of the ARCA Menards Series East drivers on the series are gaining experience with the hopes of moving up to one of the major NASCAR series, however some of the drivers are right at home in the series and have no plans of moving on. The series is not only developmental for drivers, but for crew members and officials, as well.
In 1994, it became the first NASCAR-sanctioned series to have a winless season champion when Dale Shaw won the then-Busch Grand National North Series championship without winning a single race all year. The series had the distinction of being the only NASCAR series in which this had happened until 2013, when Austin Dillon won the Nationwide Series championship the same way.
The other regional division at the Grand National level of ARCA is the Menards Series West.

History

Formed as the NASCAR Busch Grand National North Series in 1987, the series originally raced primarily in the Northeastern United States, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Drivers in the series could compete in "combination" races with then named Busch Grand National Series that were held at various tracks over the years, including but not limited to Daytona International Speedway, Nazareth Speedway, Watkins Glen International and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Combination races were on the schedule until 2001. In 2002, a big crash occurred at the Glen that saw many cars spinning through the esses on lap one, along with Troy Williams actually overturning over the guardrail. No one was hurt.
Over the next 18 years, the series extended its reach and added races in Delaware and Virginia. The series name was changed to Busch East for the 2006 season after a race was added in Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina. Races were added in South Boston, Virginia, and Nashville, Tennessee for 2007 to continue the push South and West, as well as East-West combination races at the Iowa Speedway in Newton, IA and Elko Speedway in Elko, MN.. The 2008 schedule had the series running races in 8 states up and down the East coast.
In 2003, NASCAR unified the rules of the West Series and North/East Series to a single rules package. A post-season invitational race known as the Toyota All-Star Showdown was also added to pit the best drivers from both series head-to-head.
For 2007, NASCAR made several rule changes including giving team the option of using "spec" engine and a composite body to reduce the cost of competing in the Camping World Series. The "spec" engine has become fairly popular, but the old style steel bodies are still preferred over the composite bodies by most teams.
On December 16, 2007 NASCAR announced that Camping World would take over as title sponsor of both series in the Grand National Division.
For 2010, the names of both the East and West series were both sponsored by K&N Engineering and the East Series was named the K&N Pro Series East. In 2011, NASCAR lowered the age minimum across each of its regional touring series to 15.
In 2020, the series will become part of the ARCA Menards Series banner and renamed to the ARCA Menards Series East.

ARCA Menards Series cars

General

As part of NASCAR's unification of the two Camping World Series in 2003, the cars can be either a 105-inch or 110-inch wheelbase. Cambered/off-set rear ends are not allowed.
Currently, the series requires the use of a Five Star bodies composite body that started in the 2015 season, currently the 2013 Chevrolet SS, Ford Fusion, or Toyota Camry. Since the 2007 debut of the new chassis at the Cup and 2010 debut at the second-tier level, many K&N Pro cars are old Cup or Xfinity cars.
Teams have an option of building their own engines or they may run a specification engine, similar to what is used in many short tracks. Both engines are V8, pushrod, 12:1 compression motors. "Built" motors are built to team specifications using any configuration of pieces as long as it still meets NASCAR specifications. The spec engine is built using NASCAR-Approved pieces that may be purchased from an approved supplier. The engines may be purchased as a kit or pre-assembled. All of the spec pieces are individually encrypted with a barcode for verification and tracking purposes and can be checked during the inspection process with an encryption reader. NASCAR has a specification supplier for the series-specification engine.
When the series first started, the cars ran a V6 engine with a maximum displacement and no compression limit. In the early/mid 1990s the V8 engine with a 9.5:1 compression and maximum displacement was introduced to the series as an alternative to the V6 engines. Due to the decrease in popularity of the V6, it was phased out for the 1999 season. When the East and West series rules were combined, the compression ratio changed to 12:1.
Menards Series cars use Sunoco racing fuel, NASCAR's specification fuel. For races run with national series, the cars run an E15 blend since the national series uses such fuels. The cars use radial tires. Along with the rest of ARCA and NASCAR's international series, the Menards Series have General Tire as their exclusive tire supplier.
On November 4, 2014 at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, NASCAR president Mike Helton unveiled a new body style for the K&N Pro Series based on the NASCAR Cup Series Gen 6 models. The new body, developed with Five Star Race Car Bodies, is constructed of a composite laminate blend and designed with easily replaceable body panels, expected to shrink the costs of fabrication dramatically. The body style is eligible for use in both Menards Series competition and ARCA Racing Series competition, replacing the old Gen 4-style steel bodies after 2015, and the current one-piece composite body after 2016.

Specifications

In 497 races there have been 123 different winners, 70 of which have won multiple races. Does not include Combination races with Busch Series that were won by Busch Series drivers since these victories are already counted in the Busch Series. Updated after: General Tire 125
WinsDriverFirst WinLast Win
27Kelly MooreJun 12, 1987Sep 16, 2006
24Brad LeightonJul 12, 1989Aug 14, 2004
23Andy SanterreJul 12, 1996Sep 23, 2005
19Dale ShawJul 18, 1997Jul 25, 2002
16Matt KobyluckAug 26, 2001Aug 16, 2008
14Bobby DragonJun 11, 1987Jun 29, 1997
13Ricky CravenAug 19, 1990Jul 8, 1995
13Dave DionJun 28, 1992Aug 27, 2005
12Tracy GordonSep 5, 1998Sep 19, 2002
12Mike StefanikJun 28, 1991Jul 15, 2005
10Ted ChristopherSep 8, 1996Sep 16, 2005
10Brett MoffittMay 30, 2009Aug 3, 2018
9Jamie AubeJul 12, 1987Aug 28, 1993
8Mike RoweMay 22, 1988May 19, 1991
8Dick McCabeJul 10, 1988Jun 12, 1993
8Robbie CrouchAug 20, 1988Sep 3, 1995
8Joe BesseyAug 26, 1989Sep 24, 1995
7Mike McLaughlinSep 2, 1990Jul 10, 1993
7Jerry MarquisMay 15, 1994Jul 12, 1997
7Tom Carey, Jr.May 22, 1998Jul 12, 2003
7Mike JohnsonJul 22, 2000Jul 17, 2004
7Sean CaisseJun 10, 2006Sep 21, 2007
7Eddie MacDonaldSep 7, 2002Mar 15, 2015
7Todd GillilandFeb 14, 2016Apr 14, 2018
6Dale QuarterleySep 9, 2001Sep 24, 2004
6Mike OlsenJun 10, 2001Jul 14, 2006
6Darrell Wallace Jr.Mar 27, 2010Mar 31, 2012
6Dylan KwasniewskiMar 16, 2013Oct 18, 2013
6Corey LaJoieJun 2, 2012Jul 16, 2016
5Bryan WallJun 5, 1999Aug 10, 2002
5Martin Truex, Jr.Jul 8, 2000Jul 19, 2003
5Joey LoganoApr 28, 2007Sep 14, 2007
5Ryan TruexApr 6, 2009Sep 17, 2010
5Ben RhodesMar 22, 2014Jun 21, 2014
5Sergio PenaApr 17, 2011Aug 29, 2015
5Austin HillSep 27, 2013Sep 10, 2015
5Kyle BenjaminApr 18, 2015Apr 8, 2017
5Harrison BurtonApr 22, 2017Sep 29, 2017
4Stub FaddenMay 17, 1992Sep 4, 1994
4Butch LeitzingerJun 5, 1994Oct 12, 1996
4Brian IcklerMay 18, 2008Apr 11, 2009
4Max GreshamApr 3, 2010Jul 15, 2011
4William ByronApr 4, 2015Jul 17, 2015
4Scott HeckertAug 8, 2014Aug 7, 2015
4Tyler AnkrumMay 12, 2018July 27, 2018
4Sam MayerApr 6, 2019Oct 4, 2019
3Joey KourafasSep 13, 1987Aug 13, 1990
3Steve ParkJun 2, 1996Aug 1, 2009
3Matt DiBenedettoApr 25, 2009Jun 4, 2011
3Daniel SuárezJul 13, 2013Feb 18, 2015
3Cole CusterAug 2, 2013Apr 26, 2015
3Will RodgersAug 4, 2017Jun 16, 2018
3Derek KrausAug 24, 2018May 5, 2019
2Chuck BownMay 3, 1987Oct 12, 1987
2Pete SilvaMay 5, 1988Jul 2, 1988
2Billy ClarkApr 26, 1987Jun 10, 1989
2Larry CaronJun 25, 1988Jul 1, 1989
2Tom BollesSep 8, 1995May 4, 1997
2Jimmy SpencerAug 1, 1987Jul 18, 1998
2Ryan MooreJul 9, 2005Aug 10, 2005
2Kyle LarsonJun 9, 2012Sep 22, 2012
2Ben KennedyApr 13, 2013Jun 1, 2013
2Jesse LittleJul 11, 2014Apr 18, 2015
2Justin HaleyMar 26, 2016Jul 2, 2016
2Austin CindricApr 30, 2016Aug 5, 2016
2Noah GragsonJun 17, 2016Sep 17, 2016
2Tyler DippelMar 12, 2016Apr 28, 2018
2Rubén García Jr.Jun 2, 2018Oct 6, 2018
2Chase CabreJun 1, 2019Jul 20, 2019
2Spencer DavisMay 30, 2016Aug 24, 2019
1Bruce HaleyMay 25, 1987N/A
1Mike WeedenJul 1, 1987N/A
1Tommy HoustonJul 14, 1987N/A
1Ralph NasonAug 28, 1987N/A
1Richard MartinSep 26, 1987N/A
1Ken BouchardSep 8, 1990N/A
1Matthew ReidAug 27, 1990N/A
1Tony HirschmanSep 5, 1992N/A
1Brian RossMay 29, 1993N/A
1Ken SchraderOct 16, 1993N/A
1John PrestonMay 28, 1994N/A
1Martin Truex Sr.Jul 9, 1994N/A
1Glenn SullivanJul 24, 1994N/A
1Keith LamellJul 29, 1994N/A
1Tom RosatiAug 20, 1994N/A
1Jeff FullerSep 22, 1996N/A
1Kip StockwellAug 1, 1997N/A
1Rick FullerJul 3, 1998N/A
1Kim BakerAug 8, 1998N/A
1Dennis DemersJul 23, 1999N/A
1Denny DoyleOct 26, 2002N/A
1Joey McCarthyJun 28, 2003N/A
1Brian HoarAug 30, 2003N/A
1Bryon ChewJun 24, 2006N/A
1Tim AndrewsSep 22, 2006N/A
1Rubén PardoSep 30, 2006N/A
1Rogelio LópezJul 22, 2007N/A
1Austin DillonApr 19, 2008N/A
1Trevor BayneJul 12, 2008N/A
1Aric AlmirolaSep 19, 2008N/A
1Peyton SellersOct 12, 2008N/A
1Kyle BuschMay 17, 2009N/A
1Andrew RangerJul 3, 2010N/A
1Ty DillonAug 28, 2010N/A
1Nelson Piquet Jr.Mar 17, 2012N/A
1Chase ElliottMay 19, 2012N/A
1Cale ConleyJul 21, 2012N/A
1Tyler ReddickNov 3, 2012N/A
1Brandon GdovicApr 6, 2013N/A
1Ryan GiffordApr 25, 2013N/A
1Brandon JonesAug 1, 2014N/A
1Rico AbreuJul 4, 2015N/A
1Dillon BassettAug 15, 2015N/A
1Collin CabreOct 3, 2015N/A
1Chad FinchumApr 16, 2016N/A
1Ronnie Bassett Jr.Feb 19, 2017N/A
1Travis MillerMay 6, 2017N/A
1Anthony AlfredoMay 12, 2018N/A
1Brandon McReynoldsSep 22, 2018N/A
1Tanner GrayMay 4, 2019N/A
1Max McLaughlinAug 2, 2019N/A
1Ty GibbsSep 21, 2019N/A

Bolding indicates driver has won at least 1 NASCAR Cup Series Championship

Most wins at each track

All-time wins under Menards Series East banner. Does not include the combination races with Busch Series because the drivers who won those races are computed as Busch Series winners. Also does not include the combination races with Menards Series West that were won by Menards Series West drivers because the drivers who won those races are computed as Menards Series West winners.

Current tracks

Bold indicates a combined race with the ARCA Menards Series West

Former tracks

Races in Bold were combination events with the then NASCAR Busch Grand National Series