The 20-race, 2014 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule is complete, say series officials.
The 2014 season – the 62nd in series history – starts with the 51s ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway with the annual Speed Weeks race on Saturday, Feb 15, and ends with its championship weekend at Kansas Speeday, Friday, October 3. In between, the series will visit historic short tracks, two dirt mile tracks in Illinois and New Jersey Motorsports Park, meaning ARCA will once again showcase its diversity by racing on superspeedway and short paved ovals, dirt and road courses.
Our 2014 schedule carries forward our long term commitment to maintaining the identity of the series and challenging drivers and teams with a broad range of venues,” said ARCA President Ron Drager. “Given our industry position, we’ll continue to provide the opportunity for racers to get valuable, meaningful experience in a single season.”
The only new track on the 2014 schedule is anything but new to the ARCA Racing Series, Lucas Oil Raceway in Clermont, IN is back on the schedule after a one-year hiatus. The series will visit the speedway for a Friday night race on the same weekend NASCAR holds its Brickyard 400 activities and race at nearby Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The series will make four stops in Indiana, including Winchester (IN) Speedway. The Winchester race will be on a different weekend. The series spent the last weekend in June there in 2013, but will headline a new, three-day Freedom Festival weekend full of activities surrounding the Fourth of July holiday in 2014. Three days of racing are planned at the track, plus fireworks and other events in Winchester.
Two weeks later, at Chicagoland Speedway, ARCA will start a stretch of seven consecutive weekends of racing, the longest streak of races during the season.
“The schedule reflects both the long term relationships we’ve developed with tracks that have been on our schedule for decades, as well as focusing on Midwest venues where our brand is particularly strong and where we can complement the regional focus of our biggest marketing partner, Menards,” said Drager.
The series will have one race in February, March and April and two two in May as the series gears up for the season. There are four races in June, three in July, four in August, three in September and one in October.
ARCA will be a companion event with NASCAR races at Daytona, Talladega, Pocono, Michigan, Chicagoland, Pocono, Kentucky and Kansas. Track and series officials are still determining whether the ARCA race at Talladega will be Friday, May 2 or Saturday, May 3.
The only tracks hosting two ARCA events in 2014 are the most-visited track in series history, Salem (IN) Speedway, and Pocono Raceway, the most-visited superspeedway in series history. Salem has hosted 94 ARCA races in its history while Pocono Raceway has hosted 57 ARCA events.
Other short tracks on the schedule include Mobile International Speedway, Toledo Speedway, Elko (MN) and Berlin Raceway in western Michigan.
The ARCA series will race on the one-mile dirt tracks of the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, IL and the DuQuoin, (IL) State Fairgrounds.
The final three races of the season will be night races.
The season begins later this month when dozens of drivers head to Daytona International Speedway for a three-day test session. The test serves as a preamble to the season opener in February.
The 2014 TV schedule will be announced at a later date.
The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is among the leading auto racing sanctioning bodies in the country. Founded in 1953 by John and Mildred Marcum. The organization administers more than 100 events each year in multiple racing series, including ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, the ARCA/CRA Super Series, the ARCA Truck Series and the ARCA Midwest Tour, plus weekly racing at Toledo and Flat Rock Speedways.
2014 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Schedule
Day, Day, Track
Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014 Daytona International Speedway
Saturday, March 22, 2014 Mobile International Speedway
Sunday, April 27, 2014 Salem Speedway
May 2/3, 2014 (date TBA) Talladega Superspeedway
Sunday, May 18, 2014 Toledo Speedway
Sunday, June 1, 2014 New Jersey Motorsports Park
Saturday, June 7, 2014 Pocono Raceway
Friday, June 13, 2014 Michigan International Speedway
Saturday, June 21, 2014 Elko Speedway
Sunday, July 6, 2014 Winchester Speedway
Saturday, July 19, 2014 Chicagoland Speedway
Friday, July 25, 2014 Lucas Oil Raceway
Friday, August 1, 2014 Pocono Raceway
Saturday, August 9, 2014 Berlin Raceway
Sunday, August 17, 2014 Illinois State Fairgrounds, Springfield
Sunday, August 24, 2014 Madison International Speedway
Monday, Sept. 1, 2014 DuQuoin State Fairgrounds
Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014 Salem Speedway
Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 Kentucky Speedway
Friday, Oct. 3, 2014 Kansas Speedway
