“We are really looking forward to being a part of the new East series with Sam Mayer,” said Keith Barnwell, GMS Racing manager of driver development and special projects. “This will be a great series for young drivers to hone their skills and prepare for the next phase of their careers. We consider the East series like our home games, and when we travel for the Showdown it will be like home and away. We are looking for the opportunity to defend our ome races and our title.”

With the blending of the ARCA Menards Series with the newly renamed ARCA Menards Series East and West, and a consolidated rulebook to go along with it, opportunities now exist for traditional ARCA Menards Series teams to test the waters in the East Series. One team looking to do just that is the ARCA Menards Series reigning championship team, Venturini Motorsports.

“This is a great schedule with excellent spacing between events,” said Venturini Motorsports co-owner Billy Venturini. “Our team will continue to compete in the ARCA Menards Series, as we have since 1982, but this schedule gives us the flexibility to run these seven races as well. It’s great to be able to offer this to the young drivers we are working with in 2020 and beyond.”

Other schedule highlights include:

• New Smyrna Speedway will host the season opener for the seventh consecutive season. The high-banked half-mile is just ten miles from Daytona International Speedway, and the World Series runs parallel to DAYTONA Speedweeks Presented By AdventHealth at the “World Center of Racing.” Daytona will be the site of the opener of ARCA’s 68th season, with the Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire on Saturday, February 8.
  
• A pair of tracks that have hosted both East and ARCA races will be featured on the ARCA Menards Series East calendar: Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, and Marne, Michigan’s Berlin Raceway. Five Flags is the home of the Super Late Model crown jewel, the Snowball Derby, held annually in December. The quick half-mile will be the second race on the East schedule on Saturday, March 14. Berlin is the home track of former NASCAR Gander Trucks champion Johnny Benson and has been integral in the early careers of other NASCAR Hall of Famers such as Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin.
  
  
• Toledo Speedway will also transition from the ARCA Menards Series on Saturday, May 16 to give the series a cornerstone event in the Midwest. Toledo’s high-speed half-mile will give a great test for the East drivers and teams. The race will now be the headline event of a full Saturday of racing activity at the popular Glass City oval.
  
  
• The series will be part of two short-track national series weekends: Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 4, and Dover International Speedway on Friday, August 21. Bristol, the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile,” was swept by Mayer in 2019. Dover moves to the penultimate race on the East schedule as part of the larger national series schedule re-organization for 2020.

The ARCA Showdown will feature ten events with a separate points championship and will include several traditional East race dates, including the annual combination races at Iowa Speedway and WWT Raceway at Gateway.

The complete NBCSN schedule for the ARCA Menards Series East, including broadcast times, will be released at a later date.

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2020 ARCA Menards Series East Schedule

Date                                         Track                                                   Location

Monday, Feb. 10                       New Smyrna Speedway                         New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Saturday, March 14                   Five Flags Speedway                            Pensacola, Florida

Saturday, April 4                       Bristol Motor Speedway                         Bristol, Tennessee

Saturday, May 16                      Toledo Speedway                                 Toledo, Ohio

Saturday, July 25                      Berlin Raceway                                     Marne, Michigan

Friday, August 21                      Dover International Speedway                Dover, Delaware

Saturday, September 12            New Hampshire Motor Speedway           Loudon, New Hampshire

2020 ARCA Showdown Schedule

Date                                         Track                                                   Location

Friday, March 6                         ISM Raceway                                       Avondale, Arizona

Sunday, April 19                        Salem Speedway                                  Salem, Indiana

Friday, May 29                          Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course                  Lexington, Ohio

Friday, July 3                            Lucas Oil Raceway                               Brownsburg, Indiana

Saturday, July 11                      Elko Speedway                                     Elko, Minnesota

Friday, July 17                          Iowa Speedway                                     Newton, Iowa

Saturday, August 1                    WWT Raceway at Gateway                   Madison, Illinois

Friday, August 14                      Watkins Glen International                     Watkins Glen, New York

Thursday, September 17           Bristol Motor Speedway                         Bristol, Tennessee

Saturday, September 26            Memphis International Raceway            Millington, Tennessee

— Press release courtesy of ARCA