The ARCA Menards Series East will make its first-ever appearance at one of the most legendary short tracks in stock car history, Hickory Motor Speedway, on March 28, 2026. The series will compete in a 150-lap event\u00a0around the storied 0.363-mile oval that has been the launching point for the careers of several NASCAR champions, including\u00a0the late Bobby Isaac, Ned and Dale Jarrett,\u00a0Ralph\u00a0and Dale Earnhardt, and many more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The race at Hickory will be followed the very next weekend with a visit to the one-mile Rockingham Speedway, giving drivers and teams two races within an hour of the\u00a0sport\u2019s\u00a0hub in Charlotte to open the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering the tradition, history and longevity of Hickory Motor Speedway and ARCA, it\u2019s especially meaningful to\u00a0welcome Hickory Motor Speedway to the ARCA Menards Series East schedule in 2026,\u201d said ARCA president Ron Drager. \u201cHickory\u2019s first race was in 1951\u00a0and\u00a0ARCA\u2019s\u00a0was in 1953. Bringing the two together\u00a0after all that time\u00a0makes this race extremely significant. Hickory Motor Speedway\u2019s\u00a0legacy\u00a0is\u00a0unparalleled\u00a0and the number of drivers who have\u00a0had success\u00a0there and have gone on to success in the NASCAR national series numbers in the dozens.\u00a0We look forward to seeing which East Series driver adds their name to the list of winners at Hickory.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a big start to spring for racing fans in and around the entire area,\u201d said Bob Sargent, president of Track Enterprises, who will promote the races at both Hickory and Rockingham. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a\u00a0great\u00a0response to the ASA STARS National Tour races at Hickory the last\u00a0three\u00a0years, and with the\u00a0number of ARCA teams based in the area we believe we\u2019ll have a strong turnout\u00a0of teams and cars\u00a0at both Hickory and Rockingham.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hickory Motor Speedway hosted 35 races for the NASCAR Cup Series from 1953 through 1971, with notable winners including Tim Flock, Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, David Pearson, Richard Petty,\u00a0Bobby Isaac, and Tiny Lund. Jack Ingram won the first of 42 races for what is now the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series in 1982; other notable winners included Morgan Shepherd, Sam Ard, Tommy Houston, Larry Pearson, Dale Jarrett, Chuck Bown, Jimmy Spencer,\u00a0Bobby Labonte, Dennis Setzer, Johnny Benson, Jr., David Green, Dick Trickle, and Ed Berrier, who won the final event in 1998.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Support divisions for the Hickory event will be announced\u00a0at a later date; the ARCA Menards Series East will share the weekend with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series at Rockingham.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ticket information for both events can be found at TrackEnterprises.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ARCA Racing PR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ARCA Menards Series East will make its first-ever appearance at one of the most legendary short tracks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[924,49,48,717,718,34486,720,634,582,25834,721,722,82],"class_list":["post-329877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-arca","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-charlotte","tag-craftsman-truck-series","tag-dale-earnhardt","tag-motor","tag-nascar","tag-racing","tag-richard-petty","tag-series","tag-speedway","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}