LEXINGTON, Ohio – The ARCA Menards Series will return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the first time since 1965 when it competes at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course on May 30.
The race will be held in conjunction with the annual NASCAR Xfinity Series weekend, which in previous seasons had been scheduled in the month of August. The move to a new late spring date is to accommodate television coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics.
The ARCA Menards Series last raced at Mid-Ohio in 1965, with Springfield, Ohio, native Jack Bowsher earning the victory. Since then the series has raced only sporadically on road courses, with a single event on a modified oval at the defunct St. Louis Int’l Raceway in 1986, a pair of races at Heartland Park Topeka in 1991 and 1992, a street circuit event in Des Moines, Iowa in 1994, a single event at Palm Beach Int’l Raceway in 2010, a pair of races at Road America in 2013 and 2017, and nine races at New Jersey Motorsports Park from 2008 through 2016.
The Lexington, Ohio, natural terrain road course has been home to road racing since its inception, and since the 1980s has hosted series such as the NTT IndyCar Series, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the SCCA Trans-Am, plus various amateur and professional motorcycle series sanctioned by the AMA. Stock car racing returned to Mid-Ohio in 2013 when A.J. Allmendinger defeated Michael McDowell in a shootout.
Other NASCAR XFINITY Seres winners include 2012 ARCA Menards Series champion Chris Buescher, Regan Smith, ARCA winner at Palm Beach Justin Marks, Indianapolis 500 winner Sam Hornish, 2008 ARCA Menards Series champion Justin Allgaier and Austin Cindric, who won August’s most recent race.
“We have worked diligently with Craig Rust and his team at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for several seasons trying to get the ARCA Menards Series back on their schedule, and we’re really happy to make it happen for the 2020 season,” said ARCA President Ron Drager. “We have a lot of excitement building for 2020 and additions to our schedule like Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course are a big part of it.”
“We are thrilled to add the ARCA Menards Series to our NASCAR XFINITY Series weekend,” said Craig Rust, president of Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. “Each year, it’s our objective to showcase a very diverse schedule at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and bring the best of motorsports to our fans. ARCA fits that billing and is a great, returning addition to the 2020 schedule.”