DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR officials unveiled the 2020 schedule for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series on Wednesday, featuring 23 races and a return to Richmond Raceway in Virginia.
The Truck Series will invade the three-quarter-mile, D-shaped oval on Saturday night, April 18, as part of a weekend doubleheader with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Next year’s stop at Richmond marks the first time the Truck Series will appear there since 2005, ending an absence of more than a decade. The Truck Series raced at Richmond once a year from 1995 to 2005.
“Since I came to Richmond in 2011, I have been asked one question more than any other, ‘When are the trucks coming back?’” said Richmond President Dennis Bickmeier. “We have actively pursued a NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race for years, so we look forward to welcoming the Gander Trucks back home to Richmond next spring.”
Richmond hosted the Truck Series for the first 11 years of its existence. The first Truck Series race at the three-quarter-mile oval was a photo finish between Terry Labonte and Geoff Bodine on Sept. 7, 1995.
Mike Skinner is a two-time winner at Richmond, including the series’ most recent stop there in 2005.
The Richmond event takes the place of the spring Truck Series visit to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Another big change to the Truck Series calendar is the move of the series’ championship race to Arizona’s ISM Raceway, falling in line with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
The Truck Series season kicks off with its traditional season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway on Feb. 14, followed by a trip to the West Coast and a visit to Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway on Feb. 21.
Early-season stops at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway on March 14, Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway on March 20, and Texas Motor Speedway on March 27 help to ease the spring break that took place on previous years’ calendars.
The Truck Series will serve as the Saturday support division to the Cup Series doubleheader at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, competing on June 27, while the annual dirt-track excursion at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio comes on Thursday, July 30 next season.
Gateway Motorsports Park moves from mid-summer to the opening race of the playoffs in 2020, set for Aug. 21, followed by Canadian Tire Motorsports Park on Sept. 6 and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Sept. 17 in the Round of 8.
The Round of 6 kicks off Sept. 25 at Las Vegas, followed by wild card races at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Oct. 3 and Martinsville on Oct. 30. The finale at ISM Raceway concludes the year.
To view the complete 2020 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series schedule, advance to the next page.