ARCA 2019 Schedule Released

The final schedule for the 2019 ARCA Racing Series was recently released by the sanctioning body. The 2019 season will be the last time the series, officially known as the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, will be run as an independent entity. NASCAR bought the series in May 2018 and will take over the series in 2020, at which time it will become known as the ARCA Elite Tour.

Ten Months, 20 Races, 13 States

The 2019 ARCA season will start at Daytona International Speedway the same weekend as the NASCAR Clash, with the ARCA race taking place on the ninth and finishing up on Oct. 18 at Kansas Speedway. Highlights of the changes to the schedule from 2018 include:

• The season opener will be the Daytona race on Feb 2^nd at Lucas Oil Speedway.
• The race at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville will be run in May in 2019.
• Pensacola, Florida’s Five Flags Raceway will host a race for the first time since 1992.

The full 2019 schedule for ARCA Series presented by Menards is:

1. Daytona International Speedway-Feb. 2^nd
2. Five Flags Speedway-Pensacola, Florida-Mar. 9^th
3. Salem Speedway-Salem, Indiana-Apr. 14^th
4. Talladega Superspeedway-Talladega, Alabama-Apr. 26th
5. Fairgrounds Speedway-Nashville, TN-May 4th
6. Toledo Speedway-Toledo, Ohio-May 19^th
7. Charlotte Motor Speedway-Concord, NC-May 23^rd
8. Pocono Raceway-Long Pond, PN-May 31^st
9. Michigan International Speedway-Brooklyn, MI-June 7^th
10. Madison International Speedway-Madison, WI-June 14^th
11. Gateway Motorsports Park-Madison, IL-June 22^nd
12. Chicagoland Speedway-Joliet, IL-June 27^th
13. Elko Speedway- Elko, MN-July 13^th
14. Iowa Speedway-Newton, IA-July 19^th
15. Pocono Speedway-July 26^th
16. Illinois State Fairgrounds-Springfield, IL-Aug 18^th
17. DuQuoin State Fairgrounds- DuQuoin, IL-Aug 31^st
18. Salem Speedway-Salem, IN-Sept 14^th
19. Lucas Oil Raceway-Brownsburg,IN-Oct 5^th
20. Kansas Speedway-Kansas City, KS-Oct 18^th

Highlights of 2018 Champion Sheldon Creed’s Championship Season

Series champion Sheldon Creed and his MDM Motorsports teammate Zane Smith teamed up for eight wins during the 2018 ARCA campaign, with both drivers winning four races apiece.  Other than a DNF at Toledo, prior to his first win of the season at Michigan, Creed never finished worse than fourth. His second win came two weeks later at Madison, IL, with number three coming at Iowa another two weeks later. Sheldon clinched the championship by winning the season finale at Kansas.