The 2017 ARCA Racing Series schedule was released on Thursday. The 65th season of ARCA’s top series competition, which comprises 20 races, will begin with the annual season opener at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, the 54th running of the event, and end at Kansas Speedway on October 20.
The 20-race schedule consists of stops at two superspeedways, six speedways, nine short tracks, two dirt tracks and a road course. Daytona, which will be run as a supporting event to the NASCAR Cup Series’ Unlimited exhibition race, marks the 31st consecutive year the season begins at the track. After not running a race in March, the series heads to Nashville on April 8. The majority of the schedule is run in the summer, with ten races held in June, July and August. Kansas will host the final race for the sixth straight season.
Two additions to the ARCA schedule are Elko Speedway and Road America. Elko, which last held an ARCA race in 2014, is 3/8th of a mile long, returning to its title as the series’ shortest track and the lone stop in Minnesota. The race will be held on June 3 as the sixth event on the 2017 schedule. Road America hosted a round in 2013, which was won by Chris Buescher. The track replaces New Jersey Motorsports Park as the only road course event on the schedule and will be run on August 27. Berlin Speedway, which had hosted a race since 1999, was excluded from the 2017 schedule.
The series will run races as companion events to all three of NASCAR’s top series (Cup, Xfinity, Camping World Truck), the Verizon IndyCar Series, the United States Auto Club (USAC) Silver Crown Series and the Champion Racing Association (CRA) Super Series.
Chase Briscoe will enter the season as the defending champion, while John Wes Townley is the reigning race winner at Daytona.
2017 Schedule
- Daytona International Speedway – February 18
- Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville – April 8
- Salem Speedway – April 30
- Talladega Superspeedway – May 5
- Toledo Speedway – May 21
- Elko Speedway – June 3
- Pocono Raceway – June 9
- Michigan International Speedway – June 16
- Madison International Speedway – June 23
- Iowa Speedway – July 8
- Lucas Oil Raceway – July 21
- Pocono Raceway – July 28
- Winchester Speedway – August 6
- Illinois State Fairgrounds – August 20
- Road America – August 27
- DuQuoin State Fairgrounds – September 4
- Salem Speedway – September 9
- Chicagoland Speedway – September 14
- Kentucky Speedway – September 22
- Kansas Speedway – October 20
Featured image courtesy of WTOP.com
