Just days after the 2018 season’s conclusion, the 2019 SPEED Energy Stadium Super Truck schedule is already beginning to fill up. The trucks will return to Long Beach, while a new companion date at Texas Motor Speedway was announced Wednesday.
The Grand Prix of Long Beach, which has been a staple of the SST street course circuits since the series’ inaugural season in 2013, will remain on the schedule for 2019. On Tuesday, SST and race organizers confirmed the agreement in a press release.
“To be able to come back and continue our great relationship with the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach for the seventh consecutive year is something awesome,” SST President Robby Gordon stated. “The venue location, the atmosphere, the excitement, and fun make the Grand Prix of Long Beach one of the premier events in the world, and Stadium [Super] Trucks is excited to have it on the schedule for 2019 with a new multi-year deal.”
“I know our fans will be delighted to have the SPEED Energy Stadium [Super] Trucks back at Long Beach this year,” Grand Prix Association of Long Beach head Jim Michaelian said. “For many years, they have proved to be a thrilling attraction and a highlight of the race weekend.”
The 2019 edition will be held in mid-April, with SST’s two races taking place on April 13–14. Gavin Harlien and Matt Brabham won the races in 2018.
On Wednesday, Texas Motor Speedway announced the series would join its NASCAR weekend on March 28–31, running in conjunction with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. It will be the first time that SST is a support event for the Cup Series, in which Gordon spent nearly two decades racing in and winning three races, but the second with the Xfinity Series after August 2018’s Road America weekend.
It will be SST’s third consecutive season at Texas after running the first two in the summer alongside the Verizon IndyCar Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Harlien and Brabham are also the defending Texas race winners.
“To be back racing at Texas for our third straight year is wonderful and I would really like to thank the entire team at Texas Motor Speedway for the ongoing belief in Stadium Super Trucks as a series,” Gordon commented. “The past two years we have been at the track with [IndyCar] and now to have the organizers believe that we can add real value to the NASCAR weekend[,] I’m extremely excited about it. Most of all, I’m extremely confident that the NASCAR fans will love what we bring to motorsport. Who knows? We might even bring some of my old fans from Texas back to the track that I haven’t seen since my Cup days.”
Three races will be held during the weekend. The first will be on Saturday, March 30, after the Xfinity Series’ My Bariatric Solutions 300. The following day, the Cup Series’ O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 will be sandwiched between two SST rounds.
