2020 ARCA Menards Series

68th season of the ARCA Racing SeriesTemplate:SHORTDESC:68th season of the ARCA Racing Series

The **2020 ARCA Menards Series season** is the 68th season of the ARCA Menards Series. It began on February 8 with the Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona International Speedway and will end on October 16 with the Kansas ARCA 150 at Kansas Speedway. It will be the first season as a NASCAR-sanctioned series and will be the first to include the Sioux Chief Showdown, a series of ten short-track and road course races within the season. 2020 will also mark the first year that cars from the ARCA Menards Series East and ARCA Menards Series West will be able to compete in the national series.

When the season was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, drivers from all NASCAR series, including some ARCA Menards Series drivers, participated in the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series during that time.

## Teams and drivers

### Limited schedule

**Notes:** "E" stands for the ARCA East Series and "W" stands for the ARCA West Series (for whenever teams share a car number)

#### Notes

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1. ↑ Jerry Baxter, the crew chief for the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team in the Cup Series, was erroneously listed on the entry list as the crew chief for this team at Daytona. Fox pit reporter Katie Osborne stated on the broadcast that Bainbridge was the crew chief.
2. ↑ At Iowa, when Dick Doheny was driving the No. 11 car, he was erroneously listed on Racing-Reference as also being the crew chief of the car in the same race, which is not possible, so someone else was serving as the crew chief of the No. 11.
3. ↑ Entries were fielded in a collaboration with Mullins Racing.
4. ↑ Entry was fielded in a collaboration with RSS Racing.
5. ↑ It was a John Ferrier Racing entry using Fast Track Racing's owner points
6. ↑ Entries were fielded in a collaboration with Russ Lane Racing.
7. ↑ Entry was fielded in a collaboration with Finney Racing Enterprises.
8. ↑ Entry was fielded in a collaboration with CCM Racing.

### Changes

#### Teams

* After not competing at all in ARCA for the past two years, Josh Williams announced he would bring his team back and field a Ford in the season-opener at Daytona. On January 19, 2020, he stated that his No. 60 car would run part-time with various drivers and sponsors that have yet to be determined. Despite this announcement, Williams' team did not end up attempting Daytona due to lack of sponsorship.
* On November 20, 2019, it was announced that longtime East Series team Rev Racing would run in the ARCA Series for the first time, fielding two cars during the Showdown races (with Chase Cabre and Nick Sanchez).
* On November 25, 2019, it was announced that longtime West Series team Performance P-1 Motorsports would run in the ARCA Series for the first time during the Showdown races (with Takuma Koga).
* On December 17, 2019, it was announced that DGR-Crosley would field an entry in ARCA full-time for the first time in 2020, which will be their No. 4 car (with rookie Hailie Deegan). They had previously only run part-time in the series with their No. 54 in both 2018 and 2019 as well as the No. 4 in 2019.
* On January 18, 2020, it was announced that driver Eric Caudell's team, CCM Racing, was interested in fielding a second car this season in at least some of the same races in which Caudell's No. 7 would be competing in if they could find a driver that brought sponsorship.
* On January 23, 2020, it was announced that for the race at Daytona, Ken Schrader Racing would jointly field their No. 52 car with Fury Race Cars, a team that mostly runs in late models but did run a team in the Xfinity Series in 2018. Natalie Decker will be the driver at that race, and she has driven for Fury in the past.
* On February 17, 2020, West Series team Velocity Racing announced plans to enter the race at Phoenix with their No. 78 car and driver Jack Wood, however, they ended up not attempting that race.
* On May 9, 2020, KBR Development announced that the team had closed. The team fielded an entry for David Gravel in one of two 2020 races that occurred before the team's closure.
* On June 18, 2020, it was announced that Willie Mullins would be attempting the rescheduled Talladega race on June 20 in Fast Track Racing's No. 11 car. He was going to attempt the race in his own No. 3, but cancelled those plans after his team encountered financial problems due to COVID-19. Not knowing this, Fast Track owner Andy Hillenburg gave Mullins a call asking why he was not on the entry list, and then he offered him that ride for the race.

#### Drivers

* On November 14, 2019, it was announced that 2019 series champion Christian Eckes would move up to the Truck Series full-time for Kyle Busch Motorsports starting in 2020, a team he also drove for in that series part-time in 2018 and 2019. Eckes had driven in ARCA either full or part-time in the No. 15 Toyota for Venturini Motorsports for the last four years.
* On November 20, 2019, it was announced that Chase Cabre and Nick Sanchez would drive the two cars for Rev Racing in the ARCA Showdown races. It will be both drivers' first starts in ARCA.
* On November 25, 2019, it was announced that Takuma Koga would be driving for Performance P-1 Motorsports in the ARCA Showdown races. This will be his first time racing in ARCA, and he will become the first Japanese driver to run in the series since Hideo Fukuyama in 2003.
* On December 10, 2019, it was announced that Ty Majeski, who drove part-time for Chad Bryant Racing last year, would be moving up to the Truck Series full-time in 2020 with Niece Motorsports, driving the No. 45 Chevrolet, so he will no longer drive for CBR or be part of Ford's driver development program.
* On December 17, 2019, it was announced that Hailie Deegan would be driving the No. 4 Ford for DGR-Crosley full-time and for rookie of the year. She also has moved over from Toyota's driver development program to Ford's. Previously, Deegan drove full-time for two years in the West Series for Bill McAnally Racing.
* On December 18, 2019, it was announced that Drew Dollar, who drove part-time in the East, West, and ARCA Series for DGR-Crosley in 2019, would replace Eckes in the No. 15 for Venturini, running the full season and for rookie of the year.
* On December 18, 2019, it was announced that Taylor Gray would run all of the ARCA Showdown races for DGR-Crosley in the No. 17 Ford, with the exception of the first of those races at Phoenix Raceway because he will not have turned 15 and old enough to race in the series yet.
* On December 20, 2019, it was announced that Ryan Repko would drive the No. 20 for Venturini Motorsports in five races, sharing the car with Chandler Smith. In 2019, he ran a few races in the Xfinity Series for JD Motorsports and prior to that, one ARCA race in both 2017 and 2018 for Mason Mitchell Motorsports.
* On December 23, 2019, it was announced that Tim Richmond, who drove all but three races and for rookie of the year in the No. 06 for Wayne Peterson in 2019, would run full-time for the team in 2020. However, the plan of Richmond competing in every single race ended at the fourth race of the season at Pocono, where Richmond decided not to compete in the race due to the Peterson team suffering engine issues in their Toyota car at Talladega the week prior. After originally being on the Pocono entry list, Richmond was replaced by teammate Don Thompson in the No. 06, and the No. 0, the car Thompson was slated to drive, was withdrawn.
* On January 2, 2020, Bobby Gerhart announced that he has decided to not drive this season after suffering a heart attack on Christmas. However, he did say that he would still like to field his team at Daytona with another driver in his Truck and ARCA rides. The Gerhart team ended up not even entering either race with someone else driving.
* On January 5, 2020, Travis Braden revealed that he would not run full-time in the series in 2020 (after driving the No. 27 for RFMS Racing for the last two years). He instead will be focusing on running more late model races and debuting in NASCAR's top three series in select races if he is able to find a ride.
* On January 9, 2020, it was announced that Thad Moffitt, Richard Petty's grandson, would drive a DGR-Crosley car at the season-opener at Daytona. He previously drove for Empire Racing part-time for three years. Originally a one-race deal, this effort would turn into a near-full season run for Moffitt and the team.
* On January 10, 2020, Chad Bryant Racing announced that Connor Hall and Jacob Heafner would drive their No. 22 and No. 77 cars at Daytona.
* On January 10, 2020, it was announced that World of Outlaws driver David Gravel would run some ARCA races, including Daytona, in the No. 28 for KBR Development in addition to competing in the Truck Series part-time for GMS Racing this season. Despite this announcement, KBR would shut down in the spring, and Gravel would not run any ARCA races other than Daytona.
* On January 16, 2020, it was announced that Corey Heim would be driving for Venturini Motorsports in two races at DuQuoin and the season-finale at Kansas. He'll also run three ARCA East Series races and two ARCA West Series races, also with Venturini. Last season, he drove part-time in the No. 22 for Chad Bryant Racing and finished in the top-10 in points despite not running every race. Heim would later add a third race to his schedule, the additional Kansas race (which replaced Chicago on the schedule), where he drove the No. 12 for Fast Track Racing with Venturini using Fast Track's owner points for that race.
* On January 18, 2020, it was announced that Scott Melton would not be running as many ARCA races in 2020 as he did in 2019 and has instead decided to focus on running late model races this season. He will return to Kimmel Racing for Daytona but has no other races in the series planned after that. Last year, he ran a chunk of the season for the Kimmel team in their No. 69, scoring two top-10 finishes. Despite this announcement, Melton did end up running a number of races after Daytona for the Kimmel team.
* On June 5, 2020, Chad Bryant Racing announced that Brandon Lynn would drive for the team in the No. 22 at Talladega and Watkins Glen. (Watkins Glen would later be replaced by the Daytona Road Course on the schedule.) He has driven part-time in ARCA since 2015, and was the polesitter and finished third in the same race last year in the Venturini Motorsports No. 20.
* On July 30, 2020, DGR-Crosley announced that Anthony Alfredo would return to their team, driving in the Michigan ARCA race in the team's No. 17. It is his first ARCA start since 2018. Alfredo drove part-time for DGR-Crosley in the Truck Series in 2019, but left for a part-time Xfinity Series ride with Richard Childress Racing for the 2020 season.
* On August 3, 2020, GMS Racing announced that Kris Wright would drive the No. 21 Chevrolet at Michigan.

#### Crew chiefs

* On December 18, 2019, it was announced that Shannon Rursch would be the crew chief of the No. 15 Venturini team, replacing Kevin Reed. In 2019, Rursch crew chiefed Venturini's No. 25 car. On January 23, 2020, it was announced that Reed would be the crew chief of the Venturini Motorsports No. 25 (with driver Michael Self), making it a crew chief swap with Rursch.

#### Manufacturers

* On December 11, 2019, DGR-Crosley announced that they would be switching from Toyota to Ford beginning in 2020.

## Rule changes

Beginning this season, NASCAR allowed ARCA teams in the East, West, and the big 20-race ARCA Menards Series to run the same car number in a race together like in lower levels of racing. The first time this occurred was in the East Series opener at New Smyrna when Chuck Hiers and Robert Pawlowski both used the No. 11, with Pawlowski as the No. 11E. In this series, the first time this happened was in the race at Phoenix, with Hailie Deegan and Chase Cabre sharing the No. 4, with Cabre as the No. 4E, Tom Berte and Lawless Alan sharing the No. 12, with Alan as the No. 12W and Tanner Gray sharing the No. 17 with Zane Smith, with Smith as the No. 17W. The reason for which teams had the letter "E" or "W" next to their number was because those teams come from the ARCA East and West Series. Previously, under the old format of the NASCAR K&N East and West Series, when teams from both of those series held combination races each year at Iowa Speedway, one team was forced to switch their car number after qualifying if they were slower than the other. For example, the No. 6 Rev Racing team in the East Series and the No. 6 Sunrise Ford Racing team in the West Series would race together, and one of those teams would usually use the No. 66 or No. 69 in the race.

Another rule change this season was the implementation of NASCAR's one-point per position point system for the ARCA standings. ARCA had previously used the point system that NASCAR used each year from 2010 on back. When NASCAR switched their standings to this system in 2011, ARCA was not owned by NASCAR, and ARCA decided to keep the old system in place for this series. Now that ARCA is owned by NASCAR, they decided to switch the point system to remain consistent with all of NASCAR's series which use it. There is one small difference that ARCA has, however. The pole winner gets one bonus point, which the NASCAR series do not have. This means the maximum number of points a driver can earn for one race is 49 (by finishing first, getting one point for leading a lap, another point for leading the most laps in the race, and the one bonus point for winning the pole). Michael Self was able to accomplish this at Daytona and Chandler Smith did it at IRP.

Finally, composite bodies were made mandatory for all events. Previously, in 2018 and 2019, composite bodies were only mandatory for restrictor-plate races. This rule meant the end of the fourth-generation steel bodies, as well as the presence of Dodge in the ARCA Menards Series, as Dodge had pulled factory support from the series and all NASCAR series except for the Pinty's Series in Canada after 2012.

## Schedule

The complete schedule was released on October 10, 2019. That came after a soft reveal of some Showdown tracks on October 2. Five Flags Speedway, Fairgrounds Speedway, and Toledo Speedway were taken and moved from the ARCA schedule to the East Series schedule. Additionally, Salem Speedway and Pocono Raceway, which each had two ARCA races in 2019, were both reduced to have only one race in 2020. In their places, Phoenix Raceway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Memphis International Raceway were added to the schedule, and the series returned to road courses for the first time since Road America in 2017 with the addition of Watkins Glen International and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to the schedule. Watkins Glen, Bristol, and Memphis were all previously part of the East Series schedule.

The Sioux Chief Showdown is a ten-race series within the schedule, consisting mostly of short tracks, that will have a separate points tally and champion.

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1. ↑ The Kentucky race replaced the Charlotte race, the General Tire 150.
2. ↑ The additional Kansas race replaced the Chicagoland race, the Dawn 150.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The two races at Toledo replaced the races at Mid-Ohio and Elko, the Mid-Ohio 50 and the Elko 250, respectively.
4. ↑ The Menards 200 presented by Crosley Brands was stopped at Lap 6 on Saturday due to rain. The race was completed the following day, although it was then rain-shortened by 73 laps because more rain came.
5. ↑ The Daytona road course race replaced the Watkins Glen race, the Great Outdoors RV Superstore 100.
6. ↑ This was race #14 on the original schedule before COVID-19
7. ↑ This was race #16 on the original schedule before COVID-19

* Sioux Chief Showdown events are in **bold**.

### Broadcasting

Fox and MAVTV will continue to share broadcasting rights of the 20 races of the schedule, consistent with previous years. MAVTV will broadcast 12 races, FS1 will broadcast seven races, and the remaining race will be broadcast on FS2.

### Schedule changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic

* It was announced that all ARCA (and NASCAR) races would be postponed through May 3, which meant that the races at Salem, Talladega, Mid-Ohio and Michigan had to be postponed to another time in the season. The series' first race back after the pandemic would later be Talladega's race, the General Tire 200, which was rescheduled to June 20 from April 24. That would be followed by the Pocono and IRP races, which kept their same dates and then a race at Kentucky Speedway (which was not originally scheduled to host an ARCA race in 2020) on July 11, which replaced the cancelled Charlotte race. Additionally, the race at Chicagoland Speedway, which was scheduled for June 18, was cancelled and replaced by a second race at Kansas Speedway on July 24. The standalone race at Elko Speedway was previously scheduled for July 11 and had to be postponed to later in the season as well due to Kentucky now being on that day. The new date for Elko as well as the ones for Salem (previously on April 19) and Mid-Ohio (May 29).
* On July 8, 2020, NASCAR announced the series' schedule in the month of August. This included the addition of a race at the Daytona infield road course which replaced the cancelled Watkins Glen International race, the Great Outdoors RV Superstore 100. The race will be held on August 14 and will be part of the Sioux Chief Showdown. In that announcement, it was also revealed the dates of Michigan International Speedway race, which was rescheduled to August 9 from June 5. Gateway remained on the schedule and now will be held on August 29 instead of August 1, the original date. Consequently, the race at Madison International Speedway scheduled to August 7 had to be postponed to later in the season as well as the race at Illinois State Fairgrounds Racetrack (previously on August 23).
* On July 14, 2020, it was announced that the races at Mid-Ohio and Elko would be cancelled and replaced with a two race doubleheader at Toledo (which had been taken off the initial schedule and moved to the East Series). Both Mid-Ohio and Elko were going to be Showdown races, and as a result, their replacement races at Toledo races will be part of the Showdown. ARCA did say that Mid-Ohio and Elko would be put on the 2021 schedule after each track lost their race date for 2020, and that the races at Madison and Springfield would stay on the schedule but receive different dates later in the year after the month of August. Those races were originally scheduled for August 7 and 23, respectfully.

## Results and standings

### Drivers' championship

See also: List of NASCAR points scoring systems
**Note:** The pole-winner also receives 1 bonus point, similar to the previous ARCA points system used until 2019 and unlike NASCAR.

(key) **Bold** – Pole position awarded by time. *Italics* – Pole position set by final practice results or rainout. \* – Most laps led.

## See also

* 2020 NASCAR Cup Series
* 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series
* 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series
* 2020 ARCA Menards Series East
* 2020 ARCA Menards Series West
* 2020 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
* 2020 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series
* eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series

## References

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