2020 ARCA Menards Series East

34th season of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series EastTemplate:SHORTDESC:34th season of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East

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The **2020 ARCA Menards Series East season** is the 34th season of the ARCA Menards Series East, a regional stock car racing series sanctioned by NASCAR. It began on February 10 at New Smyrna Speedway with the Skip's Western Outfitters 175, and will conclude on September 12 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with the Apple Barrel 125.

2020 marks the first season the series was known as the ARCA Menards Series East, as it was known as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for the previous ten years. Sam Mayer enters as defending champion, and will return to seek his second straight title.

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

## Teams and drivers

### Limited schedule

#### Notes

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1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Before race #2 at Five Flags was rescheduled, this team/driver was scheduled to attempt that race on its originally scheduled date of March 14.

### Changes

#### Teams

* Longtime ARCA Menards Series team Venturini Motorsports indicated on September 5, 2019, that they were interested at fielding a team in the East Series for the first time as a result of the unification of the ARCA Series with the East and West Series under one banner starting in 2020. Furthermore, on January 16, 2020, Venturini announced that they would field another car for Corey Heim in three races this season. The numbers ended up being No. 25 for Diaz's full-time car and No. 20 for Heim's part-time car.
* Cook-Finley Racing, formerly Chad Finley Racing, a Truck Series team, announced that they would be returning in 2020 after briefly shutting down, fielding a part-time team, the No. 42 Toyota, in the East Series.
* Ben Kennedy renumbered his team's car from the No. 20 to the No. 43, which opened the door for Venturini to use the No. 20 for Heim's car.

#### Drivers

* On November 20, 2019, it was announced that Nick Sanchez would be driving full-time and for rookie of the year in the East Series for Rev Racing in 2020 (as well as the races in the ARCA Showdown). He ran three races with the team last season. Sanchez replaces Rubén García Jr. in the No. 6.
* On December 11, 2019, it was announced that Giovanni Bromante would drive full-time for Visconti Motorsports, running for rookie of the year in the No. 74 car. He replaces Brandon McReynolds, Parker Retzlaff, and Josh Berry, who shared the car in 2019.
* On December 14, 2019, it was announced that Mason Diaz would drive the Venturini Motorsports car for the full season as part of the team's expansion into the East Series. He had previously fielded his own team (the No. 24 car) part-time in ARCA East last year as well as some races in the Truck and Xfinity Series for Brandonbilt Motorsports for the past three years. It was later decided that Diaz's number would be the No. 25.
* On December 16, 2019, it was announced that Tanner Gray would be moving up to the Truck Series full-time with DGR-Crosley, who he had driven for full-time in 2019 in the East Series in their No. 15 car. However, he will still run a part-time schedule of races in ARCA East in 2020.
* On December 18, 2019, it was announced that Taylor Gray would run full-time and for rookie of the year in the No. 17 for DGR-Crosley in all races after he turns 15 on March 25, 2020, and will be old enough to race in the series. He replaces Ty Gibbs, Riley Herbst, and Drew Dollar, who shared the car in 2019. Taylor is the younger brother of Tanner Gray, who also drives for the team and substituted for him at New Smyrna. It is unclear if Tanner or someone else will do so at Five Flags.
* On January 16, 2020, it was announced that Corey Heim would be driving in three ARCA East races for Venturini, which puts him in a second car (the No. 20) for the team to Diaz's full-time entry (the No. 25). He will be in the first two races of the year at New Smyrna, Five Flags, and the season-finale at New Hampshire, and these will be his first races in the East Series. He has made thirteen starts in the big 20-race ARCA Menards Series along with one start in the West Series, all coming in 2019.
* On January 30, 2020, it was announced that Parker Retzlaff would be driving the new No. 42 for Cook-Finley Racing part-time with the possibility of a full season. He moves over from Visconti Motorsports where he drove the No. 74 part-time in 2019.
* On February 6, 2020, Rette Jones Racing announced that Tristan Van Wieringen would drive the No. 30 full-time and for rookie of the year with the team. He joins the team along with his older sister Dominique, who will compete part-time for RJR in the big ARCA Series this season. Tristan replaces Spencer Davis in this car, who is still with Rette Jones and will continue running part-time in their Truck Series ride in 2020.
* On February 7, 2020, it was announced that Daniel Dye, the 2019 Pro Late Model track champion at New Smyrna Speedway, would be making his series debut at the same track in its East Series race driving for Ben Kennedy in his No. 43 (formerly the No. 20). He will also compete in the races at Five Flags, Nashville, Toledo, and Berlin.
* On March 10, 2020, it was announced that Derek Griffith would be running the full season and for rookie of the year with Chad Bryant Racing in their No. 2 car after securing sponsorship following an amazing debut for them at New Smyrna, where he won the pole, led the most laps, and finished second in that race.

#### 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. This is the first time this has occurred when Chuck Hiers and Robert Pawlowski both used the No. 11 at the East Series opener at New Smyrna, with Pawlowski as the No. 11E. 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.

## Schedule

On November 6, 2019, NASCAR released the schedule for the 2020 season. As part of the unification of the East and West series with the ARCA Menards Series, the schedule decreased from fourteen races in 2019 to eight races in 2020. The number of races was originally seven, however, an additional race at Fairgrounds Speedway was announced on December 14, 2019.

The races at Memphis International Raceway, Iowa Speedway, Watkins Glen International as well as Bristol Motor Speedway's second race were taken and moved from the East Series schedule to the ARCA Menards Series schedule. All four of those races are also Sioux Chief Showdown events. New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which had two East Series races in 2019, was reduced to have only one race in 2020. Five Flags Speedway, Fairgrounds Speedway and Toledo Speedway were added to the East Series schedule, moving over from the ARCA schedule. Berlin Raceway, which hosted an ARCA race from 1999–2016 and 2018 with an East Series race in 2017 instead, but no race in either series in 2019, was added back on the schedule as an East Series event. The races at South Boston Speedway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway were completely dropped from the schedule. Gateway previously had an East/West combination race as well as an ARCA race, but will now only have one ARCA race, also a Sioux Chief Showdown event.

In terms of TV, NBC will continue to broadcast the East Series schedule on tape delay as they have in the past.

Race start times have yet to be announced.

### Schedule changes due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

The Pensacola 200 presented by Inspectra Thermal Solutions (at Five Flags Speedway), originally scheduled for March 14, was postponed due to the coronavirus and will be rescheduled for another date sometime later in the season according to NASCAR. It was later announced that all ARCA (and NASCAR) races would be postponed through May 3, meaning the race at Bristol, which was to be held on April 4, will also have to be run at another time.

## 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
* 2020 ARCA Menards Series West
* 2020 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series
* 2020 eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series

## References

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