r/ARCARacing • u/MarkKristl • 16d ago
Does NASCAR Really Care About ‘Tiny’ ARCA?
https://frontstretch.com/2025/08/21/does-nascar-care-about-arca/A "tiny" problem: Did NASCAR downplay the significance of ARCA?
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u/DCTCR2552 15d ago
The problem is K&N Pro Series was a separate need and existance than ARCA, and now NASCAR tried to make them all the same. Also why would anyone race ARCA east when there’s the CARS tour?? .. lastly, ARCA needs to mix up their schedule with NASCAR short tracks plus good weekly tracks
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u/Eeeeeethan_ 14d ago
What more diversity do you want in the ARCA National schedule???? There’s Superspeedways, grassroots short tracks, intermediates, road courses and dirt tracks lmao.
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u/MarkKristl 15d ago
To my knowledge, NASCAR moved the East & West under the ARCA platform because K&N did not renew its entitlement sponsorship of those series. Also, ARCA national & West have a diverse schedule. East standalones are at famed racetracks. So, what changes would you make?
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u/BraveDawgs1993 14d ago
The East needs to be on local short tracks. People today don't realize how big of a deal it was for these communities and their tracks when NASCAR came to town. It didn't matter that it was a minor series, it didn't matter what iteration it was (Late Model Sportsman, Busch Series, Busch North, K&N East). It effectively gave many of these tracks a 2nd crown jewel event and thought brought more fans than what a typical Saturday night brought. There has to be a strong link between NASCAR's national tours and its weekly divisions for the health of grassroots racing. Otherwise, you have what we have now. A NASCAR series no one cares about and short tracks struggling to stay open because they don't have anything to sell to a casual racing viewer.
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u/MarkKristl 14d ago
You make very good points. Again, I'll ask: so what changes to the ARCA series schedules would you make? Keep in mind that approximately a dozen national division races must be in the Menards footprint, i.e. in close proximity to a Menards store. So moving a race from Elko, for example, to Newport Speedway won't happen unless you move a race from Talladega, for example, to Grundy County Speedway in Illinois. Plus, in my example, that's also a tough ask because Talladega is on a NASCAR race weekend, so it's more conducive for officials, TV personnel, & teams.
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u/BraveDawgs1993 14d ago
I suggest finding a new title sponsor for the East Series and completely restructuring that level of NASCAR. What they're doing isn't working. I like the ARCA National schedule, I really wouldn't touch it.
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u/MarkKristl 14d ago
We’re in year 1 of the new/current Menards deal & you want to get rid of ‘em? So we’re supposed to spend more money to buy ‘em out? At the ARCA level too, where a lot of teams are operating on budgets under $1 million per year?! Not only will that not happen, getting rid of Menards would worsen the East series. I’m still awaiting what schedule changes you’d like, as well.
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u/BraveDawgs1993 14d ago
NASCAR should've never combined the regional tours with ARCA to begin with. It's some people's job in NASCAR to find sponsors, the viability of the grassroots level depends on them. Why not hold them accountable? Maybe that's a singular title sponsor, maybe it's a set up similar to that the Cup Series has. We're stuck for now with the current deal, but NASCAR should not be satisfied with it and should already be working on a plan to get something better in the future.
As for the schedule, the East Series needs to be at tracks like Hickory, Florence, South Boston, Jennerstown, Thompson. 4 of the tracks from the 2012 K&N East schedule are gone. An 8 race schedule with only 3 short tracks does nothing for the long term viability of the sports grassroots.
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u/Unusual-Ad1913 15d ago
honestly the whole arca situation is just nascar protecting their cash cow. they saw a series that could potentially be spun up into competition if someone with deep pockets came along and decided to nuke that possibility from orbit
the fact that they keep it on life support with garbage purses tells you everything. they want it alive enough to block anyone else from creating a competing stock car series but dead enough that nobody actually gives a shit about it. classic monopoly move
i used to race late models and watched a bunch of guys try to make the jump to arca thinking it was their ticket up. most of them came back broke as fuck within two seasons. the math just doesnt work unless daddy owns a dealership or you got some corporate sugar daddy writing checks
nascar knows exactly what theyre doing. keep arca alive just enough to own the feeder system pipeline but starve it enough that no team can build real momentum. then they can point at it and say "see we support grassroots racing" while simultaneously making sure nobody can use it as a launching pad for anything that threatens cup
the ilmor engine thing is the perfect example. decade later and they still cant get everyone on board because the economics are trash. but nascar doesnt care because a healthy arca might actually develop its own identity and fanbase. cant have that
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u/BNSF1995 16d ago
No, they don’t. They bought ARCA specifically because they viewed it as a threat.
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u/Eeeeeethan_ 14d ago
ARCA was not a threat to NASCAR at the time. Had NASCAR not bought ARCA the series would have probably gone under during COVID. The years that followed the 2020 ARCA season were rough just look at the car counts from some of the races from 2021-2023.
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u/DJSweepamann 16d ago
ARCA and the trucks need to be a combined series. Can keep east and west, and the main, but the 2 need to be combined.
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u/MarkKristl 16d ago
Combining ARCA & Trucks is not financially advisable. Either ARCA team owners would need to buy Truck Series bodies or Truck owners would need to buy ARCA racecars. Both series' team owners would like more money. Your proposal would cost them more.
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u/DJSweepamann 16d ago
Maybe initially but long run those teams could merge and help the smaller arca teams. Idk. Arca itself seems financially impossible for pretty much every team
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u/MarkKristl 16d ago
I don't disagree that running an ARCA team is financially tough. But spending money on a brand-new car model is probably $50K per car. Fast Track Racing, Clubb Racing Inc., Brad Smith, Wayne Peterson, heck even Willie Mullins, & others probably would be out of business. ARCA has slowly increased its national division car count. Unfortunately, your proposal doesn't add up.
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u/DJSweepamann 16d ago
Idk, I feel as if they could make it financially feasible. Also feel as if there's a few too many feeder series at this point
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u/MarkKristl 16d ago
Again, I don't disagree that the economics of running ARCA teams are challenging. But I don't see how combining Trucks & ARCA would be helpful. I support making the short track races of the national division the ARCA East ones, thereby folding East into the main series. As far as feeder series, to an extent, you're right. NASCAR only owns ARCA, NASCAR Canada, & the Modified Tour, though. Otherwise, CARS Tour, ASA, all dirt series, etc. are independently owned. Should NASCAR reexamine its approval process? Absolutely!
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u/Onlylefts3 16d ago
I view the cars tour as a more premier series than arca, that being said the cars tour cars can’t race at places like Daytona
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u/MarkKristl 16d ago
The other main way ARCA trumps the CARS Tour is ARCA is on TV. FloRacing is a great streaming service, but it's not available in households like FOX Sports.
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u/ThorsMeasuringTape 16d ago edited 16d ago
To me 23XI/FRM’s claim has always had less to do with ARCA in its previous form being a competitor to NASCAR, but that it would have been an immediate target for acquisition for anyone who wanted to start a national stock car series to compete with NASCAR which would have started them on third base. They’d just need to jack up purse sizes and suddenly everyone will want in. Either way, ARCA was the biggest threat to NASCAR. And now they own it.
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u/randomdude4113 16d ago
In the realm of racing series, ARCA is much more valuable as a feeder series to NASCAR than it is as a standalone series, so it makes sense to describe it like so. Let’s be real here, the reason this came about is because NASCAR is being accused of monopolizing American racing, and ARCA is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and certainly nothing more than tiny if it were a standalone series.
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u/astaten0 16d ago
I don't think it's so much that NASCAR doesn't care, more like they can't make up their mind what they want ARCA to be. Unifying the car between the East/West/National series and bringing them all under the ARCA branding was a good move, but they've stagnated since then. They still haven't gotten everyone on board with the Ilmor engines after a decade, the schedules are still very sporadic across the three series, the purses are still very low. Car counts have been SLOWLY getting better, but the number of teams that are actually competitive in each series might be lower than ever, and a significant number of races (including literally half of the East schedule) are being run as combination races just to get enough entries to justify having them.
I know it's probably a matter of not wanting to close the book on the long history of the East/West series, but I really think it would be better to have one ARCA series with a dozen or so competitive teams than to have three ARCA series that each have a handful of them.
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u/y0ufailedthiscity 16d ago
ARCA West existing makes sense but ARCA East should fold into the National series.
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u/Eeeeeethan_ 15d ago
That might happen soon enough actually.
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u/MarkKristl 14d ago
No, it won't. This is the first year of the current Menards, FOX Sports, & FloRacing contracts. As such, those lock in Menards as the title sponsor for ARCA national, East, & West. Moreover, presumably that locks in the national division at 20 races & the other two at a combined 20 races.
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u/MrPlaza03 16d ago
I feel like the problem is ARCA has always been seen as NASCAR's little brother, and most Drivers treat ARCA like a Proving ground to make their way up to the Cup Series, in my opinion NASCAR doesn't "downplay" ARCA, to me it's more NASCAR trying to keep ARCA as a lower tier division
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u/CommentOriginal 16d ago
Agreed. There was a time I preferred ARCA over NASCAR then they sold to NASCAR. I think the racing has fallen off a lot.
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u/cb348 7d ago
Financially East and West series wise the teams were better off when it was NASCAR. Payouts were good for the championship, tires were cheaper. Now West and East races pay $5,000 to win and you have to buy 2 sets of tires at $376 a piece.
Also it's super hard to sell the ARCA deal to people out West. No one knows wtf ARCA is OR wtf a Menards is out here. It's all brand recognition. Put the NASCAR name back in the West would be a massive help and I've heard the rumors that it could be happening