As it has every year since 2014, the ARCA Menards Series East in 2022 begins its season at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway as part of the track’s famous World Series of Asphalt.
This year’s World Series at New Smyrna, though, includes a notable newcomer to the nine-day racing schedule: the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
The Whelen Modified Tour will begin its 2022 season with its first race at the half-mile paved oval in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. A few days later, the East Series will take to the track for the ninth consecutive year.
Below is everything to know about New Smyrna Speedway.
Clyde Hart and his family opened New Smyrna Speedway, titled Daytona Raceway at the time, as a dirt track in 1967. Six months later, the track surface was paved for the sake of competitive racing.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Renamed with the surface update, New Smyrna Speedway has hosted the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing – now a nine-night series of racing featuring late models, tour modifieds, the ARCA Menards Series East and more – every year since it was paved. The tradition takes place each year during Daytona Speedweeks.
Apart from its World Series, New Smyrna Speedway hosts weekly grass roots racing on Saturday nights from March through mid-November as part of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. The venue also features a handful of special events on its schedule.
New Smyrna Speedway has been a staple on the East Series schedule since it was added as the season-opener for the 2014 season. Todd Gilliland, who won the East races at New Smyrna in 2016 and 2018, respectively, is the only driver who has scored multiple victories at the track in the series.
Max Gutiérrez won last year’s East Series race at New Smyrna in dramatic fashion with a three-wide pass for the victory on the final stretch. The history of East Series racing at New Smyrna is listed below.
