NASCAR Announces 27 Races for 1998 Craftsman Truck Series Season
10 November 1997
NEW EVENTS AT ST. LOUIS AND MEMPHIS WILL JOIN
THE NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES FOR 1998
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will celebrate the
National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing's 50th Anniversary by adding
two new events in America's heartland and increasing the tour's 1998 schedule
to an all-time high of 27 events.
The circuit for full-size, American-manufactured pickup trucks will add
back-to-back weekends in Memphis, Tenn., where a 3/4-mile asphalt oval is
under construction at Memphis Motorsports Park, and at the 1.25-mile Gateway
International Raceway in Madison, Ill., just across the Mississippi River
from St. Louis.
The Memphis Motorsports Park race is set for Sept. 13 and concludes a
two-state weekend which begins Sept. 10 at Richmond (Va.) International
Raceway.
Gateway International Raceway's inaugural event on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series will be held six days later, on Sept. 19. The facility was filled with
a standing-room only crowd in July for the first visit by the NASCAR Busch
Series, Grand National Division.
"Fans in the St. Louis area have told us they're eager for more NASCAR
excitement and we're extremely proud to be able to bring them the starts of
our newest major tour -- the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series," said Dennis
Huth, vice president for administration at NASCAR. "Tennessee and the
Mid-South Region is NASCAR Country, Darrell Waltrip country and pickup truck
country. The Memphis Motorsports Park facility promises to be a great blend
of short track action and superspeedway thrills."
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series began in 1995 with 20 races, and quickly
became the most successful new series in motorsports history. As the series
continues to attract new fans across the country, new facilities including
the California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., Texas Motor Speedway in Fort
Worth and Walt Disney World Speedway near Orlando, Fla., have joined the
schedule.
In 1998, 26 of America's top superspeedways, road courses and short tracks
will host NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events.
The Jan. 18 Chevy Trucks Challenge at the Walt Disney World Speedway again
will open the season. The schedule concludes, for the third year, at the Las
Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway.
Each of the schedule's events will be broadcast on national television and by
the radio affiliates of the NASCAR Truck Network. The network television
schedule will be released in the near future.
"The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series' fourth season shapes up as even more
exciting than the 1997 campaign, during which we've had a record number of
winning drivers and teams," noted Huth. "The 1998 schedule will see virtually
all of our top starts return to compete with more full-time teams and, of
course, some great talent in our 1998 Cintas Rookie-of-the-Year class."
Seven venues -- California Speedway, Colorado National Speedway in Erie;
Heartland Park Topeka (Kan.); Louisville (Ky.) Motor Speedway; Nazareth (Pa.)
Speedway; the New Hampshire International Speedway and Watkins Glen (N.Y.)
International -- will receive major date changes in the coming season:
- The California Speedway event, a mid-October race this year, will be held
July 18 -- again as a companion race with the NASCAR Busch Series.
- Colorado National Speedway's late-July date moves forward, to June 27.
- Heartland Park Topeka, which likewise occupied a July weekend in 1996,
runs a month later on Aug. 23.
- Louisville Motor Speedway will move its race from mid-July to Aug. 29.
- Nazareth's race, previously held on the final week of June, shifts to July
12.
- New Hampshire International Speedway, which held the final weekend of May
in 1997, moves to Aug. 2 and follows, by three days, the July 30 stop at
Indianapolis (Ind.) Raceway Park.
- Watkins Glen International, formerly the middle race of three series road
course stops in late-August, receives a May 30 slot as the first
left-and-right turn venue of 1998.
Also part of the 1998 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule are Evergreen
Speedway in Monroe, Wash.; Flemington (N.J.) Speedway; the Metro-Dade
Homestead (Fla.) Motorsports Complex; I-70 Speedway in Odessa, Mo.;
Martinsville (Va.) Speedway; Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif.; The
Milwaukee Mile; Portland (Ore.) Speedway and Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma,
Calif.
The 1998 schedule features 13 events on short tracks of less than a mile in
length, 11 on superspeedways and three on road courses.
In November, invited NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitors will join
competitors from the NASCAR Winston Cup and NASCAR Busch Series in a trip to
Japan for a two-race stop at the 1.4-mile Suzuka Circuit road course in
Suzuka City, 250 miles south of Tokyo and the new Twin Ring Motegi, a
1.49-mile superspeedway.
The 50th Anniversary of NASCAR will officially kick-off in December. Plans
for the 50th Anniversary celebration will include more than 200 hours of
special programming and features focused on the past, present and future of
the sport on CBS, ESPN, espn2, TBS Superstation and TNN: The Nashville
Network.
By NASCAR Public Relations
