2009 Season Opens For A Dozen Whelen All-American Tracks

By admin March 12, 2009 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series

One of the newest tracks to the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series has ushered in the 2009 season.

Monroe Motor Speedway, the new facility in Louisiana, kicked off racing this past weekend. They are one of 12 tracks scheduled to get started in March.

“Our area is in total excitement,” said Monroe track promoter Rusty Marcus of the atmosphere surrounding racing at the state-of-the-art asphalt oval. “Everyone was ready and we had phenomenal first weekend.”

Garrett Dorett was the winner of Saturday’s Late Model feature.

“We’ve had a lot of support from community and business leaders,” Marcus said. “Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo and West Monroe Mayor Dave Norris were part of our press conference announcing the NASCAR sanction. A lot of teams have been building track-specific cars, too.

The .375-mile concrete oval will host Bumper to Bumper Late Models, Central Oil Modifieds, SportMods, Legends, Bombers, Compacts and Bandoleros each Saturday night. The Late Model division is the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series featured division. Monthly special events have also been scheduled.

Major season opening events are scheduled across the nation throughout the month of March.

  • March 14 – The weekend will see the opening of three historic NASCAR short tracks in the southeast: Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, N.C., Greenville Pickens Speedway in Greenville, S.C., and South Boston (Va.) Speedway.
  • March 21 – Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway; Madera (Calif.) Speedway; The Bullring at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway; and Toyota Speedway at Irwindale (Calif.) get underway.
  • March 22 – New Stockton (Calif.) 99 Speedway rejoins the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series program after having been closed for the past two years.
  • March 27 – Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, N.C., takes the green flag
  • March 28 – Opening nights on opposite coasts featuring All American Speedway in Roseville, Calif., and Concord (N.C.) Speedway in North Carolina.

The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is the grassroots foundation of NASCAR. Made up of local tracks across the United States and Canada, the series dates back more than 25 years and is NASCAR’s national championship program for short-track racers.

Sources:Paul Schaefer/NASCAR PR