This weekend all three of NASCAR’s racing series will be running but in two cities and for two of the series it will be a history making event.

The Camping World Truck Series has run a number of races at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and will do so again, but when the Cup Series races on the track this Sunday it will be the first time in history that the drivers will race in the shadow of the iconic Gateway Arch.  Tickets for the Cup Series race at Gateway is sold out.

In previous years the Xfinity Series has also run races at Gateway.  Nine of the 36 Cup drivers scheduled to race on Sunday have previous experience on the track as a Truck or Xfinity Series driver.

Gateway is a 1.25 mile flat oval track, quite a change from the mile and a half banked ovals the teams have been racing in recent weeks.  Along with the oval, Gateway features a NHRA drag strip, and a 1.6-mile road course.  Most recently Gateway has added a karting facility, a fan pavilion, and has improved the grandstands.

The mark the historic event, WWT has a full weekend of festival events to go along with the Truck and Cup Series races.

With the lack of any information on the track, NASCAR is giving the crews a full 50 minute practice session to allow the drivers to become familiar with the racing surface.  Also deviating from the norm this weekend, the drivers will practice on Friday and qualify on Saturday for Sunday’s race.


Also making history this weekend is the Xfinity Series when they travel to Portland International Raceway in a stand alone event for the Pacific Office Automation 147.  PIR is a 1.967 mile road course with 12 turns running in a clockwise direction.

Last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Ryan Preece attempted to run all three of the races.  While he completed the Truck and Xfinity Series races, he crashed out of the Cup Series race.

This weekend, AJ Allmendinger is not only doing double duty, he will adding up some major frequent flier miles in the process.  Allmendinger last ran a race at Portland 16 years ago when he won in his first Champ Car race.  This weekend he will run the road course race in Portland with the Xfinity Series and make a run in the inaugural Cup Series race at World Wide Technology.  Allmendinger spoke on his doing double duty saying, “I’m looking forward to pulling some double duty and getting to drive the Cup car at Gateway on Sunday.  I have never driven there and will miss practice and qualifying for the race, but I know we are up for the challenge that the weekend will bring.”

Since Allmendinger will be in Portland, he will miss Cup Series practice and qualifying; which means he will have to start the race from the back of the field after another of Kaulig Racing’s drivers qualifies the car.