On Oct. 3, the ARCA Menards Series released its 2026 national series schedule, and one of the dates in particular perked up the ears of one NASCAR Cup Series star.
Earlier this season, ARCA competed at Salem Speedway. When the entry list came out, Chase Briscoe surprised with a tweet expressing his desire to run the event.
Briscoe is a native of Mitchell, Ind., which lies about 30 minutes away from Salem. He has two previous starts at the 0.555-mile short track back in 2015 and 2016 with the now-defunct Cunningham Motorsports. He finished fifth and sixth, respectively, but hasn’t found victory lane at his home track.
”That’s the closest I’ve ever felt to Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. in my life,” Briscoe told Frontstretch. “Everybody was there wearing my stuff.”
Briscoe’s desire to run this year’s race was hindered by two things: All the Toyota teams (Joe Gibbs Racing, Venturini Motorsports and Nitro Motorsports) had their rides filled up, and the Cup Series was racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which would have made travel and the quick turnaround of a Saturday night ARCA race into a Sunday afternoon Cup race tough, especially when Cup is the priority for Briscoe.
However, a bit of shuffling in both the Cup and ARCA schedules for 2026 has resulted in the ARCA race at Salem lining up with the Cup race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, around a four-hour drive away and even faster by plane.
Briscoe told Frontstretch at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL on Oct. 4 that his interest in running Salem has only grown since doing his own research about the legitimate logistical possibility of doing both Salem and Gateway.
”I definitely wanna do it,” Briscoe said. “I’d have to probably talk to the JGR guys. I think [Steve] DeSouza’s who runs the ARCA program. Actually, I’ve kinda floated it to him and told him, ‘Hey, I wanna do this.’ So yeah, I’d love to do it.
”It’s not gonna do anything for me, right? But I just wanna go and race in front of my core fanbase. … It’d be cool to just race in front of a lot of fans of mine that don’t get to go anywhere else. Hopefully it’ll work out. I’d love to do it.”
Having a notable Cup figure like Briscoe running even just one ARCA race could do wonders for the series. Not only would attendance for a local short track like Salem skyrocket as people support the hometown hero, but perhaps more people at home could be watching on TV, which is something ARCA desperately needs after the exceptional poor viewership the series received last weekend.
Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal posted viewership numbers from each race last weekend, including the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series races at the ROVAL, the ARCA race at Toledo Speedway and the Formula 1 race at Singapore.
The ARCA race at Toledo — the championship race, mind you — had just 32,000 viewers. Not 3,200,000, not 320,000. More people probably attended the Xfinity race in person than watched the ARCA championship race at home. The Truck race got nearly nine times the amount of viewers for a race that started at 3:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon.
Yes, it didn’t help that ARCA went head-to-head directly with the Xfinity race. Yes, it also didn’t help that the championship was already decided heading into the race, as long as Brenden Queen simply started the race.
But 32,000 is a very concerning number for what is widely considered the fourth-tier feeder series for NASCAR.
Part of it is the cost, for sure. Part of it is the broadcast deal with FOX, as putting races on FOX Sports 2 is sure to kill viewership by the thousands. But one thing that could help get some viewership into ARCA, both at the track and on the television, is a little bit of Buschwhacking.
I know, I know, Buschwhacking is sort of a dirty term these days, as it calls back to the days when Cup drivers regularly dominated the Xfinity and Truck Series and stunted the growth of the sport for several years, based on Xfinity’s former name, the NASCAR Busch Series.
But ARCA is a series that could use an injection of stardom into the sport. In a time when car counts are dwindling and there are less and less competitive teams in the first place, it’s something that more Cup drivers ought to consider.
In 2025, no Cup stars ran an ARCA race, even on the weekends when ARCA was a support race for the Cup Series. Fortunately, we could get one next year if Briscoe can convince JGR to let him run Salem.
And if he does, keep an eye on the viewership numbers. Fans will flock to where their favorite driver runs, even if it’s some local race out in the middle of nowhere. Briscoe’s presence at an ARCA race, at a local short track at that, would boost both viewership and attendance.
For example, could you imagine if Carson Hocevar decided to make a trip up to Berlin Raceway to run the ARCA race there? Spire Motorsports has somewhat of an ARCA program, he could probably convince someone there to let him run a car. Or what about if someone like an Alex Bowman or Ross Chastain made the decision to hop in a Chevrolet on a weekend that ARCA joins Cup at, say, Kansas Speedway?
Plus, it would give the ARCA regulars a run for their money in a time where leads and positions go somewhat unchallenged past the first few laps of a restart.
ARCA hasn’t really done anything wrong in terms of trying to gain viewers, but it certainly needs some sort of injection of stardom or money that could get eyes on it for more than just the races that are in conjunction with NASCAR.
Because let’s face it, 32,000 for the championship race of the fourth-tier feeder series to Cup should raise so many alarm bells that people ought to be going deaf from how loud it is.
And who knows? If Briscoe does go out and run the race, and perhaps even wins it in front of his home crowd, maybe that will inspire others such as Hocevar to go out and have some fun in ARCA at either their hometrack or a track in which they could use some more laps at in preparation for the Cup race later that weekend.
So yes, while Buschwhacking is a term most fans might not want to hear ever again, it might be crucial in the long-term future of ARCA. And that actually might be more acceptable than Buschwhacking the Xfinity or Truck races like the old days.
Either way, fans of Briscoe who live in Mitchell might wanna circle that Sept. 12, 2026, date at Salem. Just in case.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.