Hickory, NC – The 2026 ARCA Menards Series East season opener at Hickory Motor Speedway was a roaring success. For a series that has taken its fair share of criticisms since it was rebranded under the ARCA umbrella, Hickory delivered a great show.
Only a little over an hour away from Charlotte Motor Speedway, the home racetrack for parent company NASCAR, Hickory hosted an ARCA series event for the first time.
Twenty-three drivers entered, tied for the most in an East season opener since 2020. So, while Five Flags Speedway hosted the openers from 2023-2025, clearly the proximity to home for teams paid dividends.
To their credit, the fans showed up. Arriving shortly before practice began at 2 p.m. ET, I was amazed at the number of fans already there, more than five hours before the green flag flew.
When the race began, the grandstands were packed.
The on-track autograph session, while normally popular at ARCA events, was full of fans, who were primarily focused on landing George Siciliano’s autograph.
Nevertheless, those moments allow fans to see the upcoming stars of the sport.
Remember, William Sawalich, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer and Connor Zilisch are among the recent full-time East graduates into the NASCAR national series.
Speaking of NASCAR stars, 2015 ARCA Menards Series champion Grant Enfinger was in attendance, cheering on his CR7 Motorsports teammates and enjoying his off day from competing full time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
ARCA competitor Logan Misuraca was there too, supporting her City Garage Motorsports teammate Quinn Davis as well as joining the FloRacing broadcast.
There were two races before the 200-lap East race: a local division and then the Carolina Pro Late Model Series. Both were welcome warm ups to the race day schedule, providing some on-track action before the main event.
While Max Reaves led a whopping 186 of the 200 laps, he didn’t win the race. No, thanks to one of the nine caution flags – more on that later – Reaves got moved from the lead late while racing Landon S. Huffman and Tristan McKee.
Reaves wasn’t happy and Huffman felt that his style of racing has become commonplace.
McKee, meanwhile, went to victory lane.
There were other fun storylines throughout the field, too.
Due to a scheduling conflict, Carson Brown was unable to participate in this race, so Derek Kneeland drove the No. 28 Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet instead. Kneeland normally spots for PRG, including 2025 ARCA champion Brenden Queen, as well as NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch. Kneeland wheeled the No. 28 to a fourth-place run, and he was quite pleased with his performance.
He finished fourth, one spot ahead of Nitro Motorsports team owner Nick Tucker. In addition to owning Nitro, Tucker made his first ARCA series start since 2013. Tucker quipped it wasn’t too bad for a guy coming off the couch.
The two biggest names in the field, though, were Siciliano, known as Squirrel McNutt, and Dystany Spurlock.
Siciliano made his series debut and will join his great friend Garrett Mitchell, AKA Cleetus McFarland, in the upcoming race at Rockingham Speedway, hoping to run at Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway as teammates.
Siciliano had an unscheduled green-flag pit stop early in the race, spun his No. 0 Ford on lap 151 and wound up seven laps down in 13th place.
While not as popular as McNutt or McFarland on social media, Spurlock was more impressive throughout the race. She took advantage of two free passes in the first half of the race to return to the lead lap, then stayed on the lead lap en route to a seventh-place finish. She, too, will be at Rockingham and Kansas.
Remember that I said we would talk about those nine cautions? None of them were multi-car incidents. Only one driver made contact with the wall. The others were for single-car spins or a stalled car. Unfortunately, Brian Barbarow endured a tough day, bringing out the yellow four times. To add salt to his wound, it was his debut driving the No. 34 Toyota for Vaughn Racing. He ought to make another East start this season to learn, improve and, ideally, not spin out that many times.
Certainly, those two competing in the race and it being an inaugural event helped attendance.
Following the race, Hickory General Manager Kevin Piercy wrote on the Hickory Motor Speedway Facebook page, “This past weekend, history was made at America’s Most Famous Short Track, Hickory Motor Speedway with the track’s first ARCA Menards Series East event and the running of the Inaugural Cook Out 200. I would like to personally thank Mr. Ron Drager and the ARCA Menards Series East along with every competitor, partner, staff member, and just as importantly every single fan that made this race such a success. A special thanks to Cook Out as our primary sponsor. It was truly a special event. Mr. Bob Sargent, Mr. Ron Drager and myself have already began working on the return of the ARCA Menards Series in 2027 at Hickory Motor Speedway. We look forward to seeing you there!”
Indeed, the East race at Hickory was a roaring success. Let’s do it again in 2027.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
Ummm, that would be SMI, not NASCAR
Ok , it was good but more
Fan contact and driver Taylor Reimer was missing in action again? Why she is a drawing card along with Jade Averdesian for ARCA both of them should be pushed more
Then other lady drivers