LEXINGTON — For the first time in almost 15 years, NASCAR’s truck racing series will pay a visit to north central Ohio.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will make its first-ever stop at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 150 at Mid-Ohio. The 67-lap race is set to go green at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
The truck series’ last trip to the region came in 2008, when the now-defunct Mansfield Motorsports Park hosted the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Ohio 250. The race — which was originally called the UAW/GM 250 and later the City of Mansfield 250 — was held at MMP from 2004 to 2008.
Mid-Ohio hosted a NASCAR Xfinity Series race from 2013 to 2019 and again in 2021, but the truck series will be making its maiden voyage around the 2.258-mile road course just outside of Lexington.
“Our fans are going to experience a great show with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series racing at Mid-Ohio for the very first time,” Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course President Craig Rust said when the schedule was announced.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be joined this weekend by the USF Juniors and ARCA Menards Series. The ARCA Menards Series race, the Dawn 150, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday while the USF Juniors will race once Friday and twice Saturday.
Fans looking to get a head start on the weekend festivities can head for the Menards Fan Fest celebration from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot of the Menards store located at 1999 Walker Lake Road in Ontario.
“This is a great way to kick off the debut of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event and the second annual Dawn 150 ARCA Menards Series race at Mid-Ohio, and we appreciate the team at ARCA leading the charge in putting this together,” Rust said. “The Menards Fan Fest and transporter parade to Mid-Ohio on Thursday is a fun, interactive way for the fans to welcome both series to Mid-Ohio and help us make it a great weekend. We are really looking forward to it.”
Zane Smith leads the truck series standings with 530 points. John Nemechek is in second with 509, followed by Ben Rhodes (500).
“This regular season championship battle is far from over,” Smith said. “We have a 21-point lead on second place, but we’ve also seen how drastically the points can swing if you have a bad day. Winning this weekend at Mid-Ohio would be great, but realistically we need to focus on a great finish and holding the points lead so we have a chance at the 15 playoff points that come with a regular season championship.”
