TRUCKS: Report – Series On Dirt Next Year

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will race for the first time on a dirt track next season, the Charlotte Observer is reporting.

The trucks will run at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, according to the report. The track, owned by NASCAR team owner and driver Tony Stewart, is a half-mile dirt facility and one of the most famous dirt ovals in the country.

Stewart has hosted special events involving top NASCAR drivers at the track, which seats about 20,000.

The track does not have SAFER barriers, a safety innovation NASCAR has required in recent seasons.

None of NASCAR’s major series has run on a dirt surface since 1970, when Richard Petty won the final dirt race in Raleigh, NC.

As NASCAR moved toward bigger tracks and sought to trim an unwieldy schedule, the dirt speedways that had been the foundation for the sport in the early years faded away.

The possibility of the Sprint Cup or Nationwide Series running on dirt is considered very unlikely.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.