NASCAR officials announced Tuesday that the K&N Pro Series East event scheduled for June 15 at Thompson Speedway has been cancelled.
“The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race scheduled for Saturday, June 15 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in Thompson, Connecticut, has been cancelled and will not be replaced,” read a brief statement from NASCAR.
Neither NASCAR officials nor officials at Thompson Speedway would comment on the decision to cancel the event.
Sources close to both the track and NASCAR said logistical issues specifically involving the K&N Pro Series East forced the decision to cancel and that the cancellation of the event has no bearing on Thompson Speedway continuing to host the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour or serving as a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series sanctioned track.
The June 15 event at Thompson will remain on the schedule with the American-Canadian Tour headlining the restructured racing card, which will also include the Whelen All-American Series SK Modified, SK Light Modified, Limited Sportsman and Mini Stock divisions. The Late Model division will be off, as had already been expected, to allow Thompson teams the chance to compete in the ACT event.
Front grandstand admission for the event will be $25. Seniors (65 and over), active military and/or veterans admission will be $20. Kids 12 and under are free. A paddock pass will be $40. Camping will be allowed for both Friday and Saturday night at a rate of $25. Camping reservations can be made online or registration forms can be completed upon arrival at the facility.
The return of the K&N Pro Series East to its short track roots in New England has been a struggle over the last four years for NASCAR.
In June 2016 the series returned to Stafford Speedway after seven years away. Noah Gragson won in the event at Stafford, which attracted a 22-car field, but struggled to make waves at the box office. The series did not return to Stafford after 2016.
In July 2017 the series returned to Thompson Speedway after a seven year absence from the schedule there. Harrison Burton won that event, which featured a 20-car field.
The series returned to Thompson in 2018, but the struggles were evident. Tyler Ankrum won a race that featured a 13-car starting field.
The K&N Pro Series east has averaged 17 cars through the first five events of the 2019 season with 19 cars starting each of the first two events and 17 cars in the third and fourth events of the season. The most recent event, on Saturday at Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park attracted 14 cars.
The cancellation of the Thompson event drops the 2019 K&N Pro Series East schedule down to 12 races for 2019. The division will run its next event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 20 as part of the Monster Energy Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 weekend in Loudon. The series will also return to Loudon as part of the track’s Full Throttle Weekend Sept. 21
Probably werent going to have the cars. Cut bait while there was still time. Too bad it happened now. I would have liked to see a week off for the tour between Seekonk and Thompson. Especially given the tour is off until July after Wed. Had the K&N not been in the mix it could have been scheduled that way from the get go.
Think they miscalculated how many times you can turn over most of the field with drivers willing to pay the teams in both ARCA and K&N. They only had like 17 ARCA cars at Pocono last week. Trying to have a “ladder system” the way Indycar\CART had for decades does not really work for stock cars. Also there cannot be a real “measuring stick” with these series when they are driving against kids who were not racing a couple years ago and also won’t be driving ever again in a couple years. It’s not like when Steve Park and Ricky Craven won in the series on their way up, because those guys actually had to beat established names.
Does that mean Madd Max won’t be running Roccos car Wed as that seemed it was to get him some seat time before the KN race
well rember years ago when the old bgnn tour had to have a last chances races at quite few tracks and loudon hod over 50 cars and last chance races too. so what whent wrong. the tour was made for dev not racing of nort east drives but souther teams of cup dev drivers i look at all my races from 1990 on till 2008
well long live old bgnn racing with santerre aube mooore ,truex sr denny dole,scott bouley ,the dragons booby and deaver,stefanik,walls and stiners like boris said road cource the glen drew 40 or more too. let join arca and east to be one tour that probly in the works after this years race.
The K&N division fails because, it’s not any where close to what it used to be when they called it Busch North. You had both established veteran short track and green horned drivers you could identify with compete on a weekly basis for years. Once it went “East” Nascar pushed out the veteran drivers for Cup teams and their development programs (programs that were LUCKY to live past 3-4 years). If you had the “pleasure” of watching the current incarnation ,you’ll notice two glaring issues with most races, aside from being short. There’s basically no quality passing and it’s usually follow the leader. It’s been nothing but a revolving door of names and the only constant is, your watching inexperience vs. inexperience. So yeah, once Nascar got rid of the old guard, the fans stopped showing up. Once the fans stopped showing up, the venues followed. Once the venues went, up went some of the longtime supporting sponsors (Little Trees, Burnham, Mohegan, etc.). More or less, the end result is the concoction of marketing wizardry third gen Frances dreamed up.