The NASCAR Grand National East Series was a short-lived racing series created by

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

in 1972 to provide a second-tier series, below the

Winston Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971 ...

, to provide races at tracks that had been removed from the former Grand National Series' schedule upon Winston's assumption of the series sponsorship in 1971. The series only lasted for two seasons.

History

The Grand National East Series was created in 1972 by

as a reaction to the contraction of the Grand National Division (renamed the Winston Cup Series) schedule and in response to the desires of new series sponsor Winston. The previous 50-to-60-race schedules were considered too large, and therefore the schedule was trimmed to approximately thirty races. This left many tracks that had previously hosted NASCAR's premier series without their headliner events, however, and NASCAR created the Grand National East Division to fill the gap. A similar Grand National West, then Winston West Series, was also formed from the former Pacific Coast Late Model Division, and would continue to the present as the

K&N Pro Series West The ARCA Menards Series West, formerly the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, NASCAR AutoZone West Series, NASCAR Winston West Series and NASCAR Camping World West Series, is a regional stock car racing series owned and operated by the Automobile Racin ...

. However, the first version of a Grand National East Series would only last two seasons before being abandoned by NASCAR. Eventually, NASCAR would develop by the 1980s the

NASCAR North Tour The American Canadian Tour (ACT) is a late model stock car racing series based in the northeastern United States, and Quebec, Canada. The current American-Canadian Tour Late Model Tour was founded in 1992 as a cost-cutting, regional touring divisi ...

before eventually abandoning it for the ''Busch Grand National North Series'' in 1987, which in 2003 became the ''Busch East Series'' when the West and North (renamed East as the tour began traveling to the Southeast) series rules were unified, and eventually became the East version of the current ARCA Menards Series East.Fielden 2004, p. 238

Competition

The Grand National East Series used a mixture of former Grand National/Winston Cup cars, as well as cars from NASCAR's

Grand American Grand American was a NASCAR sanctioned series of pony car stock cars. The series ran from 1968 until 1972. The series was called "Grand Touring" from 1968 to 1969. History The series formed in 1968 under the name "Grand Touring" as a competitor ...

series, which had also folded after the series' 1971 season. The cars raced in the series were allowed to be up to four years old. A significant number of events of the series' 1973 season took place outside of NASCAR's traditional southeastern stronghold;"U.S. Racing Showdown". ''Motor Trend'', 1973, p. 124
/ref> in addition, eight of the season's fifteen races were co-sanctioned with the

Automobile Racing Club of America The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is an auto racing sanctioning body in the United States, founded in 1953 by John Marcum. The current president of ARCA is Ron Drager, who took over the position in 1996 following the death of Bob Log ...

. Over the series' two seasons, the majority of winners of its events were Winston Cup series regulars; Neil "Soapy" Castles won the 1972 Grand National East Series championship, winning two of the series' 15 races;

Tiny Lund DeWayne Louis "Tiny" Lund (November 14, 1929 – August 17, 1975) was an American stock car racer. He was a journeyman racer-for-hire in the top level NASCAR Grand National Series, running partial seasons for a number of years, including a vict ...

was the 1973 champion of the series, scoring five wins in 15 events.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * *

External links

Unofficial Grand National East Website

at Racing-Reference {{NASCAR NASCAR series Defunct auto racing series 1972 establishments in the United States 1973 disestablishments in the United States ARCA Menards Series