An Historic Race Weekend as NASCAR Comes to Lime Rock Park
- Test
- Jul 3
- 2 min read
by Clark Thompson and Warren Rosenberg, July 1, 2025 - MetroSports Magazine
On Saturday, June 29th the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series held its first race at the buccolic Lime Rock Park road course in Lakeville Connecticut.
Sharing the race weekend with the ARCA Menards and NASCAR Classic racing series, this northwest corner of rural Connecticut came to life with the sound or roaring engines and packed crowds. The winner of the NASCAR 150 mile, 100 lap, Craftsman Truck Series LiUNA race was Corey Heim, who led 99 of the 100 laps, and was his fifth win of the 2025 series. The race drew the largest crowd of racing fans in Lime Rock’s 68 year history.
While far from its southern roots, and the first time at the Lime Rock Park track, this was not NASCAR’s first visit to the northern region of the tri-state New York Metropolitan region. Located just 70 miles to the west, in Orange County NY, the NASCAR Cup Series held its first, and only, race on July 17, 1960 at what was then the Army’s Montgomery Air Base, now the Orange County Airport. Competing in that race were such NASCAR notables as Richard Petty, driving his famous #43 and finishing second, along with Lee Petty, Ned Jarrett, and Buddy Baker.
Located 100 miles to the east of Lime Rock, in the northeast corner of Connecticut, the Thompson Speedway hosted three NASCAR Grand National Series races between 1951 and 1970, and in the 1980’s NASCAR’s Ricky Craven won there in a series that is now the ARCA Menards Series East. In 2001 recently retired NASCAR driver Martin Truex, Jr, won an ARCA series race at the Stafford Connecticut race track.
After a brief pause in the 1980s, national series winners took their turn at Thompson again. In 1990 and 1991, Ricky Craven won in (what’s now) the ARCA Menards Series East. Then, in 2001, Martin Truex Jr. won there and at Stafford. And let’s not forget that current NASCAR Cup Series Champion, Joey Logano, is a Connecticut native as is current NASCAR Xfinity driver, Anthony Alfredo, NASCAR Cup Series driver, Ryan Preece, former Cup Series winner, Jerry Nadeau, two-time Xfinity Series Champion, Randy LaJoie, and Corey Heim’s crew chief, Scott Zipadelli.
Moving to Formula 1 type racing, the Brooklyn waterfront recently hosted the FIA Formula E race in 2017-2022 until the track at the Red Hook Brooklyn Cruise Ship Terminal was reconfigured.
Young racers are still pursuing their entry into the sport at sites like the Pooghkeepsie Speedway, a 1.5 mile paved asphalt track and at indoor karting tracks such as Mt. Kisco's Grand Prix New York, both previously covered in MetroSports Magazine
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