Arena Racing USA

Arena Racing USA was an indoor motorsports series started by Ricky Dennis, a former NASCAR chassis builder and the son of 1970 NASCAR Rookie of the Year Bill Dennis. According to the series’ website, it ceased operations after the 2016–2017 season.

The idea for arena racing came to Dennis in 1993 while watching a Richmond Renegades hockey game at the Richmond Coliseum. He first tried to launch the series in 1994, but financial problems shut it down. A second attempt began in 2002. To secure funding, Dennis consulted Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, and brought in Interstate Batteries president Norm Miller and PACE Entertainment and PACE Motorsports’ Gary Becker as investors. James Ukrop, former chairman of Ukrop’s Food Group, was hired as a business mentor. JGR drivers Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and J. J. Yeley also invested. Stewart said he loved indoor racing and was drawn to the idea of half-scale stock cars on a banked track with 14 other cars, making laps in 10 seconds.

The cars are half the size of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars—9 feet long, weighing about 740 pounds, with 22-horsepower engines—and can reach 50 mph. Events use a heat-style format rather than NASCAR’s single long race, with at least four races per event: three main races and a “Top Dog” race. The 2011–2012 season ran from November to April, during the offseason for major series like NASCAR and Formula One. All races were held at the Richmond Coliseum, Hampton Coliseum, or Deltaplex Arena, with only the Richmond Coliseum hosting the 2013–2014 season.