The fact that Friday’s Dawn 150 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is the 1,500th race in ARCA Menards Series history is a testament to the series’ deep, rich history dating back to the early 1950s.

Yet the 42-lap event will mark just the second time the series has visited the 2.258-mile road course in Lexington, Ohio.

Jack Bowsher won the 408th ARCA Menards Series race on July 25, 1965, the only other time the series has visited Mid-Ohio. The series is back in 2021 for its first road course race of the season, which also marks Round 2 of the 2021 Sioux Chief Showdown and the second round of the CGS Imaging Four Crown.

Fans will be able to attend Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Mid-Ohio (buy tickets). The Dawn 150 will broadcast live on FS1 with a live stream available on Fox Sports Go beginning at 6 p.m. ET. A radio broadcast can be heard on MRN or SiriusXM (XM channel 391, online channel 981).

Multiple drivers figure to be in contention to win the 1,500th race in ARCA Menards Series history. The list starts with the only two drivers who have won races in the series this season.

Ty Gibbs, who has won four of the six races the ARCA Menards Series has contested in 2021, finished second on the road course at Daytona International Speedway last season in his only prior road course start in the series. He also won his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut on the same course in February.

Gibbs has dominated ARCA Menards Series races on short and intermediate tracks this season. Friday marks his first chance to show whether he has the same speed at a road course.

The two superspeedway races the series has run in 2021 (Daytona, Talladega) were won by Corey Heim, who remains the ARCA Menards Series points leader thanks to his average finish of 1.8. Heim, though, has no experience on a road course in an ARCA Menards car entering Friday’s race.

Gibbs and Heim will be challenged by the usual suspects at Mid-Ohio, with series regulars Nick Sanchez, Thad Moffitt and Drew Dollar, among others, also entered. They will have to beat a few NASCAR national series drivers, as well.

Austin Hill, who races full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Hattori Racing Enterprises, will run the ARCA Menards Series race at Mid-Ohio in the No. 1 Arco National Construction for the same team.

Hill has one top-10 finish in three ARCA Menards Series starts dating back to 2015.

Brandon Jones, who competes full-time for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, will run the ARCA Menards Series race at Mid-Ohio in Venturini Motorsports’ No. 25 Tide-Bounty Toyota.

Jones has five wins in 23 ARCA Menards Series starts. Like Gibbs, he will compete in both Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race and Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Mid-Ohio.

Kris Wright, who races part-time in the Truck Series for Young’s Motorsports, will enter Friday’s Dawn 150 in Rette Jones Racing’s No. 30 America Auto Auction Ford. He, too, is scheduled to compete in Saturday’s Xfinity race at Mid-Ohio.