Busch North Series

The Busch North Series was created by NASCAR for the 1987 season as a companion series to the Busch Grand National Series, which ran primarily in the south. The Busch North Series originally raced throughout New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. They also held several combination races where driver earned points for both series through the 2001 season. It was preceded in New England by the Northern NASCAR Circuit and the NASCAR North Late Model Tour.

The series name was changed to the Busch East Series in 2006 as more tracks farther down the east coast were added to the schedule. Camping World took over as title sponsor in 2008 & 2009. Matt Kobyluck of Uncasville, CT was the last New England based champion of the series (2008).

In 2010, the name was changed again to the K&N Pro Series East, and this time it came with several rule changes & schedule changes significantly transformed the series to more of a developmental series for NASCAR’s national series and no longer resembled the northeastern based tour that it debuted as in the late 1980’s. This included implementing a maximum age limit of 30 years old in 2011. Under this new format, it has been known as the K&N Pro Series (2012-2019) and the ARCA Menards Series (2020-).

Andy Santerre earned a record 4 series championships, which he won consecutively from 2002-2005. Jamie Aube won 3 straight titles from 1988-1990. Ricky Craven‘s championship in 1991 included a record 10 wins during the season. Mike Stefanik won back-to-back Busch North Series championships while also winning back-to-back NASCAR Modified Tour titles in 1997-1998. 17 of the first 19 series champions are NEAR Hall of Famers.

BUSCH NORTH SERIES CHAMPIONS

YEAR	CHAMPION	CAR OWNER	STARTS	WINS	TOP 5	TOP 10
1987	JOEY KOURAFAS	Sandy MacKinnon	19	1	10	14
1988	JAMIE AUBE	Allen Avery	21	1	10	13
1989	JAMIE AUBE	Allen Avery	22	1	9	11
1990	JAMIE AUBE	Allen Avery	22	3	9	12
1991	RICKY CRAVEN	K.K. Craven	21	10	13	17
1992	DICK McCABE	Don Crisman	16	1	7	11
1993	DICK McCABE	Don Crisman	18	1	9	13
1994	DALE SHAW	Quint Boisvert	20	0	10	16
1995	KELLY MOORE	Richard Moore	20	1	11	15
1996	DAVE DION	Dave Dion	19	2	10	12
1997	MIKE STEFANIK	Mike Greci	21	2	14	16
1998	MIKE STEFANIK	Mike Greci	18	4	9	15
1999	BRAD LEIGHTON	Steve Griswold	20	6	14	15
2000	BRAD LEIGHTON	Steve Griswold	17	3	12	17
2001	MIKE OLSEN	Mike Olsen	20	2	12	15
2002	ANDY SANTERRE	Andy Santerre	19	3	10	13
2003	ANDY SANTERRE	Joe Bessey	17	3	12	14
2004	ANDY SANTERRE	Joe Bessey	13	5	9	12
2005	ANDY SANTERRE	Andy Santerre	13	2	11	13
2006	MIKE OLSEN	Mike Olsen	11	2	9	11
2007	JOEY LOGANO	J.D. Gibbs	13	5	10	10
2008	MATT KOBYLUCK	Matt Kobyluck	13	4	9	12
2009	RYAN TRUEX	Rob Kaufmann	11	3	7	8