2023 ARCA Menards Series East

file:Luke Fenhaus.jpg|thumb|Luke Fenhaus finished second in the championship by 58 points.
file:Lavar_scott__.jpg|thumb|Lavar Scott finished third in the championship by 69 points.
The 2023 ARCA Menards Series East was the 37th season of the ARCA Menards Series East, a regional stock car racing series sanctioned by NASCAR in the United States. The season began on March 25 with the Pensacola 200 at Five Flags Speedway and ended on September 14 with the Bush's Beans 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Sammy Smith, the defending series champion in 2021 and 2022, moved up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series to run full-time for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2023 and therefore did not return to run full-time in the ARCA Menards Series East and defend his title. William Sawalich replaced him in the No. 18 car in 2023, which went back to being owned by JGR after being owned by Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2022. At the conclusion of the season, Sawalich clinched the ARCA Menards Series East championship.

Teams and drivers

Note: If a driver is listed as their own crew chief for a particular race, that means that their entry in that race was a start and park.

Limited schedule

'''Notes'''

Changes

Teams

On December 9, 2022, it was announced that the No. 18 car would go back to being owned by Joe Gibbs Racing in 2023. It was owned by Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2022.
On January 8, 2023, it was announced that Tim Goulet Enterprises would rename to Rise Motorsports in 2023 and continue to field the No. 31 car in the main ARCA Series and the East Series for Rita Goulet and Stephen Leicht. On February 13, it was announced that they would run the full East Series season with Rita in 2023. Goulet and Leicht were both scheduled to run the main ARCA/East Series combination race at Bristol. Goulet would end up swapping out with her husband Tim and Leicht did not run the event.
On January 13, 2023, Rev Racing announced that they would field a full-time car in the East Series again in 2023: the No. 6 driven by Lavar Scott. The team had last fielded a full-time East Series car in 2021 and only fielded part-time cars in the East Series in 2022.
On January 18, 2023, it was announced that longtime main ARCA Series team Venturini Motorsports would field a full-time car in the East Series for the first time since 2020 in 2023: the No. 15 driven by Sean Hingorani.
On February 3, 2023, it was announced that Shane Huffman, who was previously the crew chief for Bret Holmes Racing in the Truck and ARCA Series, would form a new ARCA and late model racing team, Pinnacle Racing Group, with spotter Lorin Ranier and former driver Josh Wise and would run full-time in the East Series in 2023, fielding the No. 28 Chevrolet.
On February 24, 2023, it was revealed that Lowden Jackson Motorsports would debut in the East Series in 2023 after purchasing Fords from David Gilliland Racing which switched to Toyota and renamed to TRICON Garage. The team would field the No. 41 Ford driven by Tyler Reif for the full season.

Drivers

On December 6, 2022, it was announced that Zachary Tinkle, who ran the full season in the main ARCA Series aside from the race at Mid-Ohio, would run full-time in the East Series in the No. 11 car for Track Racing in 2023. Fast Track was one of the teams he drove part-time for in 2022.
On December 9, 2022, it was announced that William Sawalich would drive the No. 18 car part-time in 2023 and the car would go back to being owned by Joe Gibbs Racing. It was owned by Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2022.
On January 13, 2023, Rev Racing announced that Lavar Scott, who has been a driver for the team in late model racing, would drive full-time for the team in the East Series in 2023 in their No. 6 car. Andrés Pérez de Lara would also drive for Rev full-time in the main ARCA Series in the No. 2 car and was therefore in the four main combination races the East Series had with the main ARCA Series.
On January 18, 2023, it was announced that Sean Hingorani, who drove part-time in the West Series for Nascimento Motorsports and Bill McAnally Racing in 2022, would drive full-time in the East Series for Venturini Motorsports in 2023 in their No. 15 car. Hingorani also drove the same car full-time in the West Series in 2023, attempting to win both championships in the same year.
On February 13, 2023, Rise Motorsports announced that Rita Goulet would run full-time in the East Series in their No. 31 car in 2023.
On February 24, 2023, Tyler Reif revealed to Frontstretch that he would run the full season in the East Series in 2023 in the Lowden Jackson Motorsports No. 41 car in addition to running full-time in the West Series for the team. He attempted to win both championships in the same year.

Schedule

The full schedule was announced on November 22. Some race dates were announced before then. There were eight races on the 2023 schedule, up from seven in 2022.
Note: Races highlighted in gold are combination events with the ARCA Menards Series.

No	Race title	Track	Location	Date
1	Pensacola 200	Five Flags Speedway	Pensacola, Florida	March 25
2	General Tire 125	Dover Motor Speedway	Dover, Delaware	April 28
3	Music City 200	Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway	Nashville, Tennessee	May 13
4	Dutch Boy 150	Flat Rock Speedway	Ash Township, Michigan	May 20
5	Calypso Lemonade 150	Iowa Speedway	Newton, Iowa	July 15
6	Reese's 200	Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park	Brownsburg, Indiana	August 11
7	Sprecher 150	Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin	August 27
8	Bush's Beans 200	Bristol Motor Speedway	Bristol, Tennessee	September 14

Schedule changes

On August 9, 2022, Mark Kristl from Frontstretch reported that Flat Rock Speedway could be added to the East Series schedule in 2023. This was officially announced by ARCA on November 18. The race at Flat Rock, which was held on May 20, replaced the race at New Smyrna Speedway, which had been the season-opener for the East Series from 2014 to 2022.
On November 11, 2022, it was announced that the main ARCA Series race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park would be a combination race with the East Series in 2023, giving the series a fourth combination race on top of the three returning ones from 2022.

Broadcasting

After previously only broadcasting about half of the main ARCA Series races for several years, usually only the races that were on the same weekend at the same track as a NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and/or Truck race, Fox will broadcast all 20 main ARCA Series races in 2023 and this includes all four combination races with the East Series. Previously, Bristol was the only East Series race televised on Fox as they were also broadcasting the Truck Series race there on that weekend.

Results and standings

Drivers' championship

Notes:

The pole winner also receives one bonus point, similar to the previous ARCA points system used until 2019 and unlike NASCAR.
Additionally, after groups of five races of the season, drivers that compete in all five races receive fifty additional points. This points bonus will be given after the race at Iowa.
* William Sawalich, Luke Fenhaus, Lavar Scott, Zachary Tinkle, Tim Monroe and Dale Shearer received this points bonus for having competed in the first five races of the season.

Bold – Pole position awarded by time. Italics – Pole position set by final practice results or rainout. * – Most laps led.