Seen in a new light: Inside Salem Speedway’s glow-up from Musco Lighting ahead of the Spruce 212

A nationally televised broadcast on FOX is not the only reason the lights will be twice as bright for ARCA Menards Series competitors at Indiana’s Salem Speedway on Saturday evening.

Musco Lighting, renowned for innovation when it comes to large-scale lighting projects for sports venues and other facilities, will be out in full force for the Spruce 212 (8 p.m. ET). Temporary lighting mobile units have been placed all around Salem for Saturday to ensure fans at home and at the track have the best viewing experience possible.

Vaughn Blythe, the key accounts manager at Musco Lighting, was first made aware of the project after NASCAR’s vice president of industry development Joey Dennewitz reached out to him. Two months of coordination between Musco, NASCAR and the ARCA Menards Series have culminated into what Blythe believes will be a successful event.

“Joey [Dennewitz] and I have been friends for 10-plus years,” Blythe said. “He said we’re looking to host a race, and there might be some lighting issues they have there currently. He wanted to know if we wanted to get involved, and of course, I told him yes.

“Our owner used to always say we like to do what’s right because it’s right, and this falls right in line, whether it’s the ARCA race or any other event that we work with our customers on.”

Musco has maintained a productive relationship with NASCAR throughout most of its 50-year history. The company’s first NASCAR-related project occurred in 1985 with temporary lights around Bristol Motor Speedway before installing a mix of temporary and permanent lighting at the reconfigured Richmond Raceway three years later.

For the 1992 season, Musco was tasked with its most significant motorsports assignment to that point: Lighting up the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway.

With NASCAR seeking to give its burgeoning All-Star Race some momentum, the sanctioning body and Charlotte track president Humpy Wheeler worked with Musco on how to properly hold a night race. A $1.7 million system known as Mirtran was employed by Musco; it uses pinpoint light control to minimize glare and eliminate shadows.

The result was a resounding success. Musco and Charlotte proved to the wider motorsports community that large-scale facilities could host night races. The ensuing race saw Davey Allison crash across the start-finish line following contact with Kyle Petty, earning it the nickname “One Hot Night.”

Today, Musco has lights in place at 16 Cup Series. Among the company’s most recent projects was Bowman Gray Stadium ahead of the Cook Out Clash in 2025, along with replacing Daytona International Speedway’s light system with LEDs, which will be completed by early 2027.

Musco’s reliability has earned the trust of not only NASCAR, but numerous sports organizations around the world. The company achieved this reputation through several qualities that include rigorous testing of their products along with a proactive system of monitoring that can rapidly detect and diagnose issues.

A project like Salem provides Musco’s staff a baseline, especially since they have helped the track in the past. Since Salem already has an established lighting system, Musco’s mobile light manager Jerry Fynaardt said the company can work with and refine the infrastructure already in place.

“We take a look at what’s there on a permanent basis, kind of like Bowman Gray was.” Fynaardt said. “We see what’s there permanently, then we try to fill it in to make sure it’s good for the drivers, TV and as well as the fans. There’s a little bit of a process to it. Our engineers do lighting scans and everything else on it, just to make sure it’s good.”

When Musco’s staff started preparing for The Clash last year, they analyzed Bowman Gray’s older light structures and retrofitted them with LEDs. Trucks were brought in to not only further illuminate the quarter-mile oval for the FOX broadcast, but to also put on light shows that were used for pre-race and post-race festivities.

Salem’s established infrastructure consists of a High-Intensity Discharge, or HID system. Due to this, Fynaardt said it will not be possible for Musco to sync all the lights together for a color-coded show, but he did not rule out the possibility of such an idea in the future if everything goes well.

Blythe emphasized how important this weekend is for Musco, Salem and NASCAR in general. If short tracks are going to become an integral part of NASCAR scheduling moving forward, the infrastructure needs to support that initiative.

“I’m confident with how things are going to look on TV, and I think the event is going to be a great event,” Blythe said. “There’s definitely been a shift with [NASCAR] trying to get back to some of these short tracks nationwide. I can see this continuing to be a big push for Joey and his group. Obviously, we’re going to be there to assist if needed.”

Salem’s rich history makes the complex a perfect location for such an initiative. Built in 1947, no other track has hosted more events for the ARCA Menards Series at 110 in total, with the prestigious list of winners including Jack Bowsher, Bobby Allison, Benny Parsons, Ken Schrader and Frank Kimmel, among others.

Fynaardt understands short tracks like Salem are a vital component for motorsports in the U.S. and that they need to stay alive. From multiple perspectives, Fynaardt wants the Spruce 212 to be a success for Musco and short-track racing in general.

“Musco’s main business is selling permanent lights,” Fynaardt said. “The main thing would be, if this becomes a good thing and FOX wants to do more of these things at night, maybe with this track and other ones, we could possibly look at upgrading their systems with Vaughn’s group on permanent lighting. That’s our core business.”

Throughout Musco’s history with NASCAR, the company has embraced every project. Along with providing state-of-the-art lighting systems for tracks, Musco also joined the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America as an official partner while also installing lights at the zip line and entrance to Victory Junction.

Blythe values all the friendships he and others at Musco have built with the NASCAR community through the years. That foundation is why Blythe believes Musco will continue investing in the sport’s future, whether through short-track events like Saturday’s Spruce 212 or long-term plans at NASCAR’s larger facilities.

“[Our relationship with NASCAR] is very strong,” Blythe said. “We’ve had a long history with lighting the majority of these NASCAR tracks the last 30 years. We’re right at the inception of the big LED conversion push for all of the NASCAR tracks. From a pro sports standpoint, everything’s been converted from metal halide to LED.

“Probably in the next five to seven years, most of the NASCAR tracks will be converted to LED.”

Musco’s first 50 years of operation have been defined by innovation and reliability. There are plans in place to make sure the company lasts another 50 years, from focusing on the fan experience at sporting events to maintaining strong relationships with companies and local communities all around the world.

Salem represents both those aspects for Musco; they collaborated with NASCAR to invest into a staple of the Salem, Indiana community. With that hard work being showcased live on FOX, Saturday’s Spruce 212 has the potential to be one of the most pivotal moments in the long history of Salem and the ARCA Menards Series.