The K&N East race at Memphis International Raceway on Saturday night may look an awful lot like NASCAR’s future.

No, this isn’t yet another reference to a NASCAR NEXT class that includes full-time participants Anthony Alfredo and Ryan Vargas. Sure, they’ll be there, but the Memphis 150 could be the start to something everyone seems to be begging for these days in more short tracks across all three national divisions.

The .75-mile tri-oval last hosted the Camping World Truck Series and Xfinity Series in 2009, just before Dover Motorsports Inc. shuttered the facility. It was sold to Palm Beach International in 2011 and immediately resumed hosting IHRA events on its drag strip and leased the oval for a Super Late Model race in 2013.

Speedway president and general manager Pam Kendrick has been employed by both ownership groups and was instrumental in NASCAR’s return with the K&N Pro Series East last season -- a race won by Harrison Burton.

The race was moderately attended, with Kendrick conceding that races could always sell better, but that the inaugural K&N event was also the first step of a multi-year plan to expand NASCAR hosted events.

"It was a great first step," Kendrick told Autoweek on Thursday. "It was a pretty good first year out. We fared pretty well and it was a great race. People talked about the race being very good. Butts in the seats is always the goal, but for the first year, we wanted to grade ourselves on how well we worked with the sanctioning body and the type of experience we gave our fans."

The event offers a VIP lunch experience alongside the standard autograph session for most K&N races.

"The fan experience is what gets us word-of-mouth advertising and that goes further than anything we could buy," Kendrick said. "We want fans to have a good time and tell their friends and family. What we hope to see is that translate to this weekend."

Kendrick is monitoring the movement in NASCAR with drivers and fans alike wanting to see additional short tracks.

Memphis is one of the handful of facilities that has the foundation to host such events, with a SAFER Barrier and a maximum capacity of 35,000 -- not including the space for expanded temporary grandstands.

Kendrick says she has talked to NASCAR about ways to see Xfinity and Trucks return to West Tennessee.

"When we first re-engaged with NASCAR, our plan was to start with K&N and then Trucks and then Xfinity," Kendrick said. "We needed to build the base here. It's difficult to decide where to start because Memphis is such a diverse market."

That's why it was important to start with K&N East, thanks to a roster that includes second-generation drivers and Drive 4 Diversity prospects. Kendrick believes there's a benefit to marketing the youngsters in now with the hopes they graduate to Xfinity and Trucks by time Memphis gets a date.

"There's interest on both sides," Kendrick said.

But that starts on Saturday night with the Memphis 150 presented by AutoZone.

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