By Vincent Delforge, Staff Writer
The second race of the 2025 ARCA Menards West Series season, combined with the national ARCA Menards Series, which also hosted the second race of the championship, took place in the Arizona desert at Avondale on the one-mile oval at Phoenix Raceway this Friday, March 7. The General Tire 150 was, as usual, a great spectacle from start to finish. The victory came down to the very last turn between Brenden “Butterbean” Queen and Brent Crews. It was Joe Gibbs Racing driver Crews who ultimately took the checkered flag first, earning his first career West Series victory.
ARCA West Practice/Qualifying
Due to the rain, the practice and qualifying sessions were cancelled. The starting grid is determined by the 2024 owners ranking with a rotation between the cars of the ARCA national series and those of the West Series. We, therefore, find Brent Crews and Tanner Reif on the first row, then Trevor Huddleston and Lawless Alan on the second, and so on. The 34 registered drivers are all qualified for the race. Note that with twelve drivers discovering the Phoenix Raceway. Taking part in the race without having been able to do a single lap on the track before the start is not an easy thing. Wouldn’t it have been better to organize a session of at least half an hour before the race? ARCA is supposed to be a learning step in the NASCAR pyramid. It is not by sending drivers without experience on the track that we achieve this objective…
Green, Green, Green !!!
As soon as the green flag was waved, Brent Crews took advantage of his first position to take the lead while Tanner Reif on the inside line was overtaken on the right by Lawless Alan. Trevor Huddleston lost many positions. Note that Alex Malycke parked his Ford in the infield during the pace laps. There were many contacts within the pack. Veteran Brad Smith seemed to be in difficulty in turn 1.
At the end of the first lap, Tyler Reif dove inside in turn 3 and passed his big brother after riding side by side until turn 1 of the second lap.
Crews escaped in the lead but had a scare by taking a turn from Tim Viens. The two drivers touched between turns 3 and 4, which allowed Tyler Reif to significantly reduce his gap on the leader.
On the 22nd lap, the yellow flag was waved for the first time. As announced by ARCA officials before the race, this is a competition caution. This should allow teams to check tire wear since there was no running before the start of the race. Tony Cosentino is the first beneficiary of the free pass of the evening.
At the restart, Crews leads the dance, but the second yellow flag falls two laps later following contact with the outside wall of turn 1 by Jake Bollman, who is doing his first race for Bill McAnally Racing. His left front tire blew out while going from the apron to the banking of the track at the doleg and the driver of the No. 19 could not do anything. Cody Dennison receives the free pass. David Smith also hits the wall and must abandon, breaking his right front suspension.
Crews takes back the lead
If Brenden Queen led the 41st lap on the starting line for the restart, Crews takes back the lead a few hundred meters further on exiting turn 2. The two drivers follow each other until the 58th lap when Queen takes the first position entering turn 1 following a hesitation by Crews in the traffic of the back markers with Blake Lothian and Cody Dennison. There will be no change for the lead until the third yellow flag indicating the midway race. But Tyler Reif has passed Crews for the second position. At the same time, there is a dramatic turn of events with Isabella Robusto, who heads into the pitlane following a mechanical problem, her Toyota smoking more and more. The young Spaniard Adrian Ferrer receives the free pass. The latter will take advantage of the break to make big changes to the tire pressure. But this will not change much in the behavior of his Toyota. It is a suspension problem that is the cause of the wear to the rope of his tires. This problem could have been diagnosed and solved if the practice had not been canceled. Complicated for the rookies…
The ranking for the restart of the 83rd lap is as follows with Brenden Queen the leader in front of Tyler Reif, Brent Crews, Lawless Alan, Lavar Scott, Treyten Lapcevich, Patrick Staropoli, Kyle Keller, Kole Raz and Robbie Kennealy for the top 10. Followed by Thad Moffitt, Corey Day, Andy Jankowiak, Tanner Reif, Trevor Huddleston, Eric Johnson, Jr., Adrian Ferrer, 17th and last driver on the lap. Cody Dennison (-2), Tony Cosentino (-2), Blake Lothian (-4); Tim Viens (-4), Jonathan Reaume (-5), Michael Maples (-6), Brayton Laster (-7), Tim Monroe (-16), Jake Bollman (-16) being the last ones still on track in 25th and 26th position. The following drivers retired: Jason Kitzmiller, Alex Clubb, David Smith, Brad Perez, Isabella Robusto, Ryan Vargas, Brad Smith and Alex Malycke.
At the restart, Tyler Reif takes the lead by diving inside in the dogleg. Crews will also pass Queen a little further for second position and, in less than two laps, come back and pass the leader by also diving inside with authority in the dogleg.
Shortly after Thad Moffitt takes advantage of the fight between Lavar Scott and Treyten Lapcevich to pass them and enter the top 5. On the 89th lap, Staropoli, who has just passed Lapcevich for seventh position, is pushed by the latter in turn 2. The driver of the No. 25 Venturini Motorsports goes into a spin but, fortunately, does not touch the inside wall. However, this causes the fourth yellow of the race. Adrian Ferrer, still struggling with his Toyota receives the free pass for the second consecutive time.
At the restart Brenden Queen is the fastest and takes first position. We will start here the longest run under green flag with 54 laps. The number of drivers in the leader’s lap will thus decrease drastically and will only concern the top 10 a few laps from the finish.
Tim Viens spun in turn 4, Overtime!
But as Queen heads towards victory with more than a second ahead of Crews and 11th place Tyler Reif, there is a dramatic turn of events on the last lap. Kyle Keller runs out of fuel while in 10th position. He shakes his Ford to try to go to the end. But that is when Tim Viens goes into a spin all alone in turn 4 causing a yellow flag. Keller takes the opportunity to go to his pit box to refuel and, therefore, does not receive the free pass.
The restart is given for overtime on lap 157 but Queen spins his tires while accelerating and suddenly causes a slight slowdown behind him. Tyler Reif has to take his foot off the accelerator for a brief moment and is pushed unceremoniously by Thad Moffitt in the dogleg. The driver of the No. 23 Sigma Performance Services goes to crush the front of his car on the end of the pitlane exit wall. Miraculously, no one hits him when he goes back up sideways on the track. Reif is unharmed, but not his car. Before getting into the ambulance, he raises his arms in question, “But what did you do?” to Moffitt. The drivers regroup behind the pace car for a second overtime. Here in ARCA a one lap dash. Corey Day receives the free pass. Staropoli returned sixth must go through his pit box because a fastener of his window net is detached. He will leave in 10th position.
The restart is given on the 165th lap and Brent Crews will put pressure on Queen and try his luck on the inside line in turn 3. The two drivers are side by side but Queen widens too much and pedals to the metal will brush the outside wall in turn 4.. It is enough to lose the momentum and be overtaken by Crews who wins the race with a 160 thousandths lead! Treyten Lapcevich completes the podium for his first career race.
Note that during the restart, Alan slipped entering turn 1, slightly pushing Moffitt who himself pushed Raz to the outside. The three drivers continue their journey, slowing down the entire pack. We didn’t come far from a third overtime!
Brent Crews is happy on Victory Lane. “I raced Brenden [Queen] the whole year last year. We raced him for CARS Tour wins, and then coming here to the ARCA Menards Series at a track like Phoenix to race for the win was really special. A great job for 28 teams [Pinnacle Racing Group]. They had a winning car today, so I’m grateful for the deposit at the end. Winning this race is so special for me. It was my mom’s birthday [on Thursday], so I’m dedicating this win to her. I can’t thank the Joe Gibbs Racing enough. No practice, so showing up to the track with a car this fast was pretty cool.” Crews said.
Crews wins his first career West Series race after three failed attempts. He gives Joe Gibbs Racing its sixth victory at Phoenix. JGR becomes the winningest team on this oval, surpassing Bill McAnally Racing with five.
“The only way they could beat us was to knock us out of the way. Honestly, I’m going to look at it as I have to do a better job on that restart’. In my defense, I never should have let him get close enough. I gave him the bottom in [turn] one to try and not get hit because he had such a run off [turn] two because I cleared him. “I almost wish I wouldn’t have cleared him and stayed door-to-door; then I could have run him up the hill or something.” Queen said. He is a solid leader in the ARCA Menards National Series championship.
The Top 10 is therefore made up of Brent Crews winner ahead of Brenden Queen, Treyten Lapcevich, Lawless Alan, Lavar Scott, Kole Raz, Thad Moffitt, Patrick Staropoli, Robbie Kennealy (best regular driver in the West Series), and Corey Day. By finishing 12th Trevor Huddleston maintains the lead in the West Series championship with 80 points. Kennealy is now second with 75 points. Tanner Reif (73), Eric Johnson, Jr. (72) and Kyle Keller (71) complete the top 5.
For the next race on April 5, we will return to Arizona but on the .375-mile bullring of the Tucson Speedway located in the eponymous city.
