Dominance continues to run rampant in the ARCA Menards Series in 2024.
In the series’ most recent race at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds, Brent Crews led all 102 laps en route to victory.
Crews’ triumph ended William Sawalich’s four-race winning streak. In addition, Crews ended Joe Gibbs Racing and Pinnacle Racing Group’s trips to victory lane as the two teams combined to win the previous 12 ARCA races.
Remarkably, Crews’ victory maintained only three winning organizations this year: Venturini Motorsports, JGR and Pinnacle.
In the driver’s standings, the top eight kept their respective positions.
Where did the frontrunners shake out with the ARCA dirt track slate completed?
1. William Sawalich
Sawalich won the pole and arguably had the second-fastest car but he could not catch Crews on the overtime restart, coming up 0.177 seconds short.
Sawalich’s ninth pole of ’24, like his laps led amount, blows away the competition as only one other driver has more than one pole. He is already eighth in all-time pole awards and 11th in laps led.
How high can he climb in those rankings? He’s 280 laps led away from 10th-place Jesse Love and 289 behind ninth-place Chandler Smith. In terms of poles, Sawalich trails fifth-place Bobby Bowsher by three, which is the number of races Sawalich has left in his ARCA slate this year.
Oh yeah, Sawalich also is 11th in most wins, and if he scores wins in all three races, he’ll reach ninth place. For all these statistical accolades, Sawalich retains his perch atop these power rankings.
2. Andres Perez
A third-place finish and third-most points are not overly spectacular, especially when Crews led every lap and Sawalich won the pole, but Andres Perez strides ever closer to capturing the 2024 title.
Compared to the series regulars, Perez is tied for most top fives and has the most top 10s, poles and miles logged.
Is it the breakout season he wanted?
Yes and no.
Yes, winning the championship is always an accomplishment. Yet on a race-by-race basis, Perez has not contended for wins, he’s only led 19 laps and three runner-up finishes are not jaw-dropping performances.
Alas, as the model of consistency and smart racing, Perez earns second in these rankings.
3. Lavar Scott
Lavar Scott trails Perez by 49 points with only four races left this season.
That’s exactly a full race’s worth of points. In short, gaining at least 13 points per race more than Perez will be daunting. For one, even if Scott breaks through for his first victory, Perez has not stumbled thus far. It’s difficult to expect that to change.
Nevertheless, Scott has made significant progress this year. In his 22-race ARCA career, Scott has 12 top fives and 16 top 10s. Diving further into those numbers, he has a top-10 average finish at speedways of 1-2 miles, short tracks and dirt tracks.
The bigger speedways of more than two miles he has a finishing average of 16.3, but Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway are difficult even for NASCAR Cup Series stars to master.
Scott’s sixth-place result at DuQuoin netted him his third straight top 10 and fifth top 10 in this six-race second half of the season. For that, he trails his Rev Racing teammate Perez by one spot in these rankings.
4. Connor Zilisch
I know neither Connor Zilisch nor PRG competed at DuQuoin, but Zilisch has still been one of the five best drivers in ARCA this year. He has the second-most wins, second-most laps led and an average finish of 1.2 [1.25 to be exact].
Consider this: the PRG No. 28 — which has been driven by Zilisch, Corey Day, Connor Mosack and Shane van Gisbergen — is 18th in owner points, the highest of all part-time entries. It has five wins, seven top fives and seven top 10s.
Last year it was the VMS No. 20 vs. the JGR No. 18 for the owner’s title. While PRG isn’t chasing that championship, whenever Zilisch is in the racecar, he is an instant favorite. While Zilisch will drive for JR Motorsports full time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, hopefully he will participate in more ARCA events. He’s a talented wheelman who did not compete at DuQuoin yet still makes these power rankings.
5. Brent Crews
In nine ARCA series starts, Crews has two wins, five top fives, five top 10s, one pole and 191 laps led. Suffice to say, he’s been quite successful.
At DuQuoin, Crews aced the high line to take the lead on the opening lap and he never looked back. Even faced with an overtime restart, despite his slide out of turn 4, he never relinquished the lead. In a 23-car field, he lapped up to seventh place. Moreover, he gave VMS its third win of the national season and sixth under the ARCA umbrella this year.
‘Twas a good welcome trip to victory lane for Crews & Co.
Crews won’t turn 18 until March 30, 2026, but his dirt track prowess combined with his stats thus far have shown his talent in piloting a racecar and hopefully earned him more ARCA starts.
Paint Scheme of the Race
There weren’t any brand-new gorgeous paint schemes at DuQuoin, so we’ll go with the cleanest one.
That would be race winner Crews driving the No. 20 Toyota. The dirtiest he probably got it was during his burnout.
By keeping his racecar clean and ending PRG and JGR’s combined dominance, Crews earns the DuQuoin Paint Scheme of the Race.
After getting dirty in DuQuoin, ARCA drivers will next make left and right-hand turns at Watkins Glen International. The Glen will host the series on Friday, Sept. 13 at 5 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX Sports 1.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.