In one month, the ARCA Menards Series season will be complete. With only four races remaining, the series wraps up its season on Oct. 5 at Toledo Speedway. As for its two other divisions, the ARCA Menards Series East has just one race left at Bristol Motor Speedway in two weeks (Sept. 19). The ARCA Menards Series West runs the latest into the calendar, concluding its season in conjunction with the NASCAR national series at Phoenix Raceway. The West series also has four races left this season.
With the series nearing their respective ends, what are some things to look forward to both this year and in 2025?
1. Will any full-time drivers win?
Good luck with that. Sixteen races into this season, not a single series regular has won yet. Combined, the top 10 in points have led 166 laps. Lavar Scott has led 144 of those, with 100 coming at Elko Speedway. Those 166 laps are still fourth highest, trailing William Sawalich — who has led a whopping 1,054 laps — followed by Connor Zilisch with 274 and Tanner Gray with 172.
Joe Gibbs Racing has led 1,226 laps and Pinnacle Racing Group has led 362. Those two organizations have led 1,588 of the 2,129 laps this season [74.5%]. Neither team fields a full-time driver.
So, to the series regulars, good luck beating JGR and Pinnacle. Venturini Motorsports is the only other victorious organization in 2024. To boot, Sawalich is competing in three of the remaining four ARCA races. Zilisch will compete at Bristol, Kansas Speedway, and Watkins Glen International.
This trend might continue.
This leads me to point No. 2.
2. Winless champion … good or bad?
For the second time in series history, the ARCA champion could be winless. Bob Dotter accomplished the feat in 1980. Amazingly, he also did not lead a single lap that season. In that nine-race season, he finished runner up three times, all at Flat Rock Speedway.
Fast forward 44 years, and Andres Perez could be crowned the driver’s champion without a win. Perez has led 19 laps, but his Rev Racing team has not been the best in the field. Yes, he could win at Kansas as Rev has won there before, but with the JGR No. 18 driven by Tanner Gray and the Pinnacle entries piloted by Zilisch and Corey Day in the field, it’ll be a tough challenge.
Otherwise, Perez has a fourth at Toledo, 12th at The Glen and one top five and two top 10s at Bristol. Even in his sophomore season, he won’t be the favorite to win at those. Furthermore, he only has two top 10s in three Kansas starts.
Therefore, the question must be asked – is a winless champion good or bad for the series?
Truthfully, it’s a mixed bag. Yes, a winless champion shows the full timers are not as competitive as the part timers. Yes, Perez would be the second driver in three years to win the title to say, “I was not in the fastest vehicle on the track.” And yes, it’s not a good look for the series, whose quality of competition was questioned by JGR NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin.
On the other hand, I highly doubt Perez [or his teammate Scott if Perez falters in the final four races] will win the title at Toledo, look at the trophy, and say, “No thanks, you keep it.” How many ARCA drivers would raise their hands and say, “I’ll take it?”
It’s a situation where there are more full-time teams — currently 16 plus Brad Smith missing one race — yet three of the top five in owner points are not fielding full-time drivers.
So blame the system, where you can run an ARCA race at certain racetracks at age 15, yet at the bigger ones you must be 18. Blame the development system where drivers have ascended to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series without scoring an ARCA win, or even running many ARCA races.
Might I remind you that Austin Dillon won the 2013 NASCAR Xfinity Series title and Matt Crafton won the 2019 Truck title, both without a single win? Again, blame the system, not the game – and certainly not the titlist because they will have won a championship playing by the rules. Hopefully, some of these drivers return to ARCA next year because…
3. Is anyone ready for a promotion?
Zilisch, yes, to JR Motorsports. Sawalich as well with JGR in Xfinity.
Other than those two, I cannot recommend anyone else graduate to the NASCAR national series. The reason? No one else has regularly contended for a win.
Perez and Scott might deserve a few Truck starts with Spire Motorsports, but until they prove they can regularly run up front — as in practice and qualify well, lead laps and be in contention for trophies, they ought to run ARCA more.
Of the other regulars, Kris Wright has gained more publicity for wrecking Cody Dennison and Alex Clubb. Toni Breidinger statistically has regressed to her 2022 performance. Amber Balcaen is 32 — not exactly a younger up-and-coming prospect, and she does not have a single top five in her career yet. Christian Rose has five lead-lap finishes in 16 starts this year plus zero laps led, and AM Racing’s NXS program is not making headlines for running well.
Sure, Greg Van Alst won’t further hone his craft racing in ARCA, but his NASCAR national results last year were dreadful and painful as he ended the year injured.
Ideally, many of the regulars return in 2025 and some new faces accompany them. However, the challenge is…
4. How to make the series worthwhile for teams?
Van Alst and Andy Jankowiak dropped down to part-time status. Clubb is contemplating it himself, stating that his team is $2,500 short of making the trip to Watkins Glen. No, Clubb is not running up front with the leaders but he’s still out there trying to be as competitive as possible and as an underfunded underdog, he’s having a solid one.
Consider this: a brand-new set of tires at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds cost about $1,200. Teams could have two sets of tires in the pits for the race. For one team owner, the total tire bill for one entry was $2,870.01. Tires are a fixed cost. Per the DuQuoin entry form, the base purse for first was $6,000. Second paid $4,000, third paid $3,000 and fourth paid $2,500. So if that entry finished fourth or worse, just on the cost of tires alone, that racecar lost money. Yes, the races themselves are losing ventures for teams unless the driver has a sponsor, or the team has a sponsor and or manufacturer support. It’s a series of love, not financial gain.
In baseball terms, ARCA is single-A. But it should not be a losing money venture for team owners, especially those who are committed to running full time. Clubb’s No. 03 is 14th in the owner’s standings. No, that doesn’t scream contender, but if Clubb isn’t gaining money, how is he supposed to upgrade his equipment? Because if he upgrades his equipment, and mind you engines, pit stops and the racecar bodies are already well-regulated, his performance should improve.
The West series has held exciting races this season, but the last four have featured less than 20 entrants with Shasta Speedway down to 13. Only 11 teams have run all races with another missing one event. It’s a 12-race season too, eight less than the national series. And geographically, it is far enough away from the main series that the ARCA national races don’t attract competitors away from the West standalone ones.
The East series also has a dozen full-time teams but five of its races are combination races with the national tour. Scott is 10th in points despite only running the combination races.
So how do you fix it? Money.
Menards, FloRacing and FOX Sports contracts end after 2024. It’d be an enormous blow to the series if at least one left. It’d arguably be a dagger to the heart if all three left.
Other than money, can NASCAR or ARCA do anything further to increase car counts and the quality of competition?
NASCAR could reexamine its licensing process, but that’s a whole other topic of conversation for a different article.
ARCA could align more of its schedules with the NASCAR national series, but then it both takes away from its Midwestern roots as well as becomes another carbon copy of NASCAR’s top three series.
Top ARCA teams could theoretically lower their cost to race for drivers, but do you know anyone or business that is OK making less money than currently?
In short, there are a few things that could be done to entice more racers to ARCA, but the old phrase “Cash is king” would do wonders for the series. Just look at premier short track races, some on FloRacing, that pay big bucks. Large entry lists with top-notch drivers.
As ARCA racing nears its end for 2024, we likely know two of the champions barring any crazy occurrences. Zilisch will capture the East crown and Perez will win the national one. Out West, Tyler Reif leads Sean Hingorani, the reigning series champ, by eight points. I have a feeling those two will duke it out to the checkered flag at Phoenix to determine who takes home the championship trophy.
ARCA national drivers will next visit The Glen on Friday, Sept. 13 at 5 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. East drivers wrap their season up at Bristol, in a combination race with the national contingent, on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. ET on FS1. The West drivers will follow suit on Saturday, Sept. 28 at Madera Speedway. That race will begin at 11 p.m. ET with live coverage on FloRacing.
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.