This weekend, the ARCA Menards Series heads to the Kansas Speedway for the Reese’s 150, the penultimate race of the 2024 season.
The entry list sees 28 cars entered for the event, which is up from the 24 at Kansas in May and the 21 that last September.
In the spring event, Tanner Gray dominated much of the race, only to be passed by Connor Mosack late in the race, who went on to win. It was a similar outcome last fall at Kansas as well, with Mosack once again finding victory lane.
This time around, however, the series is guaranteed to have a new Kansas winner, as the incumbent Mosack is not entered for this weekend. The biggest storyline with two races left in the season is the championship battle. Andres Perez left Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend with a 53-point buffer over teammate Lavar Scott and should have the championship all but locked up, barring two disastrous races.
For his standards, Perez has struggled at Kansas in his career. He’s never finished better than sixth in three races, and he has a finish outside of the top 15 to his name. However, the 19-year-old enters this weekend on quite a hot streak of consistency, finishing inside of the top 10 in eight of the last 10 ARCA races. Simply starting and finishing Friday evening’s race should lock Perez in as the 2024 ARCA champion.
As for his teammate Scott, the elder Rev Racing driver enters in a proverbial points position lock as well, with the runner-up position virtually impossible to lose. Scott has two previous Kansas starts, earning a top five last September and a 13th-place finish back in May after mechanical issues. Like his teammate Perez, Scott has been on quite the roll lately. He’s finished nine of the last 10 races in the top 10, with seven of those races inside of the top five. The lone exception was a 15th at Michigan International Speedway.
Rev Racing will bring a third car this weekend for the second time in as many weeks and the third time this season, as Sebastian Arias is entered in the team No. 9. It’s Arias’ second race of the season with the team, after he finished 10th at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
Joe Gibbs Racing will have its final race of the season without William Sawalich behind the wheel. Instead, it’ll be Tanner Gray. Gray ran the May race at Kansas, finishing runner-up to Mosack after dominating most of the race. In all, Gray has run five races in the series this season, finishing third or better in every race besides the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, where he finished 24th. The team’s regular driver, Sawalich, will be back at Toledo Speedway next week for the season finale.
Venturini Motorsports will bring its standard five-car lineup to Kansas, with full-time drivers Toni Breidinger, Amber Balcaen and Kris Wright joining Isabella Robusto and Gio Ruggiero in the other two cars. Breidinger enters Kansas with two straight races of finishes outside of the top 10, largely in part due to an injured foot suffered at Michigan. The 25-year-old will be sponsored by BoozyJerky for the second time this season and the first time since Watkins Glen International. Last fall at Kansas, Breidinger finished a career-best third and followed it up in the spring race this year with a 10th-place finish.
As for Balcaen, she enters Kansas sixth in points, coming off of four straight finishes outside of the top 10. Her last top 10 came at Springfield, where she finished eighth. Kansas has always treated the Canadian driver well, as she’s finished inside of the top 10 in three of the four races she’s run.
The last of VMS’ full-time drivers, Wright, heads to Kansas sitting third in the points standings, with a safe buffer ahead of Breidinger, who sits fourth. Despite two consecutive finishes outside of the top 10 at both Bristol and Watkins Glen, Wright has had a very consistent second half of the season. Following the June race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Wright clicked off eight straight top 10 finishes, with all but three of them being top-five finishes. The 30-year-old has three races at Kansas in his ARCA career, finishing inside of the top 10 each race. His best finish of fourth came in the series’ most recent trip to the track back in May.
The team’s other two drivers, Ruggiero and Robusto, are both headed to their first mile-and-a-half track in their careers. For Ruggiero, he just recently turned 18 years old, thus just becoming eligible for the larger race tracks. Along with finishing third in the ARCA East Series standings this season, Ruggiero ran eight national division races. In that time, Ruggiero only finished outside of the top 10 once, at Bristol, with only three finished outside of the top five. Moving ahead to Robusto, the 19-year-old has run three national division races this season, never finishing worse than sixth and nearly winning a West race at Irwindale Speedway back in July.
Pinnacle Racing Group will bring a second entry to Kansas, doing so for the second consecutive weekend and the fourth time this season. Corey Day will make his mile-and-a-half debut, driving the No. 82, and Connor Zilisch will run the flagship No. 28 for his first trip to Kansas. Day has run two previous ARCA races, finishing seventh last week at Bristol and 15th at Salem Speedway after a crash back in July.
As for Zilisch, his accomplishments this season have been noted relentlessly. Following a crash last week at Bristol, the 18-year-old finished 26th, marking his worst finish in ARCA by a long shot — his previous worst was second. It’s Zilisch’s second oval over a mile in length in ARCA, with his first coming at Michigan in August, a race in which he won. Both drivers will also run double duty this weekend, with Day running the Craftsman Truck Series for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing and Zilisch in the Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports.
Currently sitting in fifth in the championship standings, Christian Rose will enter Kansas with a chance to overtake Breidinger for fourth heading into the season finale at Toledo. Rose has had previous success at Kansas in four races, only finishing outside of the top 10 once, back in May.
Lastly, Greg Van Alst and team will bring two entries to Kansas, the No. 34 for Isaac Johnson and the No. 35 for Van Alst himself. Van Alst hasn’t run much ARCA since abandoning his full-time effort after Michigan, having only run Bristol with a 21st-place finish. Johnson will run his first race since Salem a few months ago, and the first 1.5-mile track in his career, like many others this weekend.
This Friday’s (Sept. 27) schedule has the teams getting a 50-minute practice session at 1 p.m. ET, with qualifying to follow at 2 p.m ET. The green flag for the Reese’s 150 will fly at 5:30 p.m. ET, with the live broadcast of the event being aired on FOX Sports 1 and FloRacing.
About the author
Josh joined Frontstretch in 2023 and currently covers the ARCA Menards Series. Born and raised in Missouri, Josh has been watching motorsports since 2005. He currently is studying for a Mass Communication degree at Lindenwood University
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