In 2025, Menards returns as the entitlement sponsor for the ARCA Menards Series and FOX Sports returns as the broadcast partner. Furthermore, the series 2025 season opener at Daytona International Speedway will be televised on FOX.
Yes, the news affects all, but for three underdog teams and independent driver Andy Jankowiak, it is impactful, though not all celebrate it.
“It’s big because it brings us stability,” Fast Track Racing team owner Andy Hillenburg told Frontstretch at Toledo Speedway. “We know there’s going to be a good points fund, we know we’re going to have television exposure for our sponsors, current and future, so that we can be working on that. And having that commitment going in for three or four years, you can plan that far ahead.
“Sometimes you might not have a complete deal, but you might want to try to figure out how to run those three to four extra races and stay in the point standings. And great partners in the sport like Menards allow me to do that.”
“I’m excited about that,” Rise Motorsports team owner Tim Goulet concurred. “I’ve always believed in the best interest of our sport long term and I always believed in building the future of our sport. The whole FOX deal and being on big FOX for Daytona, it’s huge for us, it’s huge for our sponsors that are going to jump on board with us and drivers who are going to drive for us. Anybody who is going to be in a seat at Daytona is certainly going to get that attention on big FOX. That’s huge for the drivers, sponsors and series. I’m incredibly grateful for Menards jumping onboard for this year and I’m grateful for FOX jumping onboard for Daytona.”
KLAS Motorsports pilot Jankowiak made headlines for a memorable quote before the final restart at Daytona in 2024, and he delighted in the announcement.
“It certainly makes it more exciting for our sponsors,” he added. “Everybody at FOX, Heather DeBeaux, Mamba Smith, they do a really good job talking to all the drivers and make it fun. It’s great to be a part of the NASCAR clique that way. So, getting that exposure and racing alongside those drivers it is good for us, our brand and sponsors.”
Yet Clubb Racing Inc. owner/driver Alex Clubb had different thoughts about the news, even if he agreed it’s a step in the right direction.
“It’s good to have stuff on TV, I just don’t like the way they present our product,” he said. “You watch any other series when the field comes to green, they have the entire field coming to green instead of six cars. They talk about a few drivers; it wouldn’t kill them to pan through and talk about every driver in the top 20 for a few seconds each.
“I’ve had discussions with people at FOX cause I’m very opinionated. They say, ‘Oh, it’s going to change. You’ve been brought up in our meetings,’ and it never changes. Same song and dance. They worry about the girls and whoever is the pizza delivery guy. It doesn’t matter past that.
“When you run 15th-25th every week, if you don’t have a mention on TV or at least those 10 seconds your car is on TV, who’s going to get sponsors? If they zoomed in on each car in the field for 10 seconds, like they used to do with NASCAR 10-15 years ago, run through the field, it doesn’t matter what’s going on with that car at the track, they say, ‘This is so and so, this is their sponsor, yada yada yada,’ and onto the next one, pan through the whole field – you can do so in about a minute – but they won’t do it. It hurts us. For us and others, unless you wreck, you’re not on TV. We’re their red-headed stepchild like we are with NASCAR.”
Word in the garage at Toledo was that the entry list for Daytona would be large. This year, 50 drivers entered and 10 went home. Industry personnel expect DNQs at Daytona next year, perhaps even more.
It does not surprise Hillenburg, the 1995 series champion.
“I’m not surprised because our racing is very good,” he said. “The ratings for that race are huge. Back when I won it, it used to be on ESPN before there were so many channels, and that was huge. We got great ratings, and it helped bring in better sponsorship so I’m going to view that for next year. More viewers for our series and hopefully we can get more sponsorship dollars to promote it.”
Furthermore, he predicts there will be additional races with DNQs. Three drivers failed to make the second race of the season at Phoenix Raceway.
“It’s right there knocking on the door,” Hillenburg continued. “What that does is increase the competitiveness of people building better cars and having better stuff which hopefully will put on a better race for the fans as well.”
Rise was the lone team that failed to make both Daytona and Phoenix. The team rallied to finish 16th in the owner standings while using the same car in a full-time national and ARCA Menards Series East schedule.
“Even though it might not want to go the way some people want it to go, as it did for us this year, at the end of the day it’s going to be good for our sport and if we can get all the attention in the world of ARCA Daytona on big FOX, awesome for the series,” Goulet added. “That’s what we all want to see.”
For Rise, the goal of course is to make Daytona and Phoenix after needing to acquire two engines this offseason after they failed in 2024.
Clubb also is somewhat concerned the increased car count could force more drivers to use provisionals, thereby relegating him to a DNQ. His No. 03 finished 14th in the owner standings, right behind the FTR entries in 10th-13th.
Because of the publicity ARCA will receive by being on FOX, Jankowiak is already pushing for an increase in sponsorship for the race. Hopefully, it will yield a greater ROI for those entities.
“Certainly, we’re going to push that more with it being on the larger broadcast,” he stated. “That’s an angle and deservedly so. We’re going to have an increase in viewership 400% year-to-year, so it is important to maximize that. Sponsors at Daytona might pay for another five races where it is harder to find those partnerships.”
Zachary Tinkle has been a fixture in the ARCA garage since he debuted in 2021. With 62 starts across the ARCA platform, he too relished the double re-signing announcement.
“The Menards renewal and new FOX Sports deal is a very positive step forward, it’s not only going to provide a bit more stability to the series, having a race on main FOX at Daytona is going to do wonders for the series in terms of viewership,” he said. “Very positive for the sport.
“The return on investment for next year will be a lot better for sponsors as this should allow the series to have more visibility with the potential for more viewership, I’d personally say the few years since I joined in 2021 have slowly seen the series on an upward trajectory in terms of stability and level of competition, 2025 will honestly be the same and allow the field to close up a little bit more as it did this year.”
Tinkle enjoyed an uptick in performance in 2024. He scored two top fives and four top 10s in the East en route to his second straight fourth-place points finish. When he wasn’t piloting the No. 11, he aided FTR throughout the year, including helping Willie Mullins secure a ninth-place result at Toledo.
This year welcomed Presley Sorah into stock car racing. He drove for Clubb, Rise and FTR. For the 21-year-old, Menards and FOX Sports’ returns are huge.
“Like everyone else, we’re excited for it,” he agreed. “FOX provides our series great exposure and a great platform to showcase young talent, and Menards does a great job promoting our series and giving us opportunities to meet with fans, so it’s great for all parties.
“Any time we get an event on premier TV such as FOX, it is hugely beneficial toward our marketing efforts for the race. I’m excited for it.”
Although no full-time drivers won in 2024, Hillenburg asserted the competition quality increased in 2024. Sixteen teams attempted all 20 races this year, two more from the previous year and the same amount as a highly-competitive 2022.
“I know what it takes to narrow that gap and if you look at race times, not necessarily what you see on TV, but if you look at times on the stopwatch throughout the race, it is more competitive,” Hillenburg said. “Those top three teams have resources that a lot of us do not have and that’s OK. I’m not going to cry about that. We’ll just keep working harder and try to put that together a small amount at a time.
“Huge sponsorship dollars can catch us up there faster but we still have catch up. Just because you have the dollars does not mean you are immediately going to catch up. I feel like the mid-tier teams, we are gaining on the bigger teams because the rules have been consistent. And when the rules are consistent, it allows us, the middle teams, to close that gap a little bit easier.
“Now if they go and change the rules and you need a whole new engineering book, we’re back to where we were a couple of years ago. When the rules change, it changes the game and that’s when the dollars really show up.”
With Menards and FOX Sports back for 2025 plus Daytona broadcast on FOX, hopefully ARCA will have competitive races from top-to-bottom in the field throughout its season.
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.
Nice piece, Mark.