The checkered flag has flown on the 2024 ARCA Menards Series season, and it was an eventful one. The national division saw seven different winners and 121 separate competitors over its 20-race schedule.
It was Andres Perez who was crowned champion of the series at Toledo Speedway in October, keeping himself 41 points above Rev Racing teammate Lavar Scott in the final standings to do so.
Perez was not able to find victory lane this season, however, for the first time since Bob Dotter did so in 1980 in a nine-race season. Perez still put up incredibly consistent numbers over the course of the year, though. He scored 10 top fives and 17 top 10s, leading just 21 laps, finishing all but three races and completing nearly 97% of the laps attempted. Come the finale at Toledo, all the 19-year-old had to do was start the race to clinch the championship.
After the Rev pair in the standings, it was a duo of Venturini Motorsports cars next. Kris Wright finished the season third, with Toni Breidinger in fourth. Christian Rose was able to cap off the season in the top five in the final standings, 125 points back of Perez.
Read all of Frontstretch‘s content looking back on 2024 here
Many things stood out throughout the season, as noted in this year’s awards for 2024.
Top Storyline of the Year: Venturini Motorsports at Springfield
Typically, something as simple as a driver lineup isn’t a huge storyline. However, VMS changed that belief at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, fielding five cars, with women drivers piloting four of them.
Full-timers Breidinger and Amber Balcaen both piloted their usual entries, the Nos. 25 and 22, respectively. They were joined by Isabella Robusto, who drove the No. 20 in place of Brent Crews, who had a CARS Tour race the same day, and Taylor Reimer, who was in the No. 55 that day.
It wasn’t the first time the team had piloted a number of women in the same race, however. In 2018 at Chicagoland Speedway, it ran three cars for Natalie Decker, Lelani Munter and Breidinger.
Of course, it would’ve been a huge storyline alone if the four had simply just raced for the same team together, but they also each scored top 10s in the event. Robusto carried the banner for the team, finishing runner-up to race winner William Sawalich after an overtime restart. The race was just the second time Robusto had run on dirt in her career.
Robusto wasn’t the only female driver to take home a podium that day either, as Reimer finished right behind her teammate in third, the best finish of her career. Robusto and Reimer’s results marked the first time on record that two women finished inside the top three in the same ARCA race.
Additionally, Robusto’s runner-up finish was the fourth time a woman had finished second in a national division race, joining Hailie Deegan, Erin Crocker and Shawna Robinson.
Breidinger narrowly missed joining the duo in the top five, finishing sixth, her best finish of the 2024 season as well. Balcaen finished eighth, marking her second-best finish of the season at that time, which would be topped by a sixth-place finish at Kansas Speedway in the penultimate race a few months later.
Top Race of the Year: Shore Lunch 250 at Elko Speedway
There were a number of strong competitors for this award. The season opener at Daytona International Speedway had plenty of action, but also plenty of yellow flags. The same could be said for the ARCA Menards Series East finale at Bristol Motor Speedway (a combination event with the national series), with both races seeing over half of its length run under caution. Both short track races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and Iowa Speedway provided lots of lead changes and action at the front.
But none of the above compared to the series’ date at Elko Speedway.
The race had only 20 cars entered, tied for the least of the season, but the action was definitely not lacking. The race saw four different lead changes, which was tied for fifth most on the season, and it provided the most memorable finish to a race all year long.
After leading much of the first 100 laps of the race, Sawalich was working his way through lapped traffic shortly after the green flag flew out of the halfway break. However, upon catching Michael Maples, the two made contact into turn 1, spinning Sawalich out, though his No. 18 Toyota did not sustain any damage.
This handed the lead over to Scott and put Sawalich toward the rear half of the top ten with roughly 100 laps to go. Scott dominated most of those final laps, but the race was flipped on its end with under 20 laps to go. After a spin for Ryan Roulette brought out the yellow, the field was grouped up for a restart, but rain began to fall. It remained light, and ARCA allowed the race to go to its scheduled distance and were rewarded for their decision.
Under a lightning-filled sky, the final seven laps of racing were the best ARCA saw all year. Scott and Sawalich battled side by side for much of the final run, with Sawalich finally getting around to the lead in the final set of corners. Wright, who was in third, caught the duo in the meantime, leading to the three crossing the line side by side for the finish, with Wright spinning sideways in the process.
Sawalich was deemed the winner, marking the first time he had won at his home track at the ARCA level in his young career.
Breakout Driver: Lavar Scott
No driver came on stronger in 2024 than Scott. Despite finishing second in the points to Perez, he had just as consistent of a season despite not finding victory lane.
Scott ended up with 11 top fives, one more than his teammate, and 15 top 10s, two shy of Perez’s mark. He led over 100 more laps than Perez, though, and only finished outside of the top 10 twice after a rough start to the season that saw him finish 11th or worse three times in the first five races. That start to the season likely settled the difference in the championship come season’s end, but Scott’s consistency was still something to be heralded.
After a disappointing 15th-place finish at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the seventh race of the season, Scott rolled off top-five finishes in six of the next seven races, excluding only Michigan International Speedway, where he dealt with tire issues. All 144 of his laps led came in that stretch as well. After a pair of races in which he finished outside of the top 10, he clicked off three more consecutive top fives to conclude the season, including a third place at Bristol after starting 26th.
Scott also had a knack of finishing races and keeping the car clean, something very primitive for a young driver. After wrecking out at Daytona in the closing laps of the season opener, Scott did not fail to finish any other time in 2024. He had a few races where he battled a number of mechanical gremlins, including Michigan and Talladega Superspeedway, but overall the 21-year-old completed 99.1% of the laps this season, missing just 23 of the 2,675 circuits.
While it’s not confirmed if Scott will return to the ARCA level in 2025, in the likelihood that he does, he will certainly be a threat, if not the favorite, to win the championship at season’s end.
Disappointment of the Year: Full-Time Drivers Not Reaching Victory Lane
Throughout the 20-race season, none of the full-time competitors in the series reached victory lane once. This is also a stat that occurred in a year when 10 drivers attempted the full schedule, the most since 2011, well over a decade ago. It was the first time in the ARCA Menards Series that a full-time driver did not find victory lane.
In fact, the full-time drivers this season only led 168 combined laps, with Scott accounting for 144 of them. For comparison’s sake, Sawalich, who ran 14 main-series races, led nearly 1,400 laps. Perez accounted for 21, while Balcaen added three throughout the season.
However, this wasn’t necessarily the worst thing for the series, as consistency was rewarded throughout the year, something that isn’t the case higher up the stock car ranks. Scott and Perez finished inside of the top five in over half of the races, and in the top 10 in over three-quarters of them. The remainder of the top five championship finishers — Rose, Breidinger and Wright — each finished at least half of the races inside of the top 10.
This is a testament to just how deep the ARCA field was, however, both in terms of equipment and drivers. The series did see seven different winners this year, down just one from 2023’s total. The series sees plenty of competitiveness, especially within its part-time cars and teams. Sawalich and Connor Zilisch each put on a show this year, combining for 14 wins on the year. Up-and-coming star Crews found victory lane at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds for VMS, as did Jake Finch and Gus Dean at Talladega and Daytona, respectively. NASCAR’s Connor Mosack and Tanner Gray also won a race each.
While not seeing any of the full-time competitors find victory lane was certainly disappointing, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for the health of the series. In fact, it could be just the opposite.
Paint Scheme of the Year: Cody Dennison ALL CAPS Comics at Talladega
Plenty of different paint schemes hit the track in 2024, giving this particular award no shortage of potential winners.
Full-timers Rose and Breidinger both put out no shortage of eye-catching schemes, with Breidinger’s blue and yellow Sunoco scheme catching eyes, and the various looks of Rose’s West Virginia Department of Tourism cars.
A few part-time teams also put various notable schemes on track this season, notably Thomas Annunizata and team Ferrier-McClure Racing. The team utilized a Days of Thunder look at Daytona and a Jeff Gordon rainbow warrior look at Mid-Ohio later in the season.
The best, however? That belongs to Cody Dennison and his Talladega scheme, sponsored by ALL CAPS Comics driving for Fast Track Racing. Made to look like the car had scales, the green and yellow mixed together very well and certainly popped on the race track.
Dennison and his team put together a 17th-place finish that day in what was his first career ARCA start. Dennison also took the sponsor to Wayne Peterson Racing for a run at Dover Motor Speedway a week later, running the same scheme renumbered to No. 06.
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