The 2025 ARCA Menards Series season will begin on Saturday (Feb. 15) at Daytona International Speedway. The ARCA Menards Series West drivers already began their season at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway and championship favorite Trevor Huddleston went to victory lane. The ARCA Menards Series East will begin its eight-race season at Five Flags Speedway.
All three series will welcome new champions this year. Ahead of the national tour season opener, a trio of ARCA experts here at Frontstretch make their championship picks, their breakout stars and more.
Who will win the 2025 driver’s championship? And which full timer is the most intriguing?
Mark Kristl: While my 2024 pick Lavar Scott is back full time, Brenden Queen will take the title in a thrilling season. Queen drives for Pinnacle Racing Group, which won six times last year. In 14 races, the No. 28 scored six trophies, two runner-up finishes, nine top fives and nine top 10s. Connor Zilisch and Connor Mosack combined to lead 364 laps. Queen enters the seat as the 2024 zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Tour champion. PRG also won the 2024 ARCA West season finale at Phoenix Raceway. If Queen can avoid involvement in The Big One at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway plus rapidly learn the two dirt tracks, he will take home the drivers title at Toledo Speedway.
Of the full timers, Isabella Robusto is the most intriguing. She showed her potential last year with several exceptional finishes yet her inexperience also reared when she wrecked out early at Kansas Speedway. It should not be a question of if she will win this year; it should be a question of where, and how often. If Robusto reels off podium finishes, she will factor into the championship conversation throughout the year.
Josh Calloni: Scott will win the 2025 drivers championship. He showed impressive prowess his rookie year, and outside of a few mechanical gremlins, the 2024 championship battle would’ve been much closer. Returning to many tracks now for the second time, with over a year of experience under his belt will only enhance the likelihood that Scott is crowned champion. As for intriguing full timers, Robusto stands out. Robusto’s 2024 performances stood out, nearly winning a West race at Irwindale Speedway, taking home a runner up at Illinois State Fairgrounds, and winning a pole at Kansas. Putting together a consistent schedule and getting more laps each week should lead to Robusto becoming the first female to win in ARCA national competition.
Anthony Damcott: If he’s as consistent as he was last season, Scott will take home the 2025 title. He came close to winning on a few occasions last season (most notably at Elko Speedway) and finished the year second in points, 40 points ahead of third place. The only person standing in his way was teammate Andres Perez, who was somehow more consistent than Scott. With Perez going NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racing this year, Scott is in the best position to win the championship.
As for the most intriguing full-time driver, I’m looking at the PRG No. 28 of Queen. The CARS Tour fan favorite is making the jump to ARCA this season with a team that’s more than capable of winning races. Queen (affectionately known as Butterbean by his fans) has an advantage in a series that is short-track heavy and could be one to watch once he shakes down an ARCA car in the first few races.
Who is this year’s breakout star?
Calloni: Butterbean. Anyone who follows the late model circuit is familiar with the name, and his driving talent is well documented. However, this will be his first test at a full-time big-bodied stock car schedule. Queen will likely have an adjustment period, especially on larger tracks and road courses, but expect him to come into his own. His bread and butter are on short tracks, and with a heavy schedule of tracks under a mile, by the end of 2025, Queen should be even more of a household name as he climbs the ranks of stock car racing.
Damcott: Robusto is a driver who should be on everybody’s radar for 2025. She arguably has the best potential for a female driver we’ve ever seen, and she has a great team behind her in Venturini Motorsports. She could’ve had a couple of wins across all three of ARCA’s series last season, and she’s in a prime position to put herself on the map as she continues to try to work her way up the stock car ladder.
Kristl: It’s tough to call Scott a breakout star when he finished second in points last year, but his second-half performance last year indicated he is ready to match Queen in terms of trophies, points, and ultimately the title. In the last 10 races, Scott earned seven top fives, nine top 10s and 100 laps led, all in a thrilling photo finish at Elko. Overall, he led the fourth-most laps, most of any series regular. So, he is poised to break through to victory lane. Keep in mind, he also accrued four top fives and five top 10s in a part-time 2023 slate. Therefore, Scott has the experience, the growth and the swagger to make this championship reminiscent of the 2022 season where it came down to the season finale at Toledo.
What is one race you’re looking forward to this season?
Damcott: As Frontstretch’s Truck Series writer, I’ve got Lime Rock Park circled on my calendar for Trucks and ARCA. It’s a bad fast road course hidden in the hills of Connecticut, and I’m interested to see how the ARCA field can navigate the 1.5-mile sweeping road course. The ARCA Menards Series East (then known as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East) competed at Lime Rock for 18 years between 1993 and 2010, and it seemed to provide enough entertainment to return for 18 renditions of the event. With the main series heading there (accompanied by the Craftsman Truck Series), I’m very excited to see what kind of action unfolds in that race.
Kristl: Lime Rock will host ARCA and the Truck Series, and the combination race date reminds me of the events held at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Hopefully, several Truck regulars will partake in the ARCA race to gain valuable on-track experience and there will be storylines throughout the field. Because even though last year’s ARCA race at Mid-Ohio featured multiple drivers battling for the win, it lacked the luster of Truck Series drivers adding to the field depth. Lime Rock can do just that.
Bonus: Rockingham Speedway seems like a grandiose location for an ARCA East standalone race, but in conjunction with the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Truck Series, it will be neat to see East drivers join in the return of The Rock.
Calloni: It’s hard to not get excited for the season opener at Daytona. Seeing cars on track for the first time, with new paint schemes and driver/team pairings getting debuted for the first time is always a happy feeling. Couple that with the warm weather breaking up months of cold for teams and fans alike, it’s very much like the first day of school. Just from a racing standpoint, however, the season opener has seen some very good racing the last few seasons, and I’d expect the 2025 edition to be much of the same.
What is your one bold take?
Kristl: Thad Moffitt will quietly point his way into a successful season. Moffitt has 45 career starts. His results? Nine top fives and 26 top 10s with an average result of 11.3. Moffitt is arguably in the best equipment of his career, driving for new upstart Nitro Motorsports. In 2021, Moffitt finished fourth in points. My hot take for the top-five point finishers? Queen wins the championship followed by Scott again in second. Robusto will finish third with Moffitt and Kole Raz, if he indeed runs full time, completing the top five.
Calloni: One driver will not run away with the championship this season, unlike the last few seasons. The full-time field in 2025 is more competitive across the board than it’s been in some time, and that will reflect across the entirety of the season. The championship title battle will come down to more than just starting the race at Toledo in October and will keep fans on their feet all season long.
Damcott: The season opener at Daytona boasts an entry list of 47 cars, but we all know that a bunch of them are not full time, or even part time, as much as they are Daytona one-offs. However, Daytona will be one of at least five races where ARCA will see a car count above 30. With new additions to the schedule like Lime Rock and Madison International Speedway, plus the combination races with the East (plus the one West combination race at Phoenix), I’m optimistic that car counts will be high for at least 25% of the 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.