When the first of the white flags flew Friday (Mar. 7) night in the General Tire 150 at Phoenix Raceway, it looked like Brenden Queen, who had a commanding lead, would win back-to-back races to open the 2025 ARCA Menards Series season.
Queen, who drives the No. 28 Best Repair Chevrolet for Pinnacle Racing Group, led 70 laps and was the dominant wheelman in the second half of the race.
But a turn 4 spin from Tim Viens brought out what was, for Queen at least, a very untimely caution just a handful of corners from a second straight checkered flag.
On the first of what turned out to be two one-lap restarts, Thad Moffitt got into Tyler Reif just before the dogleg, and Reif made hard contact with the pit road wall. Reif was thankfully unhurt but disappointed with Moffitt’s actions.
BACK UNDER CAUTION! 😳
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) March 8, 2025
A hard hit for @TylerReif7 brings out the yellow!
📺 @FS1 | @phoenixraceway pic.twitter.com/IxTI6gCef4
In his second race in the No. 46 Nitro Motorsports Toyota, Moffitt finished seventh. Reif unfortunately wound up with a 19th-place result and a wrecked No. 23 Sigma Performance Services Chevrolet.
On the incident, Reif, speaking exclusively to Fronstretch, said: “The No. 28 car just jumped on the gas a little too hard and started spinning his tires, we had to check up , we had a good run we were probably in the best position to win, the No. 46 drove through us, I held my line and he didn’t, he had two car lengths down to the bottom and he decided to drive through me.”
Moffitt saw the incident differently.
“The No. 28 spun his tires in front of the No. 23 it looked like, the No. 23 got a better jump than him (the 28) and I felt like got a better jump than both of them,” he said. “The No. 23 went down inside, I shaded left of him where I had a run then we got to pit wall and we ran out of wall. I felt like I gave him room to race and I gave the No. 28 room and we all ran out. It’s unfortunate, I don’t like to wreck racecars. He’s a good kid, nice kid, always been super nice to me, I’ve got nothing negative to say about him.”
While the two spoke after the race, Reif confirmed, they shared different viewpoints.
“Yeah I talked to him after the race and asked him what he was doing and he said it’s not his fault,” Reif said. “I just looked at the replay on the phone, it’s absolutely his fault. I don’t want to talk bad about anybody there’s not much to say about it you can watch the replay yourself.”
Moffitt chalked it up to a racing incident and said the contact was unintentional.
“I didn’t intentionally wreck him if that’s what you’re asking,” he continued. “I just think we ran out of room. I’ve had time to watch the replay, talked to my team about it and we feel the same way….. We just ran out of room.”
Moffitt drives full time in ARCA. Reif meanwhile will run the majority of the ARCA national tour as well as full time in the ARCA Menards Series East. As such, they will compete against each other multiple times for the rest of the year. Reif maintains he will race Moffitt differently.
“I don’t want to say that about anybody, but he’s definitely not going to get the room other people get,” he added.
Kevin Nix has been with Frontstretch since February 2023. Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, his dream is to be in the NASCAR media sphere full-time. He is a video assistant, working on the back end to streamline video and audio quality of all at-track interviews. Nix also writes about news every Monday for the site.
Nix graduated with a Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. He also has bachelor's degrees in Communications and Political Science. In his downtime, he likes to read, play video games and take walks in the Arizona weather - when it's not too hot.
Danny starts his 12th year with Frontstretch in 2018, writing the Tuesday signature column 5 Points To Ponder. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.