The ARCA Menards Series’ General Tire 150 starts the race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The fifth race of the 2025 season is upon us, with 32 drivers entered.
Of those 32, the race to victory lane will go through Venturini Motorsports, Pinnacle Racing Group or Joe Gibbs Racing. The three organizations combined have won every national division race since the first two of the 2023 season.
JGR’s No. 18 has a 12-point lead in the owner’s standings over the PRG No. 28. JGR has won two of the last three ARCA races at Charlotte, including last year with Tanner Gray. This year, William Sawalich will drive the No. 18 at Charlotte.
As with nearly all big racetracks this year, both in his NASCAR Xfinity Series and ARCA competition, Sawalich has never been to Charlotte. While he owns 13 ARCA race-winning trophies, he hasn’t won this year. Moreover, he’s only led 81 laps this year, whereas he’s led more than 81 laps in a single ARCA race 11 times.
Nevertheless, in top-tier ARCA equipment, expect Sawalich to be in contention, aiding JGR in its owner’s title quest.
PRG is bringing two racecars to Charlotte – Brenden “Butterbean” Queen in his normal No. 28 and Austin Green in the No. 82.
Queen has never been to Charlotte before either, but that didn’t stop him from winning at the fellow 1.5-mile racetrack Kansas Speedway in his first ARCA start there. PRG wound up second last year with Carson Kvapil piloting its No. 82, and Connor Mosack started sixth before a brake failure left him with a 27th-place DNF.
Butterbean also has longtime sponsor Folsom Fence Supply onboard his No. 28 Chevrolet.
Green will make his second ARCA national division start and second in the ARCA platform this year. He has competed at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in an Xfinity car, but this is different.
“It’s definitely good to use David, Jeff and Mark [Green] as tools,” Austin Green told ARCA Racing. “Obviously they’ve done it for a lot longer than I have. The biggest thing is to pick their brains. I’ve never been to Charlotte on the big track; we did the ROVAL, but that was about it. Depending on what track it is, it’s nice to fall back on them.
“The ARCA car has a lot more grip, but a little less power since it’s sucked down to the track. I’m kind of using what I learned at Rockingham going into Charlotte. I’m very confident in everyone at Pinnacle Racing Group. They always deliver really fast cars, now it’s on me to deliver.”
In its last season, Venturini hopes to add a second trophy from Charlotte to its collection. Its lone victory there came in 2023 when Jesse Love won in overtime en route to the title that year.
In addition to full-timers Lawless Alan in the No. 20 and Isabella Robusto in the No. 55, Patrick Staropoli is back in the No. 25 Toyota.
“Still got a little bit of work to do in race speed,” VMS team owner Billy Venturini said, in a team Facebook post, about his team’s performance entering Charlotte. “Qualifying speeds, we seem to be where we need to be. Seems like we have the best qualifying speed in the series. But, I think, feel like we need a little bit more sustained speed for the race, and I feel like we’ve come across some things that I think were kind of holding us back there, so maybe Charlotte and Michigan [International Speedway].”
Alan gained 22 spots from start to finish in the 2024 ARCA Charlotte race, scoring an eighth-place finish. If he qualifies better and is anywhere close to as quick this year as last, Alan will be a force to be reckoned with.
Robusto has never been to Charlotte before, and her results at similar racetracks are emblematic of Venturini’s thoughts. In four starts at racetracks between one and two miles in length, she has one pole and an average starting position of 5.3, but only one top 10 with an average finish of 19.3. She crashed out late at Kansas so if her luck improves, she could come closer to her starting spot.
Staropoli has also never been to Charlotte before. Despite not competing in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, he’s 10th in the standings, so a worthy candidate for winning as well.
If another team is going to victory lane, who will be that winning driver? How about 2015 series champion Grant Enfinger? He’s driving the No. 97 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet as Jason Kitzmiller will only wheel the No. 79 in practice before departing for his daughter’s high school graduation.
“Grant’s a proven winner and someone I trust completely with our program,” Kitzmiller said, in a press release, about Enfinger in the racecar. “He’s already shown what he can do in our car at Charlotte, and I have no doubt he’ll give us a shot at another strong finish. It means a lot to have someone of his caliber step in and represent A.L.L. Construction Racing and our partners.”
Enfinger has 10 starts in his racing career at Charlotte. Overall, he has four top fives, six top 10s, and two laps led there.
Don’t count him out or tied-for-second in points, Lavar Scott. Scott quietly started seventh and finished fifth last year. He continues to search for his first career win, though he told Frontstretch that his Rev Racing team is lacking in “raw speed” compared to the other frontrunners.
“This is a very big weekend for us, obviously being with Rev we have had great speed the last 2 years and it’s a home race,” Scott added in a team release. “So, with all of that comes a lot of excitement for me. We’ve worked extremely hard for this race knowing how important it is and I’m excited to get out on the track.”
The ARCA field will take the green flag on Friday, May 23 at 6 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX Sports 1.
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.