Austin Green etched his name into ARCA Menards Series history at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday, May 23. He became the 363rd different series winner since 1953. Moreover, Austin joined his father David Green as an ARCA victor. The Greens are now the eighth father-son combination to win in ARCA.
The 2025 season has crowned three first-time winners: Austin Green, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen and Lawless Alan. Yet with new faces in victory lane, first place in the Frontstretch ARCA power rankings does not have a win. Mark Kristl has more.
1. Lavar Scott
Did Lavar Scott win at Charlotte? No. Is he tired of being asked when he’s going to win for the first time in his career? Yes. Should he continue to be asked that? Yes. Did it faze him at Charlotte? No.
Scott was the lone full-time driver, presuming Andy Jankowiak will indeed drop to part-time status, to finish on the lead lap at Charlotte in third.
“Just a little more right-rear stability, but it was a big improvement from where we started so I was OK with that,” Scott told Frontstretch post-race about his Charlotte performance. “I think we would’ve finished second if I didn’t make an error. I got to the No. 18 and I ran the bottom with him and I got aero-tight and that’s how the No. 97 got a huge run and got to my inside and got to racing with him. The finish, P3, I’m very happy with it. I want to win, but from where we started to right now, that’s OK with me.”
Scott takes a 10-point lead on the field as the season has hit its quarter-mark.
“My mindset’s the same as it’s been all year. Just be consistent, do my job. If we don’t have a good pace car this day, then just do my job and don’t get loose in dumb situations. That’s where the points, just do my job beyond the racecar and we’ll be OK, cause my team’s working every day at the shop to get better.”
Scott’s consistency a quarter of the way into this ARCA season is remarkable. He leads the field in top fives, top 10s and laps completed. Although I keep harping on him to lead more laps, score more bonuses and win, his recipe for success is undeniable. Of the top 10 in points, he has the second-best finishing position, only trailing part-timer William Sawalich.
2. Brenden Queen
Queen qualified third, but a blown right-front tire sent him into the wall. Pinnacle Racing Group repaired his No. 28 Chevrolet, and he continued racing. However, he could not catch any lucky breaks or free passes and he wound up two laps down in 14th place.
“Yeah, this thing was so good, I just hate we didn’t get to show it,” Queen told Frontstretch post-race. “I mean, even with the damage, at times the fastest lap and the fastest car on the track, so I mean, worst case, the No. 82 won, so that’s good for our team. But just tough when you’re racing in the points and bad luck. But I’ve been racing long enough. Kinda like my CARS Tour season last year. I either won or something stupid happened. So, it could’ve been worse. Could’ve blew a tire and been out of the race. Luckily, you know, everybody at Pinnacle built a good car, and it took the hit and kept digging. So, tough pill to swallow. If we would’ve been trapped one lap down, we could’ve got some more spots, but can’t overcome two laps when we’re running so many caution laps.”
To Butterbean’s point, when he has not won, or nearly won as the case at Phoenix Raceway, he has 14th and 25th-place results, both not on the lead lap. That’s tough to overcome, especially when those two field sizes had more than 30 cars. The good news for him? He’s only 10 points out of the lead heading to Michigan International Speedway, where PRG won last year.
3. Lawless Alan
Quite simply, Alan lacked top-tier speed at Charlotte. He has the fourth-fastest in practice but was nearly half a second behind the quickest lap. In qualifying, he was about three-quarters of a second behind, qualifying 10th. In the race, he was involved in the large multi-car crash on lap 39, later fell one lap down, and came home 13th.
It wasn’t a bad run, per se. He finished ahead of 19 other drivers, including full-timers Butterbean, Michael Maples, Alex Clubb, Brayton Laster and Isabella Robusto. Only Scott and Thad Moffitt, of the series regulars, finished ahead of Alan.
Alan’s Venturini Motorsports No. 20 dropped one spot in the owner standings to fourth, 23 behind the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18. In the driver standings, he is tied for second with Butterbean, 10 behind Scott. As a result, while Alan and his team are still firmly in the mix for the championships, he drops one spot to third in these rankings.
4. Andy Jankowiak
It’s a shame Jankowiak intends to drop to part-time status. Because this year, he and KLAS Motorsports have proven they can run with the frontrunners. At Charlotte, he finished fifth, staying on the lead lap for the whole race. He left fourth in the points, 14 behind Scott. In the owner standings, his KLAS No. 73 is fifth, 27 behind the No. 18.
Some of those teams KLAS is ahead of: the Venturini Nos. 25 and 55, CR7 Motorsports’ No. 97, Nitro Motorsports’ No. 46 and Sigma Performance Services’ No. 23.
Jankowiak isn’t just having a good year; he’s having a career-best one. He has already tied his career-high in top fives, in only five races, with two. His average finishing position is about five spots better than his previous best, and his lead-lap finishing percentage is his highest, too.
His Charlotte performance was his third straight finish of sixth or better and his fourth top-10 finish of the year. So, can Jankowiak please run full time? Racing is expensive, yes, but he’s on a roll.
5. William Sawalich
Is this the same Sawalich that we saw dominating ARCA races in previous years? Because Sawalich piled up wins, laps led, poles, and gave us snoozefests over the past two years racing at the short tracks, road courses, and dirt tracks.
This year, he’s racing at the big racetracks, and he’s not doing any of the above. Yes, he started first at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, but those two lineups were set via the previous year’s owner points.
Sawalich started second, led 20 laps and finished fourth at Charlotte, which would be a great day for most, but he had arguably a second-place car. His car sustained damage when he gave Garrett Mitchell a shot in the rear, which triggered The Big One, but Sawalich did not appear to have the best racecar. Sure, he laid down the fastest lap, but that was on lap 3 of the 100-lap race.
Then, in his NASCAR Xfinity Series race the next day, Sawalich started sixth but finished 16th.
Again, I ask, what has happened to Sawalich?
Was the ARCA competition not tough enough for him? Two years ago, his biggest challenge was Jesse Love, who is now Xfinity playoff-bound. Last year, it was Connor Zilisch, who also has a win and is heading to the NXS playoffs.
Or are these racetracks just that much more daunting to Sawalich? Yes, Daytona and Talladega are unique for their drafting-style races, something Sawalich never saw before in ARCA. But Kansas Speedway and Charlotte are racetracks where JGR has speed – it’s won there before – and he has not been the best.
Honestly, it’s probably a combination of those two plus a significant shake to Sawalich’s confidence. After easily being up front in numerous races, he has not learned his race craft about continuing to get better throughout races when his car is not the best. He is still 18 years old, but as his NXS struggles continue and he is not dominating ARCA, Sawalich probably would have benefited from a full year of ARCA before jumping up to Xfinity.
Paint Scheme of the Race
The ARCA race kicked off the Memorial Day race weekend at Charlotte. As we celebrated those men and women who have given their lives to protect our freedoms, what better way to select the Paint Scheme of the Race than by choosing a new paint scheme that was a beautiful blue?
For the first time this season, Folsom Fence Supply served as Butterbean’s primary sponsor. Even though the result was not what he wanted, his No. 28 Chevy stood out under the Queen City backdrop, earning him the Paint Scheme of the Race Award.
ARCA has a week off before it goes to its next venue. Michigan hosts the next race on Friday, June 6, at 5 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2.
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.