For the second time in 2025, Trevor Huddleston found victory lane at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway.
Huddleston, who started at the rear after not taking a qualifying lap, worked his way through the field by lap 20 and took the lead by 100 to win. His first win of the year also came at Kern County, in the ARCA Menards Series West season opener in January. It’s his seventh career West victory.
“What an amazing race,” Huddleston told FloRacing. “I’m out of breath, I’ve been holding it for the past 100 laps.”
Kyle Keller, who sat on the pole and ran inside the top five the entire race, came home in second. Robbie Kennealy finished third, with Tanner Reif in fourth and Eric Johnson Jr. in fifth.
“My car took too long to fire off,” Keller told FloRacing. “No excuses, we’ll work harder in the shop. We’ve got three second-place finishes this year.”
The remainder of the top 10 had Andrew Chapman finish sixth, Jaron Giannini in seventh, Jonathan Reaume in eighth, Blake Lothian in ninth, and PJ Pedroncelli in 10th.
At the initial drop of the green flag, Jake Bollman utilized the outside lane to his advantage, taking the lead from Keller after a lap of side-by-side action. Just as Keller looked to be under attack for another position by Reif, an early caution came out, racking the field back up quickly for an early restart.
The second restart of the race looked almost identical to the first. Keller held the bottom lane, staying close with Bollman for a lap, but the driver of the No. 19 used the high lane once again to pass for the lead. This time, the longer run allowed Reif to get by Keller, dropping him from the pole to third in under 15 laps. Right behind that battle, Huddleston, who started at the rear, worked his way up to fourth place by lap 20.
By lap 40, nothing had changed drastically throughout the field. Bollman still led by nearly a second and a half, and Reif, Huddleston, and Keller followed suit. Lapped traffic shuffled up the back end of the field, but the leaders remained unchanged.
On lap 45, the caution flew for debris, once again lining the field up double file for a restart.
The outside lane again proved dominant on the third restart, but it wasn’t Bollman who capitalized. It was Reif who got around Bollman for the lead after two laps of side-by-side battling after the green flag flew again. Like Bollman on the previous restart, Reif pulled away from the field from there, building a commanding lead.
However, that lead didn’t last quite as long as Bollman’s did. The No. 19 quickly pulled back to the bumper of Reif, but never got around him. The lead pair remained in similar order until lap 75, when the halfway caution flew, setting up another restart.
Under the caution period, Bollman’s crew found an issue in the rear end and he went multiple laps down addressing it. As the field restarted without Bollman, Reif jumped out to the lead again, this time holding off Keller and Huddleston. Just as Huddleston got around Keller for second and set his sights on Reif, the caution flew once again.
The subsequent restart allowed Huddleston to restart on the front row for the first time all race, and he was given the outside lane in doing so. Like the previous restarts before, Huddleston utilized the outside lane to get around Reif for the lead, doing so a lap quicker than most drivers had all evening long.
Inside 50 laps to go, Buddy Shepherd, who had been running inside the top five, made an unscheduled pit stop. His No. 6 crew put the hood up on his car, with small flames showing on the FloRacing cameras, effectively ending his night.
With 30 laps to go, Huddleston had a commanding lead and didn’t have an abundance of lapped traffic to deal with. That being said, Keller was slowly reeling in the No. 50 car.
The rear of the field had some action towards the end of the race, with Joey Kennealy and Souza battling very hard for a number of laps. The battle ended with both cars into the wall on lap 130, as Kennealy slid the tires into turn three, taking Souza and himself into the outside wall. Both drivers’ nights ended, as the caution flew, setting up for a late race restart up front.
On the final restart of the race, Huddleston rocketed out to the lead on the least contested restart of the race. Robbie Kennealy briefly took second from his teammate Keller, but faded after a handful of laps, setting up for a battle between Huddleston and Keller. That battle never truly came to be, though, as Huddleston took the checkered flag with relative ease.
ARCA West Results from Kern County
ARCA West returns in just under a month, as the field will endure its first road course race of 2025 at Sonoma Raceway. That event is scheduled for July 11 at 6:30 p.m. ET, with live coverage carried by FloRacing.
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