That was a fun ARCA Menards Series race at Berlin Raceway. With the largest field size there since 2016, there were battles for positions throughout the field … except for the lead. Treyten Lapcevich, in his second career start and first with Nitro Motorsports, led every lap. The Canadian driver was one of four victors this race weekend with four nationalities represented.
Brenden Queen continues to lead the points with a tie for second between Lawless Alan and Lavar Scott. Jason Kitzmiller is fourth followed by Andy Jankowiak, who dropped to part-time status by not competing at Berlin, in fifth.
While these power rankings are indicative of how the series regulars perform every race, the Berlin race saw two new faces jump into the rankings as well.
1. Brenden Queen
Expected to excel at short tracks, Queen qualified third and finished fourth. It was his first-ever ARCA short track start, too.
Understandably, Queen is not going to contend for the win in every race, but consistency is important. He had to work hard for his fourth-place finish, too.
“Brought it home 4th at @BerlinRaceway,” Queen tweeted. “My @RacePRG 28 guys brought a fast car, just fought balance at the end. We’ll be back and ready to dig at Elko next week.”
Queen extended his points lead by one, albeit from six to seven, to stay atop these power rankings.
2. Lawless Alan
Alan was one of three drivers who finished in the same position in both ARCA races in The Mitten State – third at Michigan International Speedway, third at Berlin.
“Yeah, I feel like at the beginning, I hadn’t quite had this place figured out yet,” Alan told sports reporter Casey Campbell post-race. “By the end, I was, I felt like, a lot better. We made my AUTOParkIt Toyota Camry a lot better throughout the course of the run. We were the only one, it seemed like, that could make any sort of moves. Everybody else either stayed where they were or lost out. Started seventh, finished third, so not bad. Hoping for another restart. Maybe I could’ve stolen second or the win, but not bad, nothing to be ashamed of.”
Because of his Talladega Superspeedway triumph plus besting Scott at Berlin, Alan takes second in these rankings.
3. Lavar Scott
Scott finished fifth at Berlin, his same result as at MIS. He has the least amount of laps led of the top three, but his series-high top fives, top 10s and laps completed have him squarely in the championship fight.
“It went good,” Scott told Campbell. “Another fifth-place finish is never a horrible day. We qualified second, just, I think our long-run pace was competitive to the top four cars. Probably had a fourth-place car and got, I don’t want to say into it, with the 20. I don’t really know what happened. I feel like we passed a car that was lapped, pretty clean, and got doored pretty hard by him. And after that, but I felt like our long-run pace was pretty competitive. Just short-run stuff, I could never get it to turn through the center really well, so kept losing positions off the restart, and that just kind of killed our day a little bit.”
Scott has to be eager for redemption at Elko Speedway next Saturday (June 21). He led his career-high 100 laps and finished second, losing out on the win in a thrilling three-wide finish. It would also earn him valuable bonus points in his quest for the title.
4. Treyten Lapcevich
Lapcevich scored the pole, led all 200 laps and won by 3.448 seconds. Moreover, he ran the fastest lap of the race. Indeed, Lapcevich ran the perfect race, picking up the first win of his ARCA career as well as the first for Nitro Motorsports.
“This is a huge moment for Nitro Motorsports,” team owner Nick Tucker said in a team release. “To get our first win at a track as tough as Berlin, and to do it in such dominant fashion, says a lot about our team and about Treyten. We’re proud to work alongside Venturini Motorsports and appreciate their support in helping us get here.”
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Lapcevich added. “To win my first ARCA Menards Series race, lead every lap, and bring home a win for Nitro Motorsports and Venturini is something I’ll never forget. The car was perfect all night, and I can’t thank everyone involved enough.”
Hopefully, we’ll hear Lapcevich’s name for many years to come. As he showcased at Berlin, he is a talented racecar driver.
5. Willie Mullins
Willie Mullins is not nor has ever been full time in ARCA. Yet over his 31 starts, he has consistently accrued solid results. His 10th-place showing at Berlin was his eighth top 10. More impressively, it marked the sixth straight season that he has scored a top 10 in ARCA.
For a series that struggles to attract top contenders for multiple seasons – a drawback of being a developmental series – Mullins’ achievement is a score for the underdogs. He and his Mullins Racing team do not run on big-dollar sponsorships. He builds the racecars and repairs them when they get torn up.
At Berlin, just like in the 2024 season finale at Toledo Speedway, Mullins competed at a racetrack for the first time in his career. He ran on the lead lap for most of the race before ultimately falling one lap down.
Of those top 10s, in his last five starts, Mullins has three top 10s. He hopes that trend continues when he joins the field at its next race at Elko, a home racetrack for his wife Dinah.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Tim Goulet owns Rise Motorsports, an underfunded third-year team. The team has three top 10s, all in 2023. Goulet has only made eight career ARCA starts, including three in 2025. In all three years for Rise, Goulet has competed at Berlin. His 14th-place finish this year was his worst result, but his best performance there as he only wound up 14 laps down. While he brought out a caution for spinning his No. 31 Toyota, he drove a beautiful one with author Rochelle Bradley adorning the hood. With his Petty blue paint scheme, Goulet earns the Berlin Paint Scheme of the Race Award.
Rise welcomes Quinn Davis at Elko as it will be her national series debut after running the ARCA Menards Series East race at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway with the team.
Elko is the shortest racetrack on the ARCA schedule. Drivers will run 250 laps on the 0.375-mile short track on Saturday, June 21, at 9 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX Sports 2 and available on the FOX Sports App.
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.