It’s a week of firsts for the ARCA Menards Series, as teams will head to the first road course race of the season at Lime Rock Park.
The ARCA Menards Series East ran races there, with a few notable winners, including Dale Quarterley, who is entered in this race.
The return to the track this week sees 24 cars entered on the entry list, down slightly from the last time the series ran on a road course last season at Watkins Glen International, which saw 29.
Kicking off the trek down this week’s entry list, there’s no better place to start than with the only driver who has found victory lane at the track, Quarterely. Quarterley has one previous start this season, coming at the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, where he finished 33rd. It’s not unlike the 64-year-old to only make starts on road courses and superspeedways, and with this only being the second of those types of tracks, not seeing Quarterley more in 2025 yet is expected.
Previously on the road in ARCA, Quarterley finished 11th last time out at Watkins Glen and scored a top five at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2023. He will also run the companion event on Saturday in the Truck Series, driving his own No. 32.
Lavar Scott heads to Lime Rock with just two previous road course starts under his belt, with a best finish of ninth. It’s certainly a new challenge for Scott, and one that perhaps comes at a poor time. He’s coming off his worst finish of the season at Elko Speedway, a seventh place after mechanical gremlins not only caused him to lose the lead, but also fall off the lead lap during the last green flag run of the race. The 21-year-old remains fiercely competitive in the championship battle, sitting in third just 14 notches off of leader Brenden Queen. Despite not being as acclimated to road racing, Scott was quoted after Elko saying he looks forward to new challenges, and has spent quite a bit of time in the simulator working for this week’s race.
As for Queen, this will be his first road course race in a stock car, perhaps giving the current points leader a slight disadvantage. However, if there is one thing that Queen has proven this season, it is that he can adapt quickly. Superspeedways and mile and a halves were new to Queen as well, and he conquered one of each, winning at Daytona in February and again later at Kansas Speedway in May. A points buffer of 11 points over second-place Lawless Alan allows Queen to have a little wiggle room this week at Lime Rock, but after finishing inside the top five in all but two races this season, don’t count the driver of the No. 28 out either.
Venturini Motorsports will bring its standard three cars to the racetrack this week, with full-timers Alan and Isabella Robusto joined by part timer and road course ringer Alon Day.
Alan has a bit more road course experience than a lot of his competitors, running a handful of Truck Series road course events and competing full time in TransAm TA2 in 2019. He has one previous start at Lime Rock, finishing 11th in TA2 during his full-time effort.
For Robusto, her road racing background is brief, but she has shown speed in her limited starts. She has two ARCA Menards Series West starts on road courses, finishing third at Portland International Raceway and sixth at Sonoma Raceway last year. She also has a handful of starts in GT4 and the Toyota GR Cup, coming in 2023 and 2024.
For Day, his racing background is almost exclusively on road courses across the world. He’s competed everywhere from the top three NASCAR divisions to the Euro Series, to Formula 3 and Indy Lights. He has not, however, made an ARCA start, and will do so Saturday for the first time in the VMS No. 25.
Joe Gibbs Racing has found victory lane twice in 2025, with two different drivers, Brent Crews and Max Reaves. Crews hasn’t been in the car in the national division since his win at Phoenix Raceway in March, but returns for the first of a handful of consecutive races during the summer stretch. Despite coming from a strong dirt background, Crews also has ties to road racing in his career. The 17-year-old has run part time in TransAm since 2022, finding victory lane 11 times in 36 races. Like Robusto, he also competed in the Toyota GR Cup, with two top fives in that series as well. Strictly in ARCA competition, Crews has two starts across the three sanctioned ARCA series, with a third-place finish at Watkins Glen in 2023 and 23rd at Sonoma in the West series in 2024.
Sticking to a theme of Toyota teams, Nitro Motorsports will have its fourth driver in four races, with Thomas Annunziata stepping in to pilot the No. 70 this weekend. Annunziata, like many others, comes from a road racing background and has had success in the series in the discipline in the past. He finished fourth at Mid-Ohio last season while driving for Ferrier-McClure Racing, and has made numerous NASCAR Xfinity Series and TransAm starts as well on road courses. The 20-year-old is pulling double duty, driving the No. 07 for Spire Motorsports in the Truck Series race.
Jason Kitzmiller running full time in 2025 was not going to come without challenges, and thus far, he’s crushed everything thrown his way. Road racing is a whole different animal, though. He has made no previous ARCA starts on tracks containing right and left turns, and has limited experience elsewhere as well. He made four starts in the INEX Winter Heat series at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course in Legends cars last winter. For now, Kitzmiller sits fourth in points, about 50 notches off the leader Queen.
For the first time in its history, KLAS Motorsports will enter a race with someone other than Andy Jankowiak behind the wheel. Instead, it’ll be Glen Reen, who is making his ARCA debut this weekend. Reen has made a handful of Xfinity Series starts with Joey Gase Motorsports and even appeared at the East series race at Watkins Glen in 2016.
Finally, two part-time teams will head to the track this weekend with road course ringers in their cars. First, Mullins Racing will make its third consecutive start, with Jeff Anton behind the wheel. Anton has been out of the limelight for well over a decade, making 70 starts from 2004 to 2012 in the East series, and two more West starts during that time frame as well. Anton has previous starts at Lime Rock, including a top 10 in the East race in 2008.
Joe Nemechek’s team, NEMCO Motorsports, will also return with Ryan Gemmell behind the wheel. The pairing ran last season at Watkins Glen as well, earning a top-10 finish, but neither team nor driver has run ARCA since. Gemmell runs vintage races alongside Nemechek, where the two formed their pairing.
ARCA has a rare two-day show at Lime Rock, with practice and qualifying being held Friday, and the race on Saturday (June 28). Teams will get an hour to practice from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. ET, with qualifying held shortly after at 3:45. The race will go green Saturday at 4 p.m. ET, with television coverage coming on FOX Sports 2.
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