Nine of the 20 ARCA Menards Series races have been completed in 2025. The series has this week off, with the ARCA Menards Series West in action, before seven straight race weekends.
As such, before the series goes into that weekly stretch, the Frontstretch ARCA team of Mark Kristl and Josh Calloni graded each of the top eight in the national division points, which is also all of the drivers who’ve competed in every race.
Brenden Queen: A
Yours truly picked Brenden Queen to win the 2025 title, and he has thrived thus far. Nine races in, he’s the only multi-time winner with three total.
Butterbean Queen could have two more trophies, too. He lost at Phoenix Raceway on a last-lap last turn move by Brent Crews and Queen led the most laps at Elko Speedway before ultimately falling to second.
Three victories, seven top fives, seven top 10s, one pole and 391 laps led have Queen atop the point standings by nine ahead of Lawless Alan and 17 ahead of Lavar Scott.
Queen drives for top-tier Pinnacle Racing Group, and the pairing has been outstanding. Of the series regulars, he has shown his talent, hoping for a full-time NASCAR ride in 2026. While the team failed to capture the 2024 ARCA Menards Series East title with Connor Zilisch, Butterbean earns an A grade and has the inside track to the ’25 national crown. – Mark Kristl
Lawless Alan: A-
Alan came into the 2025 ARCA season with more experience than all of his full-time competitors, and that experience has shown to be valuable in nine races. The 25-year-old has finished inside the top four in seven of the nine races, with the two other finishes outside of the top 10 due to incidents that were not of his own doing.
Despite Alan’s incredible consistency, which is almost directly on par with Scott’s, it’s not felt like he’s dominated many races thus far. He’s led just 76 laps to start the season, with 30 of those coming at Talladega Superspeedway, his lone win of the 2025 season. That comes with an overall down tick for Venturini Motorsports, though, as the Talladega win represents the team’s only win in 2025, one less than at this point in 2024, and three less than 2023’s total. Looking ahead, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Alan in victory lane in any of the remaining 11 races this season, as his prowess has been seen on tracks of all disciplines to start the season. – Josh Calloni
Lavar Scott: A-
In his second full-time ARCA season, Scott has nearly replicated his production from his rookie year to a tee. Of course, as noted many times, that still comes without a win for the 21-year-old driver. However, consistency has always been the name of the game for Scott. After nine races, he’s yet to finish outside the top 10 and has only recorded three finishes outside the top five. Another near win at Elko shows that Scott is still knocking on the door to victory lane, while clicking off quality finishes and keeping his equipment clean in the meantime.
The one stat that Scott hasn’t quite kept pace with his rookie season in is laps led. He’s only been out front for 28 circuits this season through nine races, about half of where he was at this point last season. His consistency has already begun to be rewarded, as he is slated to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut next week at Dover Motor Speedway for Alpha Prime Racing. – Calloni
Jason Kitzmiller: B-
Jason Kitzmiller increased his ARCA slate from part time to full time this year, and his results have been solid. He trails by 80 points, but that’s largely due to his 32nd-place finishing position at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kitzmiller ran one lap in practice, then left the racetrack to attend his daughter’s high school graduation. As a result, he lost 28 points in his championship quest.
Kitzmiller’s two top fives came at the drafting-style racetracks Daytona International Speedway and Talladega. He matches that number with on-track DNFs, at Phoenix due to a mechanical woe and Lime Rock Park from a hard crash.
In the other six races, Kitzmiller has six lead-lap finishes, six top 10s. So he has speed in his No. 97 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet. It’s just a matter of turning those top 10s into top fives and hopefully leading more laps. Moreover, Jason will race against his son Isaac Kitzmiller in the four remaining ARCA Menards Series East races as the series ends its year with combo races with the national division. That will be a fun father-son battle, seeing who will come out on top. – Kristl
Isabella Robusto: C
Nearly half of Isabella Robusto’s 2025 season has ended with DNFs [four out of nine].
Mechanical woes ended her days at Daytona and Phoenix; wrecks ended her days at Kansas Speedway and Charlotte.
Of the three Venturini entries, Robusto’s No. 55 is the lowest in the owner standings. Her third-place run at Talladega was terrific, but she still lacked the race-winning speed compared to her victorious teammate Alan. Her fifth-place result at Elko was an impressive run given the circumstances of getting her racecar to the track, but again, she was third out of the VMS stable.
Robusto will have more opportunities to shine on more short tracks, as well as the two dirt tracks. If she performs well and has good luck on her side, she should be in the top five, possibly contending for the win. If that happens, Robusto can catch Kitzmiller for fourth in points, but 89 behind Scott, third place almost sounds out of reach at this point. It’s a shame, because Robusto showed real promise last year and still has a bright future. – Kristl
Alex Clubb: B+
Alex Clubb does not operate on the budget of many of the larger teams in the series, but 2025 has been a breakout season of sorts for the Illinois-based driver. Clubb sits sixth in points.
Clubb has stepped up his performances at the superspeedways, taking an average finish of 18th in the two races this season. The team’s short track program has also stepped up immensely, recording a 10th-place finish at Elko and 12th at Berlin Raceway, after staying on the lead lap for most of the 200-lap event. Clubb also notched a 12th-place result at Lime Rock, besting his previous high finish on a road course by seven spots.
Progress has been the name of the game in 2025 for Clubb, and if the second half of the season looks anything like the last three races, the No. 03 could be competing for top 10s more consistently. – Calloni
Michael Maples: D
Michael Maples formed a two-car organization over the offseason, both of which are full-time entries. His No. 67, despite a few start-and-park runs, is 13th in owner points with two top 10s.
Maples himself drives the No. 99. He runs the distance in every race. Well, he tries, but lacks a lead-lap finish. Despite running full time, Maples’ No. 99 trails the No. 67 by three points and two spots in the owner standings.
The good news is he’s only had two DNFs at Daytona and Talladega. So, he isn’t fast by any means, but he has five top 15s, currently on a streak of four in a row.
Maples bought Van Alst Motorsports ARCA equipment, so his organization has decent equipment. However, it’s been a rough sophomore season for Maples, who lacked a lead-lap finish in 2024, too.
What can he do to turn his season around? Parlay some of those top 15s into top 10s; he has zero in his ARCA series career. Because even though Maples is seventh in points, he is eighth among series regulars, only ahead of underdog Brayton Laster, who drives for severely underfunded Wayne Peterson Motorsports. – Kristl
Brayton Laster: B-
For the first time in quite a few seasons, WPM has a full-time driver with Laster, and the duo has had a very respectable season. Laster sits eighth in the standings. Of course, with any small team, equipment and funding deficits define the entirety of a season, regardless of who’s driving.
Despite a few mechanical gremlins throughout 2025, Laster has kept the No. 06 almost completely out of harm’s way, which is primitive for a small full-time team. He recorded a season-best finish of 13th at Elko, despite finishing 15 laps down after spending time on pit road with an overheating issue. Laster has two top-15 finishes in the last two races, which could be positive signs for the second half of the year. – Calloni
ARCA competes at Dover on Friday, July 18, at 5 p.m. ET on 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.