For the fourth time this season, Brenden Queen has won in the ARCA Menards Series, leading all 150 laps at Dover Motor Speedway on Friday, July 18.
Queen had a nearly perfect day, earning the pole in qualifying and leading every lap in the race. It’s the 27-year-old’s first win in four races, with the last coming at Michigan International Speedway in early June.
“This team is so bad to the bone, I thought it was over, I thought something broke there,” Queen told FOX Sports. “That was a bad to the bone racecar.”
Behind Queen, Camden Murphy came across the line in second, making his ARCA debut and first stock car start since late 2022. Isabella Robusto finished third, her fifth consecutive top-10 finish.
Full-time ARCA Menards Series East competitors Isaac Kitzmiller and Tyler Reif rounded out the top five, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
The remainder of the top 10 had Timmy Hill finish sixth, Jake Finch seventh, Jason Kitzmiller eighth, Zachary Tinkle ninth and Andrew Patterson 10th.
On the initial drop of the green flag, the field was broken up on a very uncomfortable-looking restart. Queen jumped out to a quick lead over Brent Crews into turn 1. By lap 5, the lead pair has gapped the rest of the field by nearly three seconds. By lap 20, the gap from second to third was over 10 seconds.
As the field worked lap 15, Lavar Scott made significant contact with the outside wall. He had been dealing with a loose racecar for the entirety of the first run, rapidly dropping positions from his top-five starting position. Scott ended up on pit road with a tire issue a few laps later, putting him six laps down early. He never recovered and finished the race in 11th place.
With 10 laps until the race break, more championship implications took place. As Queen nearly lapped the field, Lawless Alan made an unscheduled pit stop from inside the top five with a tire down. The stop put him two laps down, outside of the top 10 heading into the race break. Like Scott, Alan never recovered, finishing in 12th, seven laps down.
Just as it appeared like the field would settle into a rhythm and head into the first race break, another leader had an issue. Crews had a tire go down on the exit of turn 4, making significant contact with the outside wall on the frontstretch, with heavy flames showing from the car upon coming to a rest.
Crews exited the car safely, though the incident ended his race prematurely, sending him to a 21st-place finish. Due to the crash coming so closely to the first race break, cars were brought down pit road for service on lap 48.
After the first race break, the second restart of the race was a bit more organized. Finch remained side by side with Queen until the field worked to the backstretch, where he pulled away once again. Murphy and Robusto had a few close moments a few laps later, but no harm for either driver as the field settled in from there.
Back up front, Queen stretched his lead out to nearly two seconds by lap 60, just under 10 laps after the green flag flew. Murphy worked his way around Finch for second place and began to slowly reel in Queen.
With roughly 30 laps until the race break, Queen reported an issue in the rear end of the No. 28. Murphy shortened the gap from second to under half a second, but Queen retained the lead.
Another caution flew on lap 93, seven laps shy of the second scheduled race break. Corey Aiken went around in turn 2, nearly coming back up the track in front of Tinkle, with contact being avoided by mere inches.
The field was given a short three-lap run prior to the second race break, and as proven before, the restart was not a pretty one. Murphy didn’t fire off well on the bottom lane, stacking up Robusto and Isaac Kitzmiller behind him. That allowed Hill to rocket to second on the restart, staying behind Queen as the field once again saw the yellow flag displayed for the race break on lap 100.
As the field took the green flag with 45 laps to go, Queen once again jumped out to the quick lead, as the bottom lane continued to falter. Hill remained in second, but appeared to hold up those behind him, as a nice gaggle of cars ran together for about five laps after the restart. Eventually, Hill fell back to sixth, with a number of cars getting around him.
Elsewhere, Queen’s rear-end issue appeared not to be an issue in the final stint of the race. Throughout the final run of the race, his lap times never fell off the way they did during the second run, and without any incidents on track, Queen was able to ride to victory, his fourth of the 2025 season.
ARCA Results from Dover
Next week, the ARCA field heads to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The 150-lap event will take place Friday, July 25, at 5:30 p.m. ET, with television coverage carried by FOX Sports 1.
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