The ARCA Menards Series heads to Iowa Speedway on Friday, August 1. A fixture on the ARCA schedule, this will be the 18th race there for the ARCA Menards Series and the 22nd for the ARCA Menards Series East.
Furthermore, the Atlas 150 marks the third consecutive combination race between the main and East series. Twenty-seven drivers are entered in the field, the most entered in a main series race there since 2016 and the most for East there since 2017. Of the 27, only Mason Mitchell has gone to victory lane there before.
The 2024 race featured a familiar duel between Connor Zilisch and William Sawalich. Despite three late restarts, Zilisch held on to take the checkered flag.
The top two contenders are also the drivers who’ve won the last two races – Brenden “Butterbean” Queen and Brent Crews. They’re also the only drivers with multiple victories in the 2025 ARCA season. Coincidentally, neither driver has competed at Iowa before.
Pinnacle Racing Group leads the national owner points by 11 over Joe Gibbs Racing, and JGR leads the East owner standings by 28 over East driver standings leader Isaac Kitzmiller’s CR7 Motorsports team.
Queen took the No. 28 Chevrolet to victory at Dover Motor Speedway and is the national division points leader. PRG has also won the last two Iowa races.
Crews enters as the series’ most recent winner at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The No. 18 team has won at Iowa twice and JGR has won there three times, most recently with Brandon Jones winning in 2022.
In its last year, Venturini Motorsports has won once at Iowa in 2019. The Toyota organization will field four entries: Lawless Alan and Isabella Robusto in their normal Nos. 20 and 55, Kris Wright in the No. 15, and Mitchell in the No. 25.
Alan and Robusto have never competed at Iowa before. Mitchell has seven starts there, logging one win, two top fives, six top 10s and a fourth-place result in the ’24 race.
VMS announced Wright will rejoin the team and make his season debut earlier this week. After competing full time with Venturini last year, Wright began this season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Our Motorsports. Despite the promotion into the NASCAR ranks, his campaign ended in disappointment with an early exit from the series. Wright needed a fresh start, and Venturini is giving him just that. It’s an opportunity he will be eager to capitalize on. He finished 16th, out due to a crash, after starting fifth in the ’24 Iowa race.
Other notable storylines include the return of Sam Corry to Nitro Motorsports’ No. 70 Toyota. The promising young driver made his debut last week at IRP, finishing 13th, and will look to build on that performance at Iowa.
Meanwhile, the points race in the ARCA East standings intensifies as the series approaches its final two events. The battle for the East championship is currently between Isaac Kitzmiller and Tyler Reif, separated by 14 points. Last week, Reif was unable to close the gap after finishing 14th, while Kitzmiller placed seventh. To keep his championship hopes alive, Reif must outrun Isaac Kitzmiller today. Also, a reminder that Isaac’s father, Jason Kitzmiller, who competes full-time in the national series, will be participating in the race in his first ARCA Iowa start. Isaac is 2-0 in ARCA competition against his father.
In the national series, Butterbean holds a commanding 26-point lead at the top of the standings. Behind Queen, Alan is in second, Lavar Scott is in third, and Robusto is in fifth. Jason Kitzmiller currently sits fourth, although Robusto has twice as many top-five finishes and has consistently posed a greater threat to reach victory lane. Among Alan, Scott, and Robusto, Alan has already secured a win this season, while Scott and Robusto have each shown the potential to break through. A victory by any of them could shake up the standings.
The action at Iowa begins Friday, Aug. 1, with practice at 3:30 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 4:30 p.m. ET. The Atlas 150 is scheduled to go green at 7 p.m. ET, with TV coverage on FOX Sports 1 and streaming available through the FOX Sports app.
