For the first of two races in 2025, the ARCA Menards Series hits the dirt on Sunday (Aug. 17), tackling the one-mile dirt oval at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.
The race has 22 cars on its preliminary entry list, marking the most cars at the track since 2017, when 26 cars were entered. However, 22 cars is still the smallest field the series has seen all season long, second to 24, which has happened at four separate races this season.
The Springfield Mile has been on the ARCA schedule since 1983 and has seen several notable winners, most recently William Sawalich in 2024.
Brenden Queen will tackle a dirt track for the first time in his ARCA career on Sunday, coming off perhaps the worst race of his 2025 season. Queen’s No. 28 suffered a mechanical issue on lap 1 at Watkins Glen International, ultimately finishing 22nd.
Queen has not competed on a dirt track in a few years, but he had some prior success. Butterbean Queen is the 2022 late model champion at Dixieland Speedway in Elizabeth City, N.C. That season, Queen became the first driver to win a championship on the dirt at Dixieland and on pavement at Langley Speedway, in Hampton, Va.
With a 24-point lead in the standings over Lawless Alan, Queen just needs to have a solid finish to keep him as the favorite for the championship heading into the final stretch of the season.
Speaking of Alan, he and his Venturini Motorsports teammates return to a track where the team has seen its share of recent success. VMS has won five of the last seven races in Springfield, the last victory being Brent Crews’ in 2023. Last year at the race, the team failed to find victory lane, but made series history. The team fielded cars for four women: Isabella Robusto, Taylor Reimer, Toni Breidinger, and Amber Balcaen, each of whom finished inside the top 10.
This season, VMS fields three cars for Alan, Robusto, and Sam Corry. While Robusto has the least amount of dirt experience of the trio, she finished second in her lone dirt start at Springfield in ’24. Alan has a bit more stock car dirt racing experience, but none in ARCA. He made two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts on dirt, with a best finish of 18th at Knoxville Raceway in 2022. Corry comes from a dirt racing background, running outlaws and microsprints in his youth. However, as it’s just his third series start, Corry has never contested a dirt race in an ARCA car.
The Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 won’t have former race winner Crews in the car, but instead 15-year-old Max Reaves. Reaves hasn’t been entered since his victory at Elko Speedway back in June. Reaves doesn’t have an extensive dirt racing background, but has the benefit of driving the car that found victory lane at the track in 2024, and three different times in the 2025 season thus far.
Crews is still entered this Sunday, driving the No. 70 for Nitro Motorsports. Crews is by far the most decorated driver entered in the race on dirt, winning twice in ARCA in three starts, and a runner-up finish in the third race. Crews has run with Nitro before in TransAm, but never in ARCA. Crews enters the event as the odds-on favorite, and will also contest the second dirt race at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds later this month for Nitro.
As per usual, dirt ringer Kelly Kovski is entered in the race, his first start this season. Kovski has run the two dirt races almost exclusively each year since 2004, with a career-best finish of second back in 2016 at DuQuoin. The Springfield native finished fourth last season at his home track, driving for his own team. Kovski has a best finish of third at the track, recorded back in 2015. Kovski also has Truck Series regular, and 2017 Springfield winner, Grant Enfinger serving as his crew chief.
Lavar Scott continued his run of top 10s at Watkins Glen with a 10th-place finish after enduring a tire failure late in the race. Despite that, with Queen’s misfortune early in the event, Scott picked up a few points on his deficit in the standings, now just 35 points behind in third place. Scott has only run a single race at Springfield, finishing fifth last season.
Finally, Alex Clubb will bring his standard two cars to the racetrack this weekend, his familiar No. 03 for himself, and the No. 86 for Joe Cooksey, a returning face to the series. Springfield is Clubb’s home track, just two hours south of his hometown of Morris, Ill. He has seven starts at Springfield and recorded a best finish of 11th there in 2022.
As for Cooksey, the 59-year-old has been around ARCA since 1996, running expanded schedules until 2005. Since then, he has stuck to the dirt races, last running at DuQuoin in 2022 for Fast Track Racing, where he finished eighth. Cooksey has made 16 career starts at Springfield, accruing five top fives, seven top 10s, and a best finish of third, set most recently in 2005.
The Hungry Hen’s Dirt Double returns this year. A $20,000 bonus is available to any driver who wins both races on the dirt tracks of Springfield and DuQuoin. If no one wins both races, then The Dirt Double will pay a $5,000 bonus to the driver with the best average finish in the two races.
The Springfield ARCA 100 is slated to begin on Sunday, Aug. 17, at 2 p.m. ET with the race airing on 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