Salem, Ind. – Lavar Scott is tired of people asking him when he is going to capture his first ARCA Menards Series victory. He knows the only way to silence them is to win.
Salem Speedway on Saturday (Sept. 20) was the site of his most recent opportunity. In his lone start there in 2024, he finished third after starting second.
This year, he began race day by posting the fastest time in practice and then qualified second, starting on the front row alongside Max Reaves.
Reaves led the opening 111 laps, but Scott stayed within striking distance.
Finally, on lap 112, Scott overtook Reaves for first. Following the second competition caution on lap 125, Scott retained the lead over Reaves on the restart.
As the laps wound down, Scott increased his lead to a comfortable margin and it appeared increasingly likely he would finally emerge victorious.
However, with 28 laps to go, Scott’s lead vanished when the caution flag came out for Reaves sustaining damage to his No. 18 Toyota.
Scott lined up on that restart alongside points leader Brenden Queen. When the green flag flew, Queen aced the restart, snatching the lead away from Scott.
Queen never relinquished the lead and picked up his seventh triumph of the year. Scott, meanwhile, desperately tried to regain that speed in his No. 6 Rev Racing Chevrolet. He never found it, and in his attempt, he ultimately sustained some damage to his racecar and slid back to a fourth-place result.
While he earned his 11th top five and 16th top 10 in 2025, P4 is not indicative of Scott’s performance at the 0.555-mile Indiana short track.
“I don’t know, just the restart, it felt good, but his must’ve been really, really good,” Scott told Frontstretch about the final restart. “I don’t know. We had a really good day besides that. It definitely sucks, but you have to look at the positive. Every race, you’ve got to, the negatives you got to forget about, and move on to next week and learn from it for sure. It’s just definitely sucks, but our time is going to come.”
One positive for Scott is that he led 66 laps, his season high and second most in his career. However, he didn’t take too much away from that success, given his finishing position.
“Yeah, it was good, but I knew we still had a long race to go, so I didn’t get too excited,” he added. “We still had a third stage after that, but I knew we were in a good spot. We showed that for most of the third stage. Just that late-race restart killed us.”
In hindsight, Scott was unsure if he could’ve done anything differently on that final restart.
“I don’t know,” he stated. “I don’t think I spun tires, definitely feel like I rolled good. He just must’ve had a great, great restart.”
After climbing out of his Chevy, despite his disappointment, Scott received words of encouragement from a number of fans, drivers and personnel in the garage. Isabella Robusto gave him an embrace and Pinnacle Racing Group General Manager Shane Huffman spoke briefly with Scott as PRG driver Queen celebrated. Unfortunately, the support doesn’t take away the sting for Scott of not winning.
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.