Salem, Ind. – At its most historic racetrack, the ARCA Menards Series field saw its cream rise to the top. Frontrunners Brenden Queen, Max Reaves and Lavar Sott combined to lead all the laps at Salem Speedway, with Queen emerging victorious after acing the final restart.
Queen earned his seventh victory of the season and stretched his points lead to 64 over Scott. Lawless Alan, Jason Kitzmiller and Isabella Robusto round out the top five in points with only two races left.
After 200 laps at Salem, Queen retakes the lead in the power rankings while Joe Gibbs Racing has two drivers in the top five.
1. Brenden Queen
What a restart by Butterbean Queen to snatch the lead away from Scott en route to triumphing at Salem. It is that kind of move that has gained him extra positions, points, laps led, and ultimately a very comfortable points lead. It would arguably take a miracle for Queen to lose the driver’s championship. In the owner point standings, Queen’s Pinnacle Racing Group leads Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 by 18 points. It is not a guarantee that PRG will win the owners’ title, but Queen’s Salem victory, combined with Reaves’ DNF, gave PRG a comfortable lead.
As for Queen, he liked racing at Salem, especially because he wound up in victory lane.
“It was such a cool track,” Queen told Frontstretch post-race. “Obviously, I like it more now that I won, but it was definitely kicking my tail all day. I hadn’t felt the best, and just trying to learn all night, and I learned and was able to apply it to the last 20 laps there.”
Kansas Speedway is the next racetrack on the schedule. Queen won there earlier this year, and PRG has won two of the last three ARCA events there.
“Yeah, super excited to get back to Kansas, that’s a beautiful racetrack and I love everything about it and it was cool to get my first mile-and-a-half win there,” he continued. “So hopefully we can go back and repeat and be on our way to close this deal out.”
2. Lavar Scott
Scott seemed oh-so-close to finally breaking through for his first career ARCA victory. With every lap he led, Rev Racing team members looked increasingly optimistic that this race was going to be their trip to victory lane.
Instead, when Scott lost the lead to Butterbean, Rev members looked dejected, and that is probably an understatement of what they felt. Scott, for his part, did not know what, if anything, he could have done differently on that last restart.
“I don’t know,” he said. I don’t think I spun tires, definitely feel like I rolled good. He just must’ve had a great, great restart.”
In four trips to Kansas, Scott has three top fives, three top 10s, and a best finish of third in the second 2024 ARCA race. Then, at the season-finale site Toledo Speedway, he has a fifth-place result in the ’24 season finale. In case he wasn’t hungry enough, Scott will be salivating to break through for his first win before this season ends.
3. Isabella Robusto
Following her 27th-place DNF at Bristol Motor Speedway, Robusto bounced back to a fifth-place result at Salem. It’s her fifth top five of the season, but the performance comes after a disappointing race. That’s the up-and-down year she has undergone with eight top fives and six DNFs.
“Yeah, just going into the week, we know top five is kind of what we’re shooting for,” Robusto said post-race. “Top three would be a pretty good night for us right now. And so, to come out with a top five, that kind of checked all the goals we had coming into this weekend. Obviously, we want more if we can or we want the win. But we also have to be realistic. We know how the first part of the season went, and we’re still in the fight for third in the championship, so we know we have to get points when we can as well.”
Robusto sits fifth in points, trailing fourth-place Kitzmiller by 12 and Alan, who is no longer competing in ARCA, by 22.
4. Brent Crews
Brent Crews is done competing in ARCA in 2025, yet he is still 10th in points. He also has the second-most victories, second-most laps led, and is tied for the most pole awards. Of the top 10 in points, Crews has the third-best average finish.
In 2025, Crews compiled four national divisions, three ARCA Menards Series East ones and one in the ARCA Menards Series West.
If the rumors are true, Crews will head to the NASCAR Xfinity Series for JGR in 2026. While he’s undeniably talented, Crews won’t turn 18 until March 30. As William Sawalich has proven this year, it is quite a leap going from part-time ARCA to full-time Xfinity. In my dream scenario, Crews would run full-time ARCA next year, only missing the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Ideally, hopefully, he competes part time in ARCA, at least in the companion race weekends, to further develop his talents as he continues in his racing career.
5. Max Reaves
Reaves captured the pole and led the opening 111 laps. Although Scott overtook Reaves for the lead, Reaves still had a fast No. 18 Toyota. Unfortunately, in his effort to retake the lead, Reaves made a mistake, scrubbing the wall in turns 3 and 4, resulting in damage that ended his race with an 18th-place DNF.
Salem marks Reaves’ worst finish and first finish in ARCA competition outside the top 10.
Still, Reaves’ stats speak for themselves. He has led 414 laps in the national division, third most this year, only trailing Queen and Crews. He has more top fives (3) than five drivers inside the top 10 in points. To boot, Reaves is only 15 years old. He will accrue more laps led, top fives, top 10s, and likely wins to rise in the series’ leaderboards.
Reaves will contest the season finale at Toledo. The No. 18 team is very good there with four straight wins. Reaves will seek to continue that streak.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Practice and qualifying at Salem occurred in the daytime. The 200-lap race took place at night, though. Under the lights at the 0.555-mile Indiana short track, Robusto’s No. 55 Toyota stood out. Adorned with Mobil 1 on the hood, her Venturini Motorsports car was easy to spot. In addition to her solid fifth-place showing, she receives the Salem Paint Scheme of the Race Award.
Scroll the highlights from Salem to see Robusto’s No. 55; it stood out.
ARCA next travels to Kansas for its second race there in 2025. The penultimate race of the season will take place on Friday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by 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.