The ARCA Menards Series has reached its penultimate race of the 2025 season, as the series heads to Kansas Speedway on Friday, Sept. 26.
Kansas is the only track that has two dates on the schedule this season. In May, when the series visited there for the first time, Brenden Queen found victory lane. Queen led 72 of the 105 laps, taking the lead from William Sawalich a quarter of the way through the race, and never looked back.
This time around, there’ll be 29 cars entered in the race, which is the most ARCA has seen at the track since 2016.
Points leader Queen currently sits 56 notches ahead of second-place Lavar Scott, and with just two races to go, he should have the championship title all but locked up. Queen enters Kansas with quite a bit in his favor, as he is the defending winner at both the track and in the series, finding victory lane at Salem Speedway. Queen has had quite an impressive rookie season in ARCA, taking the checkered flag and a trophy back to Waffle House seven times thus far.
Speaking of Scott, the 22-year-old driver is coming off perhaps the best race of his career at Salem. Scott led a race- and season-high 66 laps, but lost the lead on a late restart to Queen, ultimately crossing the line in fourth. Heading to Kansas with two more opportunities to find victory lane this season, Scott has had three previous races at the track. He’s finished inside the top five twice, with one finish outside of the top 10 back in early 2024.
Scott’s Rev Racing team will have a second entry again this week, as Eloy Falcon will return to the track for the first time since Iowa Speedway. Falcon has run three races across all three ARCA platforms this season, one ARCA Menards Series East race and two national division races. He’s finished as high as third at Rockingham Speedway, and has yet to bring the No. 2 car home any worse than 10th. Falcon ran at Michigan International Speedway earlier this season, so he has some familiarity with a larger oval track in his brief ARCA career.
The combination of Nitro Motorsports and Venturini Motorsports will field six cars, with Nitro has two entries under its banner and VMS with four. Nitro’s two cars will see both Thad Moffitt and Taylor Reimer drive, with Moffitt contesting his last scheduled race of the season, and Reimer making her first start since Elko Speedway. Moffitt has only made two starts since his full-time effort was scaled back to part time after Michigan, finishing 10th at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and 15th at Watkins Glen International. As for Reimer, this race will be just her second start of the season. She ran fairly well at Elko, finishing eighth in her ARCA debut on asphalt. She also tested at Kansas prior to the first race there this year.
As for the VMS drivers, the team is now down to just Isabella Robusto as a full-time driver. Robusto has run fairly well at Kansas in her career. In two races, she’s earned a pole in the second 2024 race, but has yet to finish a race there due to incidents in both starts. Prior to those wrecks, she had run inside the top 10, so a clean race will likely result in another positive finish for the 20-year-old driver.
The trio of part timers in VMS Toyotas includes Leland Honeyman, Kris Wright and Mason Mitchell.
Honeyman has run the last few races since Lawless Alan left the team and has finished inside the top five in both starts, including a third-place finish at Salem. Mitchell has contested about a third of the season for the team now, finishing inside the top 10 in all but one of his six previous starts. His best finish of the season came at Kansas in the spring, where he finished third. As for Wright, since severing ties with Our Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, he has made just two ARCA starts with Venturini, with a best finish of third at Watkins Glen.
Joe Gibbs Racing returns to the track with Gio Ruggiero behind the wheel of the No. 18. The Truck Series rookie has made one start this season in ARCA, also with JGR, at Michigan, where he finished fourth. He returns to the team to make his third career start at Kansas in any series. He’s finished in the top five in both ARCA and the Truck Series in his previous starts at the track.
Cook Racing Technologies makes its third ARCA national start of the season at Kansas, with Patrick Staropoli driving the No. 17 Toyota. Staropoli and CRT teamed up at Kansas in May as well, although the effort was cut short due to engine issues, resulting in a 22nd-place finish. Staropoli has pieced together a respectable season in his return to racing in 2025, finishing inside the top 10 three times in ARCA competition, and making select starts in both the Truck and Xfinity Series.
Despite falling just short of the ARCA East title at Bristol Motor Speedway, Tyler Reif and Sigma Performance Services return to the track to continue their season. Reif has run a few select races in the national division outside of the combination events with the East division, most recently at Watkins Glen, where he finished second. Reif has only run one large oval race in his career, back at Michigan earlier this season, where he finished seventh.
It’ll be a welcome back to the track weekend of sorts for Andy Jankowiak on Friday. Though he ran Bristol, Jankowiak has only run two races since Michigan in June. He ran seventh at Watkins Glen and 14th at Bristol. Jankowiak is no stranger to Kansas; in fact, it’s been one of the tracks he’s most frequented, running both races at the track each year since 2023. Jankowaaik has finished inside the top 10 four times in six starts at Kansas, and nearly won last Fall’s race before a late race run-in with Corey Day.
Speaking of Day, he and Spire Motorsports return to the ARCA ranks, fielding the No. 77. Spire has only shown up on three ARCA entry lists this season, the first two races of the year at Daytona International Speedway and Phoenix Raceway with Day, and Watkins Glen with Tristan McKee, who won that race. Day finished inside the top 10 at Phoenix and hasn’t run an ARCA race since. The 19-year-old has split his 2025 season over the lower ranks of stock car racing, making at least seven starts in both Xfinity and Truck Series competition. Day finished fourth last September at Kansas, driving the No. 82 for Pinnacle Racing Group.
Friday’s Reese’s 150 at Kansas will be a one-day show. Teams will get 45 minutes of practice at 4:30 p.m. ET, with qualifying to follow shortly after at 5:30 p.m. The green flag for the 100-lap race is slated to fly at 8:15 p.m. with TV 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