After making his ARCA Menards Series national division debut at Phoenix Raceway, Monty Tipton is adding two more races to his 2026 slate. He will pilot the No. 17 for Cook Racing Technologies at Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, he announced on March 16.
Bare Bones Broth will be his sponsor. The company has adorned his racecars before in a few of his ARCA Menards Series West starts.
“It’s a blessing and a career opportunity to work with Bruce Cook,” Tipton told Frontstretch. “I’d add that it is more of a blessing that I found Bare Bones Broth as my sponsor. The Harvey family owns it. You dream as a kid that you’re going to make it into this sport and you must find sponsors. The fact that I found Bare Bones is just unbelievable. It feels like a lifetime of work has gone into trying to make it in this sport. Now that I’ve found Bare Bones and formed an amazing relationship with them is unbelievable.
“We can race locally and late models, but I would have no chance at racing at this level without Bare Bones. There’s a lot to offer in sponsoring ARCA drivers because we are racing against the future stars of this sport. If I’m not racing in the NASCAR Cup Series within 10 years, I guarantee you’ll see all the frontrunners in Cup. It’s good TV coverage being on FOX Sports 1. I’m unique because I’ve had to find sponsors to make it in this sport.”
Tipton’s Kansas foray will include his mandatory participation in the series test there on Friday, Apr. 18, one day before the race.
“I’m feeling good,” Tipton said about Kansas. “By ARCA’s estimations, I’m not allowed to just walk into the race. So, we’re going to test first. But we’re ready to go for the race if I get approved from the test, which I have a good feeling about.
“So, running with Cook is probably the best opportunity that I’ve ever had in my whole career. They’ve been strong all the times that they’ve run ARCA. They’ve run well with Patrick Staropoli and Marco Andretti. Big names have gone through their stable.”
Confident that he will indeed be approved, Tipton has high aspirations for Kansas.
“Win,” he said. “I’m there to win for sure. A solid top-five would be great for my first time. But I’m at the point in my career where this needs to be a breakout season for me. I need to get results. I look at Brenden Queen. He went out and won at Kansas for the first time there. I hold myself to those championship standards.
“We’re going to be racing against Pinnacle Racing Group, Joe Gibbs Racing Cup cars. So, we should be able to knock on the door for at least a top five.”
Mind you, Tipton has made six career West series starts and one in the main series. He’s not lacking for confidence, though.
“I go in with the mindset of these are just cars,” he stated. “That’s a blue car and that’s a white car. I just need to go up there and pass them. I don’t care who you are, where you came from, we’re all racecar drivers doing the same thing so I’m going to go out there and beat you using the most aggressive and smart techniques that I’ve learned throughout my career.”
Moreover, ARCA field sizes have been solid thus far. The season opener at Daytona International Speedway had 10 drivers fail to qualify and Phoenix had a full 40-car field. More than 20 drivers have competed in the first two West races. Plus, the ARCA Menards Series East season opener at Hickory Motor Speedway is expected to have at least 20 entrants.
Tipton likes the added competition, though.
“Bring it,” he added. “Have the toughest competition possible. We need more fast cars. I’m happy to race more cars. Let’s make it harder. It’ll be more competitive. I like that more than just racing against five cars.”
Once Tipton makes it through Kansas, he will then run Talladega a week later.
Tipton participated in the ARCA preseason test at Daytona, posting the 59th-fastest time out of 82 participants. Nevertheless, the test taught him lessons he can use at fellow superspeedway Talladega.
“It taught me how insane it is to go out at these superspeedways,” he noted. “From what I’ve heard, Talladega is going to be a lot easier driver-wise than Daytona.
“The hardest part for me was the G forces. I did not expect the G forces to be like that. You’re literally pressed into the seat. It’s a force that you’ve never felt before. At Phoenix, you don’t really feel any G forces, especially compared to Daytona. Your entire body is pressed downward to the right. Your head is smashed into the top seat pad, the halo part of the seat. Dealing with the G forces was something I’d never felt before.
“Racing at Talladega will be a lot of fun. Running the Daytona test has me super comfortable. There’s a long list of things, as a driver, that you check off your list when you go out on a superspeedway. Obviously, there will be a new list of things that I am going to learn at Talladega but there are a lot of things I’ve already checked off as a driver. Hopefully, we can just hit the ground running there.”
CRT has fielded entries in all ARCA events thus far. It is 12th in the main series owner points with Taylor Mayhew finishing eighth at Phoenix. Out West, its two entries are fourth and eighth with one top-five and two top 10s.
While Tipton does not have anything else signed, he is optimistic that he will run more races with Cook.
“This could turn into a lot more,” he continued. “Probably going to stay away from the West races just because they’re not on TV.”
As the approval process and the age of the drivers competing in various series have come under scrutiny, Tipton does not think his age – he turned 19 on Jan. 18 – is something to be concerned about.
“I argue that I take the most humble award in the pits,” he asserted. “We went through years where we almost quit racing. When I’m making these announcements, it’s unbelievable. I’m asking myself, ‘What did I do to deserve this in a way?’ I’m so thankful that I have the opportunity to do this. I’m going to make the most of it. This just feels right.
“I’ve spent so much time watching other guys go through the sport when we were also trying to make it happen that it just feels like everything is falling into place at the right time. I haven’t thought about my age much to be honest.”
The main series season is only 10% complete. We’re only three and a half months into 2026, closer to 2025 than 2027. He already has his eyes set on ’27.
“We’re looking at full-time next year,” he continued. “I know when our Daytona deal fell through that Bare Bones said, ‘We want to do Daytona next year.’ I am going to seriously advocate for a full-time breakout season in the national division next year. Bare Bones is super serious about this, too.”
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.