Queen Bests Crews For Hard-Fought Iowa ARCA Win

Brenden Queen celebrates in victory lane Friday at Iowa Speedway. (Rachel Mummey/ARCA Racing photo)

NEWTON, Iowa – It might have taken him until the first day of August, but Brenden Queen finally got himself a short-track victory with the ARCA Menards Series on Friday evening.

Queen fended off season-long rival Brent Crews at Iowa Speedway in the closing moments of the Atlas 150 to secure his fifth win of the season and first on a track less than one mile in length.

The reigning zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Tour champion was out front for 112 of the 150 laps, but it was the battle between he and Crews with eight laps left that became the talk of the town.

As the pair entered turn one trying to lap ninth-running Mason Mitchell, Crews got a nose underneath Queen to try and challenge for the position, but his Toyota got loose and washed up into the side of Queen’s Chevrolet.

The pair went into a synchronized slide through the second corner of the seven-eighths-mile short track, but were both able to continue without incident, with Queen maintaining the lead over Crews.

From there, Queen hung on by .412 seconds for the victory. All five of his ARCA victories have come this season, and he has a 38-percent winning record in just 13 career starts.

“I wasn’t going to keep letting him run into me and [our team] not win because of it,” Queen said of the intense battle. “He got the best of me at Phoenix [Raceway in March] and again last week at IRP [Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park], but I just refused to lose right there.

“He might have been a little better on that last run, but I wasn’t letting him take it from me,” Queen added. “This is all a credit to Pinnacle Racing Group, (crew chief) Stephen Dawson … he’s shy, but we’re trying to get him to open up more. He’s bad to the bone, though, and I’m very thankful to be working with him and in the situation that I’m in right now.”

Crews started from the pole, but Queen got the measure of the 17-year-old on the initial start and used the momentum of the high groove to take control of the race and put himself out in clean air.

It was that upper lane of the racetrack that rewarded Queen all race long, despite the fact that Crews rallied on an early short stint to take the top spot on lap 19 just before the first caution flag waved.

Queen responded on the lap-56 restart that followed the first scheduled race break, and once he got back in front at that juncture, he never trailed again under green-flag conditions.

Crews led one more circuit – lap 105, when he beat Queen to start-finish at the beginning of the final segment – but once Queen got back to the lead off turn two the positions were settled, despite Crews’ best efforts to try and rattle the No. 28 inside of 10 to go.

In settling for second, Crews admitted afterward that he was “sick” to come so close and leave one spot short.

“I’d rather finish third than be the runner-up and be that close,” admitted Crews. “We had a really good race car all day. To qualify on pole, set a new track record, and have the raw speed that we did was great. We were really good in that first stage and the Joe Gibbs Racing crew did an amazing job all race; we just missed it a bit at the end with only taking right side [tire]s in stage two and having to guess at what we needed for the final stint there.

“I got inside Brenden and got super loose. That was, I feel like, my last chance at it,” he added. “I had no intention of wrecking him or anything like that, so I’m glad we both got out of there cleanly and could race it out. I had a blast, as much as it stings to lose a race like that.”

Venturini Motorsports teammates Lawless Alan and Isabella Robusto battled for a majority of the race to be “best of the rest” behind the top two, with Alan crossing third ahead of Robusto, whose fourth-place result was still the best ever by a female in an ARCA race at Iowa.

Lavar Scott, who spun from third place on the lap-56 restart where Queen retook control of the race for good, rallied all the way back to finish fifth for Rev Racing.

Friday’s race at Iowa was the third of four combination races between the national ARCA Menards Series and the regional ARCA Menards Series East.

Isaac Kitzmiller, the ARCA East point leader, was sixth to further extend his championship advantage over rival Tyler Reif, who ended up a lap down in 11th.

In between that duo, Sam Corry, Eloy Falcon, past ARCA national champion Mason Mitchell, and Jason Kitzmiller closed out the top 10 finishers.

Eight cautions slowed the pace for 41 laps Friday, with Queen completing the 150-lap distance in one hour, 23 minutes, and 45 seconds at an average speed of 94.031 mph.

The national ARCA Menards Series schedule continues Friday, Aug. 8 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l with the tour’s second road course race of the season.

ARCA East teams will wrap their season in conjunction with the national tour on Thursday, Sept. 11 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Kitzmiller is seeking his first ARCA East title in his rookie campaign.

The finish:

1. 28-Brenden Queen, 2. 18-Brent Crews, 3. 20-Lawless Alan, 4. 55-Isabella Robusto, 5. 6-Lavar Scott, 6. 79-Isaac Kitzmiller, 7. 70-Sam Corry, 8. 2-Eloy Falcon, 9. 25-Mason Mitchell, 10. 97-Jason Kitzmiller, 11. 23-Tyler Reif, 12. 11-Zachary Tinkle, 13. 68-Regina Sirvent, 14. 10-Tony Cosentino, 15. 31-Quinn Davis, 16. 99-Michael Maples, 17. 7-Kadence Davenport, 18. 67-Austin Vaughn, 19. 27-Tim Richmond, 20. 03-Alex Clubb, 21. 06-Brayton Laster, 22. 12-Takuma Koga, 23. 86-Colby Evans, 24. 15-Kris Wright, 25. 9-Mike Basham, 26. 01-Trevor Ward, 27. 48-Brad Smith.