Rock Star: Brent Crews Puts On An ARCA East Clinic

Brent Crews celebrates with a burnout after winning Saturday at Rockingham Speedway. (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – Brent Crews made his first ARCA Menards Series East win look like a walk in the park Saturday afternoon at Rockingham Speedway.

In the first East Series race at The Rock since 2012, Crews led 121 of 125 laps from the pole en route to a dominant victory over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate William Sawalich.

Though the duo battled side by side on several restarts throughout the race at the .94-mile oval, Crews was able to get the measure of Sawalich each time as the run extended on.

The 17-year-old Crews was able to open up a gap of more than six seconds multiple times, ultimately taking the checkered flag 6.142 seconds ahead in the No. 81 Mobil 1 Toyota.

It marked Crews’ first ARCA East win in his second series start and his fourth ARCA platform win overall, following three prior victories in the national ARCA Menards Series.

“To win and have a sold-out (crowd at) Rockingham Speedway is pretty cool, especially at a place as historic as this,” Crews said in victory lane. “The work they’ve done to this place is amazing. We had a super-fast Mobil 1 Camry, so a humongous thank you to the whole Joe Gibbs Racing crew for that.

“Coming to a place where I’d only ever run a couple of (testing) laps in a truck, to have a dominant performance like this is special,” Crews continued. “These guys had the car hooked up all weekend and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. It makes my job a whole lot easier when the car drives as smooth as that piece did today.”

Saturday was Crews’ second win in as many races since joining Joe Gibbs Racing for 2025. He also won the national ARCA race at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway in early March.

Though Sawalich tried all day to keep Crews within reach, even hanging on the outside for an entire lap following the lap-66 restart that opened the race’s second half, he never had enough steam on the long run to make a concerted and consistent challenge.

A final caution with 19 to go – for a spin by Blaine Donahue – set up one final restart with Sawalich alongside Crews and a 13-lap dash for glory in front of a packed house.

Crews got the launch into turn one, however, and never looked back after that.

“Clean air was huge,” Crews noted afterward. “I was fortunate to have a really fast race car, and even when he (Sawalich) was packing air on my right rear (fender), I felt like I had really good stability. We debated on going to the top (via the choose rule) a couple of times, but I think the way we played it was obviously the way to go.

“Even when I’d make a mistake, the car was so good it would kind of pull me back forward, I felt like.”

Rev Racing driver Eloy Falcon posted a podium finish in his ARCA debut, crossing third ahead of Venturini Motorsports’ Patrick Staropoli and modified ace-turned ARCA regular Andy Jankowiak.

Isaac Kitzmiller was sixth and assumed the ARCA East point lead, followed by Kole Raz. Lanie Buice, who also debuted Saturday with Rev Racing, finished eighth as the last driver on the lead lap.

Crews’ winning average speed was 95.781 mph after five cautions slowed the pace for 31 laps, including a surprising incident on lap two where Jake Finch backed into the wall after spinning in a battle for fifth with Austin Green.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Timmy Hill, who returned to his ARCA roots Saturday, also had a hard crash after blowing a right-front tire and pounding the wall on the 44th lap of the race.

The ARCA Menards Series East returns to action Saturday, May 3 at Nashville (Tenn.) Fairgrounds Speedway with the running of the Music City 150. Coverage will stream live on FloRacing.