Last-Lap Pass Lifts Crews To Phoenix ARCA Victory

Brent Crews celebrates in victory lane Friday night at Phoenix Raceway. (Charlie Ramirez/ARCA Racing photo)

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Where restarts had been Brent Crews’ Achilles heel for the majority of Friday night’s General Tire 150, the final one in double overtime led the talented teenager to ARCA Menards Series victory lane.

After sticking with race-long dominator Brenden Queen through the first half of a one-lap shootout to the finish, Crews got to the left-rear corner of Queen’s Chevrolet with his Joe Gibbs Racing-prepared Toyota entering turn three at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway.

As Queen began to wash up off the bottom, Crews delivered a shot in the driver’s door that moved Queen out of the racing groove. From there, while Queen’s car sailed up into the outside wall exiting turn four, Crews completed the last-lap, last-corner pass to claim the victory in his JGR debut.

It marked the third career win for the 16-year-old native of Denver, N.C., in just his ninth start on the national ARCA Menards Series platform.

Though he started from the pole after qualifying was washed out at the one-mile desert oval and led five times for 68 laps, Crews’ car was not short-run dominant in the second half of the race, until it mattered most.

“I raced Brenden [Queen] the whole year last year,” said Crews, who battled Queen regularly in late model stock cars on the CARS Tour a year ago. “We raced him for CARS Tour wins, and then coming here to the ARCA Menards Series at a track like Phoenix to race for the win was really special.

“A great job to [Pinnacle Racing Group]. They had a winning car today, but I’m grateful for the caution at the end that gave us the chance we had to best them.”

Friday night’s race – a combination event between the national ARCA Menards Series and the ARCA Menards Series West division – featured six caution flags for 47 laps, but it was the last two of those yellows that turned the overall outcome upside down.

Queen had wrested the top spot away from Crews on a lap-96 restart and led 55 straight laps, appearing to be well on his way to a second straight win in as many races after opening the season in victory lane at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway in February.

But after taking the white flag to start the final lap in regulation, a spin on the frontstretch by the lapped car of Tim Viens forced a caution before Queen could come all the way around to the checkers, necessitating a green-and-white together, single-lap shootout under ARCA regulations.

The first overtime attempt came on the seventh lap of extra distance, but was scuttled almost immediately after Queen spun his tires slightly and the battle for the lead went nearly four-wide exiting the dogleg.

Past Phoenix ARCA winner Tyler Reif tried to duck under Queen, but Thad Moffitt tried to go even lower and got into Reif’s rear bumper, ultimately hooking the Las Vegas teenager down into the end of the pit wall and destroying the front end of Reif’s No. 23 – which was running third at that point.

That incident led to additional cleanup before the second try at overtime, which ended with Crews’ dramatic heroics on the 165th and final lap around the Diamond in the Desert.

While Crews celebrated in front of the assembled crowd and drove his car to victory lane, Queen sat on pit road showing visible shares of both disbelief and frustration at having an apparent win snatched from his grasp.

In speaking to reporters after the race, however, Queen was as philosophical as he could be about the way the final lap ultimately played out.

“The only way they could beat us was to knock us out of the way,” Queen said. “Honestly, I’m going to look at it as ‘I have to do a better job on that restart’. In my defense, I never should have let him get close enough. I gave him the bottom in [turn] one to try and not get hit because he had such a run off of [turn] two after I cleared him.

“I almost wish I wouldn’t have cleared him and stayed door-to-door, then I could have run him up the hill or something.”

Ontario’s Treyten Lapcevich, who won the NASCAR Canada Series championship in 2023 before moving full-time to the United States to continue his racing journey, finished third in his ARCA debut as the highest driver from the Venturini Motorsports stable.

Lapcevich’s teammate Lawless Alan was fourth and reigning ARCA national rookie-of-the-year Lavar Scott closed out the top five.

Sixth was Kole Raz, followed by Moffitt, Patrick Staropoli, Robbie Kennealy, and Corey Day. Only the top 10 finished on the lead lap among the 34 starters. Kennealy was the highest-finishing ARCA West driver.

Despite running inside the top five all night and leading two laps at one point, Reif was left with a 19th-place DNF due to his crash in the first overtime.

Friday’s race marked the longest ARCA Menards Series race at Phoenix by laps in track history. Crews’ winning pace was one hour, 49 minutes, and 17 seconds at an average speed of 90.589 mph.

The next national ARCA Menards Series race is April 26 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, where Jake Finch is the defending winner, while the ARCA West field returns to action April 5 at Tucson (Ariz.) Raceway.

The finish:

1. 18-Brent Crews, 2. 28-Brenden Queen, 3. 15-Treyten Lapcevich, 4. 20-Lawless Alan, 5. 6-Lavar Scott, 6. 76-Kole Raz, 7. 46-Thad Moffitt, 8. 25-Patrick Staropoli, 9. 1-Robbie Kennealy, 10. Corey Day, 11. Eric Johnson Jr., 12. 50-Trevor Huddleston, 13. 13-Tanner Reif, 14. 73-Andy Jankowiak, 15. 71-Kyle Keller, 16. 11-Cody Dennison, 17. 51-Blake Lothian, 18. 3-Adria Ferrer, 19. 23-Tyler Reif, 20. 31-Tim Viens, 21. 99-Michael Maples, 22. 06-Brayton Laster, 23. 12-Tim Monroe, 24. 19-Jake Bollman, 25. 72-Joanthan Reaume, 26. 9-Tony Cosentino, 27. 97-Jason Kitzmiller, 28. 03-Alex Clubb, 29. 05-David Smith, 30. 10-Brad Perez, 31. 55-Isabella Robusto, 32. 67-Ryan Vargas, 33. 48-Brad Smith, 34. 86-Alex Malycke.