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By Brandon White www.arcaracing.com March 7, 2025
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Coming to the white flag in Friday’s General Tire 150 at Phoenix Raceway, it appeared Brent Crews would settle for a strong-but-disappointing second in his first outing with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Instead, Crews found himself celebrating his first pavement victory in the ARCA Menards Series. A second attempt at a one-lap shootout provided Crews an opportunity to chase down the dominant driver of the night in Brenden Queen, who he edged to the finish line after muscling his rival out of the way in Turn 3.
RELATED: Complete results from the General Tire 150
Long familiar with the efficiency Queen has displayed at short tracks in the southeast, Crews knew a perfect restart was imperative to overtake him on the final lap. Besting Queen on the ARCA Menards Series platform was something Crews took pride in as he celebrated his victory.
“I raced Brenden [Queen] the whole year last year,” Crews said. “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, so I’m grateful for the caution at the end.”
The third triumph in the ARCA Menards Series for Crews required more patience and diligence compared to his other wins at the Illinois State Fairgrounds and DuQuoin State Fairgrounds, respectively.
Crews displayed his dirt-track expertise at the historic facilities by enjoying near-flawless outings with only minimal opposition. The DuQuoin win was Crews’ most impressive of the two, as he survived an overtime restart to lead all 102 laps from the outside pole.
On Friday, just like at DuQuoin, Crews had to battle for a victory beyond regulation, this time as the one playing offense. A stellar restart on Crews’ behalf kept him within striking distance of Queen during the initial launch, which set him up for the race-winning move.
Queen, who was three weeks removed from an emotional victory at Daytona International Speedway, expressed frustration over how the General Tire 150 concluded. But he stopped short of assigning full blame to Crews. He felt Crews would have never gotten to his bumper had his execution on the final restart been better.
“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 [turn] two because 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.”
All that separated Queen from staying perfect across two ARCA Menards Series appearances was a spin by Tim Viens on the frontstretch during the final lap of regulation, which brought out the penultimate caution.
With the late-race heartbreak, Pinnacle Racing Group found themselves on the receiving end in an ongoing series of late-race battles with Joe Gibbs Racing. The two organizations engaged in fierce duels with Connor Zilisch and William Sawalich respectively last year, while 2023 saw Luke Fenahus steal two victories away from Sawalich in overtime while driving for PRG.
Crews’ poise during the late-race shootout enabled Gibbs to get the upper hand on PRG and build on the momentum they possessed with Sawalich. Being able to obtain an ARCA Menards Series pavement win was a cathartic moment for Crews, who expressed his gratitude to both Gibbs and his family for helping him reach that milestone.
“Winning this race is so special for me,” Crews said. “It was my mom’s birthday [on Thursday], so I’m dedicating this win to her. I can’t thank the Joe Gibbs Racing enough. [There was] no practice, so showing up to the track with a car this fast was pretty cool.”
Treyten Lapcevich earned a strong third-place finish in what is currently his only planned ARCA Menards Series race of 2025. The rest of the top five consisted of Lawless Alan and Lavar Scott.
Kole Raz, Thad Moffitt, Patrick Staropoli, Robbie Kennealy and Corey Day were the rest of the top-10 finishers.
The next time the ARCA Menards Series takes to the track will not be until Apr. 26 at Talladega Superspeedway, a race that will broadcast on FS1 starting at 12:30 p.m. ET. For the ARCA Menards Series West, the series’ next event is at Tucson Speedway on April 5 with FloRacing providing the on-track coverage.
