The ARCA Menards Series season kicked off on Saturday at the hallowed grounds of Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway, where Brenden “Butterbean” Queen scored his first career victory with the series.
Queen led the final 10 laps to win in only his second career series start. His only other previous ARCA start was in the 2019 race at Daytona; he finished 29th due to a crash after 49 laps.
Here’s more notes from the Ride the ‘Dente 200:
- Queen’s victory is the seventh ARCA Menards Series victory for team owner Mark Webb’s Pinnacle Racing Group team. The organization has scored wins with Luke Fenhaus in 2023 and with Connor Mosack and Connor Zilisch in 2024.
- Two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion William Sawalich (No. 18 Starkey Toyota) finished second in his first ARCA Menards Series start on a superspeedway. Sawalich led twice for 29 laps, the most of any driver in the race.
- Jason Kitzmiller (No. 97 A.L.L. Construction Chevrolet) finished third, his career best ARCA Menards Series finish.
- Lavar Scott (No. 6 Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet) finished fourth, the second time in three starts at Daytona International Speedway that he has finished in the fourth position.
- Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves (No. 82 Wendy’s Chevrolet) finished fifth in his first ARCA Menards Series start. Castroneves, in a team car to race winner Queen, rallied from involvement in two separate on-track incidents to battle for the lead late in the race before setting for fifth.
- Kole Raz (No. 76 Cyclum Renewable Truck Stops Ford) finished sixth in his first career ARCA Menards Series start. Raz won the ARCA Menards Series West race at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway last April.
- A.J. Moyer (No. 88 River’s Edge Cottages & RV Park Chevrolet) earned his best career series finish in seventh. Moyer is the son of 1981 ARCA Menards Series champion Larry Moyer.
- Andy Jankowiak (No. 73 KLAS Motorsports Ford) rallied from involvement in the first incident of the race to finish eighth. Jankowiak was able to race up into the top five late in the race despite damage to nearly every side of his race car.
- Ryan Roulette (No. 67 VFW Ford) earned his second career top-ten finish with his ninth-place finish. Roulette, who is an active member of the United States Air Force, recovered from mechanical issues that forced him to miss the drop of the green flag and left him a lap down by lap two. He received the free pass on the first caution at lap three.
- Bryce Haugeberg (No. 06 North Dakota State University Toyota) finished tenth, his first top-ten finish since he finished tenth at Salem Speedway in 2022. All three of Haugeberg’s top-ten results are tenth-place finishes.
- Queen unofficially leads the ARCA Menards Series championship point standings by three points over Sawalich and by six points over Kitzmiller and Scott who are tied for third.
- There were seven caution flags for 33 laps, holding the average speed to 96.450 miles per hour.
- There were six lead changes among six drivers; Sawalich led 29 laps, Lawless Alan (No. 20 AUTOParkit Toyota) led 26, Scott and Queen 10 each; Haugeberg 4, and Scott Melton (No. 68 Melton-McFadden Insurance Agency Ford) 1.
- Queen’s margin of victory was 0.094 seconds.
