After the checkered flag flew in the ARCA Menards Series race at Phoenix Raceway on March 5, the FOX Sports announcers remarked that Carson Brown drove a perfect race.
Brown won the pole, led all 157 laps, and won the General Tire 150 for his first ARCA victory in his first career start.
By virtue of it being a combination race with the national division and ARCA Menards Series West, Brown scored a triumph in both series. He earned his first ARCA West win in his second career start, both at Phoenix.
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“Man, I don’t know, just all the guys back at PRG, big thank you to them…,” Brown told FOX Sports. “Couldn’t do it without all of them. And, man, that green-white-checkered got a little hairy there. Made a little contact off of [turn] 2, but just glad I could kind of persevere there and make it to the finish line.”
Brown’s Pinnacle Racing Group teammate Tristan McKee paced the field in practice and stayed within sight of Brown the whole race, ultimately winding up second.
ARCA national full-time driver Thomas Annunziata finished third.
2025 West champion Trevor Huddleston finished fourth, followed by West season-opening winner Mason Massey in fifth.
Annunziata’s Nitro Motorsports teammate Jake Bollman followed up his runner-up showing at Daytona International Speedway with a sixth-place result at Phoenix.
2025 ARCA Menards Series East champion Isaac Kitzmiller finished seventh, Taylor Mayhew was eighth, Max Reaves ninth and Robbie Kennealy in 10th.
While the first half of the race featured a number of cautions, the only one where drivers sustained significant damage to their racecars was on lap 1. Of those in the opening-lap wreck, full-time drivers Brad Smith and Bobby Dale Earnhardt ended up with 38th- and 39th-place DNFs.
Then, with about 50 laps to go, The Big One struck, collecting four Nitro drivers.
While Annunziata and Bollman both came home with top 10s, the rest of the Nitro entrants finished outside the top 20. Isabella Robusto spun earlier in the race after contact with Eric Johnson Jr., and her involvement in the multi-car crash relegated her to 21st place, seven laps down.
Jade Avedisian brought out an early caution due to a dead battery on her No. 90 Toyota, and then she suffered damage to her racecar in The Big One, resulting in her finishing 15 laps down in 28th place.
Nitro’s full-time West drivers Mia Lovell and Julian DaCosta both crashed out in The Big One, winding up 30th and 31st.
Meanwhile, Brown set sail, coming close to taking the white flag. However, Dustin Hillenburg brought out the caution for the second time, sending the race into overtime.
Brown never faltered though, leading all 157 laps to give PRG a Phoenix trophy after Brenden Queen lost the 2025 edition there in overtime.
ARCA Results from Phoenix
The West regulars next head to Tucson Speedway on Saturday, April 11. That race will begin at 9 p.m. ET with coverage provided by FloRacing. The main series races a week later at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, April 18. The green flag will fly at 12:30 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX Sports 1.
With Robusto already declared the series champion, who will the battle for second be between?