In the 2025 ARCA Menards Series race at Phoenix Raceway, Pinnacle Racing Group driver Brenden Queen led the most laps yet lost the win in overtime. In 2026, PRG driver Carson Brown led every lap, including in overtime, en route to scoring his first career triumph in his first series start.
Brown became the 39th driver to win in his ARCA national division debut. Phoenix hosted a combination race between the main series and ARCA Menards Series West, and Brown earned his first West win in his second career start.
With a strong 40-car field, the Frontstretch ARCA power rankings saw some shakeups following Phoenix.
Carson Brown Leads Every Lap, Wins ARCA Race at Phoenix
1. Carson Brown
Brown was dominant at Phoenix. He captured the pole after running fifth in practice and led 157 laps in the race. Yet he used the word “struggle” in his post-race press conference. How did he struggle?
“Yeah, for sure, thank you, there’s definitely different kinds of struggles,” Brown said. “I feel like we had a lot of speed but just struggled to be comfortable. I felt like we were burning the tires off of it to go that fast and stay out front. I felt like if we weren’t opening up the corner, just staying in the higher groove, we just struggled really bad. We were down there in the rubber and just kind of floating it out there doing what I could to keep the car from being pinched down to the bottom and felt like it worked. We chose the top every restart and felt comfortable up there. We did everything we could there on the restarts. And, yeah, they got a little hairy there at the end but couldn’t do it without all the PRG guys.”
If that’s what constitutes struggle according to Brown, then watch out when he feels like he has a fast racecar. Despite his so-called struggles, his dominance at Phoenix lands him No. 1 in these power rankings.
2. Jake Bollman
Look here, two races into the main series season, and Jake Bollman leads the point standings.
Bollman is the only driver who has finished inside the top 10 in both races and he has a nine-point advantage over Jason Kitzmiller.
Bollman was runner up at Daytona International Speedway, then was penalized six points for a tech infraction, and wound up sixth at Phoenix.
“Overall, we ran up front for a long time,” Bollman said in a post-race team release. “We raced pretty hard with the lead cars and felt like we had something for them after the halfway break. Unfortunately, we got caught in a couple of messes that ripped the right side of the back bumper off and hurt our speed for the rest of the race. The car was tight after that, but we kept fighting. Finishing sixth is still a solid points day. Stuff happens in an instant in racing, so we’ll take it and move forward. Huge thanks to everyone at Nitro Motorsports — the crew chief, car chief, and everyone back at the shop who worked hard to get these cars ready with the busy schedule we’ve had.”
Bollman likely benefitted from previous experience at Phoenix, but his points position speaks for itself. Remember, he didn’t even have this full-time ride until after the preseason test at Daytona.
Can he keep the lead when he visits the intermediate Kansas Speedway for the first time, or after the following race at Talladega Superspeedway? Time will tell, but in the meantime, Bollman has been impressive to start his 2026 campaign.
These ARCA Tracks Best Prepare Drivers for NASCAR
3. Trevor Huddleston
The reigning West Series champion delivered his best performance at Phoenix, gaining 12 positions from start to finish to score a fourth-place result. To boot, Trevor Huddleston arguably had a third-place car, losing that spot to Thomas Annunziata in the overtime restart.
“Yeah, I mean, super stoked, right,” Huddleston told West Coast Sports News post-race. “I mean, 40 cars, national race, to finish fourth at this place, it took all we had and it took our entire team to be perfect and it worked out good. … I mean, pretty much from the time we unloaded, progressed and we’ll take it. It’s a win for us.
“Yeah, you know, we made a really good change at the halfway break that obviously helped out a lot. But I think a lot had to do with my experience here, knowing that, I mean, 150 is a lot of laps, right. First 75’s a practice, and honestly, the second 50 is practice and you’re just kind of waiting cause you know there’s going to be cautions. I mean, there was a caution on the green-white-checkered. And so, you’re just kind of waiting and biding your time saving a little bit. You can’t save it all, it’s not like Tucson [Speedway] where you save everything, but we saved just enough and came home fourth.”
Huddleston had a fast No. 50 Ford, and his progression through the field as the laps wound down stood out. After two West Series races, the defending champion is second in West points, six points behind…
4. Mason Massey
How does the West points leader go behind Huddleston in these rankings? Huddleston finished third at Phoenix and Mason Massey finished fifth.
Both drivers were exemplary at Phoenix, driving smart races, avoiding trouble, and bringing home top fives in the combo race.
Massey has now won, in the West season opener at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, and finished fifth.
With a stacked West field, every position and point matters. Massey came home two spots behind Huddleston at Phoenix, landing him one spot behind him in these rankings, but that West championship will be an exciting one to watch.
5. Isaac Kitzmiller
Phoenix saw the 2026 national division owner points champions [PRG], 2026 ARCA West owner and drivers’ champions – Huddleston and Co. – and 2026 ARCA Menards Series East owner [Joe Gibbs Racing] and drivers’ champions.
Isaac Kitzmiller, the 2026 East driver’s champion, competed at Phoenix as part of his increased slate this year. In his fifth career main series start, he finished seventh after qualifying fourth.
In his five career main series starts, he has one top five and five top 10s. In 14 career ARCA platform starts, Kitzmiller has four top 10s and 14 top 10s. Yes, he has never finished outside the top 10.
With the weirdness that was the 2025 East season, Kitzmiller’s title run could be considered something of a fluke, as he did not lead any laps, so obviously no victories.
But his knack for consistency was outstanding, and he showcased that again at Phoenix.
If Kitzmiller’s Phoenix showing was an indicator of what’s to come, then we ought to keep an eye on him this year.
Derek Kneeland Running Hickory for Pinnacle
Paint Scheme of the Race
As Phoenix is the lone combo race for the national division and West, the Paint Scheme of the Race Award ought to go to a West regular.
As such, that award goes to Robbie Kennealy, driver of the No. 41 Jan’s Racing Team Ford.
Kennealy finished 10th at Phoenix. It’s a solid result, especially because he spun out to bring out the second caution of the race.
Kennealy stayed on the lead lap en route to scoring his third top 10 at Phoenix.
Kennealy’s black-and-yellow Ford stood out under the Phoenix sun, and his white numbers made him easy to spot on TV.
In addition to running full time in the West, Kennealy competed at Daytona, finished 15th and is fourth in the national division points. It’s quite an accomplishment, and hopefully, we will see Kennealy participate in the main series more in 2026.
The West Series heads to Tucson Speedway for its next race. That race will take place on Saturday, April 11, at 9 p.m. ET with live coverage on FloRacing. The main series drivers will return to the racetrack a week later, Saturday, April 18, at Kansas. The green flag for that race will fly at 12:30 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX Sports 1.
