While he may not be a full-time competitor in the ARCA Menards Series, what Lavar Scott has accomplished in a part-time role with Rev Racing so far during the 2023 season is nothing short of remarkable.
The 19-year-old racer overcame an on-track incident with Sean Hingorani in Friday night’s Reese’s 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park to score yet another top-five finish. The New Jersey native has now recorded three consecutive top-five finishes to begin his ARCA Menards Series career.
Scott credited his team for keeping him in the game when things looked bleak on Friday night.
“Yeah, it feels really good,” Scott said to TobyChristie.com of his fifth-place finish. “It’s a testament. It shows how hard this team works, and how this team cares no matter what happens. It worked out for us, and we got a top-five out of it.”
While it all worked out, Scott was really feeling that his shot at extending his top-five finish streak was over when Hingorani slammed into the left side of his No. 6 Chevrolet race car on Lap 74, which sent him skidding hard into the outside wall. As Scott attempted to get his car off the wall, he nearly collided with Luke Fenhaus, but somehow both drivers avoided each other.
Here is a video of the incident courtesy of ARCA:
That's not ideal.
Contact between @seanhingorani and @LavarScott puts us back under caution at @RaceIRP.#Reeses200 | @FS1 pic.twitter.com/F2wSZlFa9o
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) August 11, 2023
Scott admits that when the incident happened, he was seeing smoke inside his helmet.
“I think the initial contact, I was upset,” Scott said. “I thought the race was done, and we had a pretty good run going. But after the team looked at the car, everything else calmed down. I kept my head down and focused. And we moved forward.”
Scott and the No. 6 Rev Racing team will take the next couple of weeks to get their cars fine-tuned, and he is set to return for the August 27th event at The Milwaukee Mile. Understandably, Scott is quite confident heading into his next race.
“Really confident,” Scott explained. “Just keep putting in the work like I’ve been putting in. Keep playing sim, iRacing, have a little communication with the team about what we need to do better and we’ll be good.”
