Brent Crews Shoots Past Brenden Queen on Final Lap for Phoenix Win

Brent Crews, the 16-year-old prospect for Joe Gibbs Racing, capitalized on a couple of late-race cautions to get around Daytona winner Brenden Queen to score his third career win in the ARCA Menards Series at Phoenix Raceway on Friday night.

Crews, who started on the pole for Friday’s 150-lap contest due to inclement weather, led a total of 68 laps en route to the victory at the one-mile oval, taking advantage of Queen, who spun his tired on the restart allowing Crews to get within striking distance of the Pinnacle Racing Group driver.

“Just wanted to say thank you to all you amazing fans for being out here and wanted to give a big thank you to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing,” said Crews in a post-race interview.

“Winning this race is so special for me, It was my mom’s birthday yesterday, and dedicating this win to her. I had been racing Brenden (Queen) for the whole year last year, been able to race him for a (ZMAX) CARS Tour win, and then coming to the ARCA Series at a track like Phoenix and racing him for the win was really special.”

Crews and Queen lined up side by side on the Lap 165 restart as Crews got the jump on Queen. they would go door to door the entire lap until Turn 3 when Crews was able to nudge out ahead of Queen. The defending race winner would clip the wall coming off Turn 4, granting Crews his third career ARCA Menards Series win in just his ninth series start.

“It’s just frustrating.” Said Queen after finishing runner-up to Crews after leading a race high 95 laps.

“Honestly, I’m just going to look at this as I gotta do a better job on that restart. In my defense, I should’ve not let him get close, I gave him the bottom into Turn 1 to not get hit because he had such a run off Turn 2 because I cleared him, I almost wish I didn’t clear him and stayed behind him and then go door to door with (Crews) to run him up the hill.”

Treyten Lapcevich capped off his ARCA debut with a third-place run with Venturini Motorsports. Lawless Alan and Lavar Scott rounded out the top five finishing spots. Kole Raz picks up back-to-back sixth-place finishes to begin his season.

Thad Moffitt bounced back for a seventh-place finish, followed by a great comeback drive from Patrick Staropoli in eighth. Robbie Kennealy led the charge among all ARCA West Series drivers, finishing ninth in Friday’s contest. After starting 29th, Corey Day drove his way through the field to finish 10th in his first career start at Phoenix Raceway.

ARCA Menards Series full-timer Isabella Robusto ran into problems early in the afternoon, with an engine expiring on her No. 55 Toyota Camry for Venturini Motorsports. Robusto records her second DNF in as many races to start her campaign in the series for 2025.

Crews would lead the opening 40 laps of the race before Queen would swipe away the lead on 41 for the first time of the day before giving way back to Crews until Lap 57. The halfway competition caution would fly on Lap 75 of the race, with Queen still leading the way over Crews and the 2023 winner of the event, Tyler Reif.

As the race restarted on Lap 82, Reif would grab the lead of the race, becoming the third and final different leader of the event after falling behind Queen once again.

Venturini Motorsports teammates of Patrick Starapoli and Treyten Lapcevich, who was making his ARCA debut, would tangle on lap 90 after Lapcevich got into the left-rear quarter panel of Starapoli, sending the No. 25 Toyota Camry for a spin exiting Turn 2, bringing out another yellow.

As the race resumed on Lap 95, Queen led the next 61 laps, uninterrupted, until the caution that significantly changed the race flew as Queen was taking the white flag.