A last-lap pass propels Brent Crews to victory at Phoenix Raceway on Friday night in the General Tire 150.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Coming to the white flag in Friday’s General Tire 150 at Phoenix Raceway, it appeared Brent Crews would settle for a strong-but-disappointing second in his first outing with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Brent Crews’ Victory at Phoenix
Instead, Crews celebrated his first pavement victory in the ARCA Menards Series. A second attempt at a one-lap shootout allowed Crews to chase down the dominant driver of the night in Brenden Queen, who he edged to the finish line after muscling his rival out of the way in the third turn.
Familiar with Queen’s efficiency at short tracks in the southeast, Crews knew a perfect restart was imperative to overtake him on the final lap. Besting Queen on the ARCA Menards Series platform was something Crews took pride in while celebrating his victory.
“I raced Brenden [Queen] the whole year last year,” Crews said. “We raced him for CARS Tour wins, and then coming here to the ARCA Menards Series at a track like Phoenix to race for the win was really special. A great job to [Pinnacle Racing Group]. They had a winning car today, so I’m grateful for the caution at the end.”
The third triumph in the ARCA Menards Series for Crews required more patience and diligence than his other wins at the Illinois State Fairgrounds and DuQuoin State Fairgrounds, respectively.
Crews displayed his dirt-track expertise at the historic facilities by enjoying near-flawless outings with minimal opposition. The DuQuoin win was Crews’ most impressive of the two, as he survived an overtime restart to lead all 102 laps from the outside pole.
On Friday, like at DuQuoin, Crews had to battle for a victory beyond regulation, this time as the one playing offense. A stellar restart on Crews’ behalf kept him within striking distance of Queen during the initial launch, which set him up for the race-winning move.
The General Tire 150 Results
Queen, three weeks removed from an emotional victory at Daytona International Speedway, expressed frustration over how the General Tire 150 concluded. But he stopped short of assigning full blame to Crews. He felt Crews would have never gotten to his bumper had his execution on the final restart been better.
“The only way they could beat us was to knock us out of the way,” Queen said. “Honestly, I’m going to look at it as ‘I have to do a better job on that restart’. In my defense, I never should have let him get close enough. I gave him the bottom in [turn] one to try and not get hit because he had such a run off [turn] two because I cleared him.
“I almost wish I wouldn’t have cleared him and stayed door-to-door, then I could have run him up the hill or something.”
All that separated Queen from staying perfect across two ARCA Menards Series appearances was a spin by Tim Viens on the frontstretch during the final lap of regulation, which brought out the penultimate caution.
With the late-race heartbreak, Pinnacle Racing Group found themselves on the receiving end in an ongoing series of late-race battles with Joe Gibbs Racing. The two organizations engaged in fierce duels with Connor Zilisch and William Sawalich, respectively. Last year. In 2023, Luke Fenahus stole two victories in overtime from Sawalich while driving for PRG.
Crews’ poise during the late-race shootout enabled Gibbs to get the upper hand on PRG and build on their momentum with Sawalich. Obtaining an ARCA Menards Series pavement win was a cathartic moment for Crews, as he expressed gratitude to Gibbs and his family for helping him reach that milestone.
“Winning this race is so special for me,” Crews said. “It was my mom’s birthday [on Thursday], so I’m dedicating this win to her. I can’t thank the Joe Gibbs Racing enough. [There was] no practice, so showing up to the track with a car this fast was pretty cool.”
The ARCA Menards Series Point Standings
The ARCA West Series Point Standings
Treyten Lapcevich earned a strong third-place finish. The rest of the top five consisted of Lawless Alan and Lavar Scott.
Kole Raz, Thad Moffitt, Patrick Staropoli, Robbie Kennealy and Corey Day were the rest of the top-ten finishers.
Up Next
The next time the ARCA Menards Series takes to the track is April 26 at Talladega Superspeedway. The race coverage is on FS1 starting at 12:30 p.m. ET.
The ARCA Menards Series West’s next event is at Tucson Speedway on April 5. FloRacing will have the on-track coverage.