PIT BOX: Tight West Series title battle reaches All American for season’s penultimate race

Roseville. It just sounds like the perfect place for Saturday night short-track racing in the ARCA Menards Series West.

The October event at All American Speedway, located in Placer County, California, within the Sacramento metropolitan area, has become a tradition on the West Series schedule. In 2021, the NAPA AutoCare 150 presented by Berco Redwood serves as the penultimate race of the West Series season.

That means the stakes are as high as ever on the third-mile paved oval. The top five drivers in the West Series championship standings are separated by just 15 points with two events remaining on the schedule.

Tickets to Saturday night’s NAPA AutoCare 150 are available. The race will be shown live on NBC Sports Gold’s TrackPass starting at 6:45 p.m. PT / 9:45 p.m. ET.

NAPA AutoCare 150 presented by Berco Redwood at All American Speedway

WHAT TO WATCH FOR:

Saturday night’s race at All American is all about the West Series championship battle, especially in the wake of the event at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway a couple weeks ago.

Points leader Jesse Love, the defending West Series champion, suffered a major slip in the standings with his 13th-place finish at Vegas. The 16-year-old driver of the No. 16 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota for Bill McAnally Racing now has just a seven-point lead over second-place Jake Drew in the standings.

Drew, meanwhile, has his own seven-point cushion over third-place Cole Moore, Love’s BMR teammate. Joey Iest and P.J. Pedroncelli are tied for fifth, one point behind Moore and 15 points back from the leader Love.

Love and Moore on Saturday night might benefit from a familiarity advantage for their team, as All American is BMR’s home facility. The team’s race shop is located just a few miles away, and BMR has won nine of 17 West Series events in Roseville since 2008.

One of those wins came last season, when then-BMR driver Gio Scelzi nudged Taylor Gray out of his way on the final lap for the win.

Gray is in the field at All American again this season. He is carrying the momentum of two consecutive West Series wins, at The Bullring and at Portland International Raceway last month. He will look to make up for last year’s missed opportunity in Roseville, where he would have picked up his first win if not for the last-lap incident.

Both Sunrise Ford Racing drivers, Drew and Trevor Huddleston, are entered at All American, as well. The former will look to draw closer to Love in the season-long title battle. Huddleston, who ranks sixth in points, will look to make his own strides in the standings.

All of the above figure to be competitive at All American. As is the case for Dean Thompson, Todd Souza, Bridget Burgess and Takuma Koga, West Series regulars who have shown impressive speed in 2021.

The entry list for Saturday night’s NAPA AutoCare 150 also includes several part-time driver entries in Jolynn Wilkinson, Amber Slagle, Josh Fanopoulos, Christian Rose and more.

The complete entry list for Saturday night’s NAPA AutoCare 150 at All American can be found here.

RACING REFERENCE:

• ARCA Menards Series West points
• West Series drivers at All American

RACE FACTS

CREW CHIEF HANDOUT: The starting field for the NAPA AutoCare 150 presented by Berco Redwood is limited to 20 plus provisional positions. This event will be run under the 2021 ARCA Menards Series West rules, procedures, regulations and specifications.

QUALIFYING: Starting position will be set by each car’s fastest recorded lap in the practice / qualifying session.

RACE PIT STOP: Pitting during this event will be for making repairs and adjustments and/or adding fuel only; no tires can be changed without ARCA approval.

The maximum tire allotment available for this event is as follows: The maximum tire use at track for the event is eight (8).