Jake Drew
Jake Drew (James Gilbert/NASCAR)

NOTEBOOK: West Series contenders begin title hunt Friday at Phoenix Raceway

www.arcaracing.com March 9, 2022

Jesse Love has been the king of the ARCA Menards Series West for the last two seasons, but now it’s time to begin the process of crowning a new champion.

With Love shifting his focus to the ARCA Menards Series this year with Venturini Motorsports, a new driver will take center stage as the champion of the West Series. That process begins Friday at Phoenix Raceway with the running of the General Tire 150.

The race, which is also the second round of the ARCA Menards Series season and opening round of the Sioux Chief Showdown, features a stacked entry list of 40 competitors. Many of those entered are West Series racers hoping to stake their claim to the title of West Series champion by the time the series returns to Phoenix for the finale on Nov. 5.

RELATED: Watch the West Series opener on FloRacing

Jake Drew and Jesse Love
Jake Drew and Jesse Love battle for position during the Arizona Lottery 100 for the ARCA Menards Series West at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 6, 2021. (Caitlin O’Hara/ARCA Racing)

Among the likely challengers is the man who ended the 2021 season second, Jake Drew. The racer from Fullerton, California, returns to Bob Bruncati’s Sunrise Ford Racing after losing the championship last year via a tiebreaker to Love. He is still looking for his first West Series victory and has to be considered a contender entering Friday’s General Tire 150.

“You can’t lie. You get out from (in front of) the camera and you go home and you’re pretty upset,” Drew said during the annual pre-race practice at Daytona International Speedway in January about losing the West Series championship. “At the end of the day it’s such an awesome opportunity to get to drive race cars. You always get to come back and do it again as long as you say the right things and say thank you to all the right people. I’ll keep doing that, and I’ll get to keep doing what I love.

“We’re super excited for 2022, and we’re super confident in what we think we can achieve.”

Drew’s likely competition includes a returning veteran and a pair of Bounty Rookie Challenge candidates, one of which will be his teammate, Tanner Reif.

Reif joins Sunrise Ford Racing after most recently capturing the NASCAR Pro Late Model championship at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last season. The Las Vegas native has never raced in the West Series, something that will change Friday evening at Phoenix.

The second Bounty Rookie Challenge competitor and likely championship contender is part of Bill McAnally Racing’s powerhouse West Series program. Austin Herzog from Clovis, California, makes the move to the West Series after proving himself in Pro and Super Late Model competition on the West Coast the last few seasons.

Lastly, the returning P.J. Pedroncelli made his presence known as a championship contender last season and could easily do that again if the cards fall his way. A win at All American Speedway in Roseville, California, late last year catapulted him into championship contention entering the 2021 Phoenix finale, and there is nothing that says it couldn’t happen again.

Pedroncelli’s father, Paul Pedroncelli, is also entered in Friday’s race.

ARCA Menards Series title contenders head West

While the West Series season begins with Friday’s General Tire 150, the ARCA Menards Series championship hunt began Feb. 19 at Daytona International Speedway.

On that warm and sunny afternoon in Daytona Beach, Florida, Corey Heim captured his second straight victory in the Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire. Heim, however, is not pursing the ARCA Menards Series championship this year. In fact, of the top-five finishers at Daytona, only one is scheduled to compete in every race on the schedule this year.

Daniel Dye
Daniel Dye (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Daniel Dye, who is piloting the No. 43 Chevrolet this year for GMS Racing, finished third at Daytona behind Heim and Parker Chase. He enters the General Tire 150 as the defacto championship leader, as he is the highest ARCA Menards Series regular in the standings after Daytona.

He holds a six-point advantage on Toni Breidinger, who finished ninth at Daytona in her first race as a full-time competitor with Venturini Motorsports. Sitting two points behind Bredinger is Rev Racing’s Rajah Caruth, who finished 11th in the Daytona opener.

Other anticipated full-time competitors that are making the trip to Phoenix include Rev Racing’s Nick Sanchez, Rette Jones Racing’s Amber Balcaen and owner/driver Greg Van Alst.

Of those six drivers, Dye, Caruth, Breidinger and Sanchez have experience at the one-mile tri-oval located in Avondale, Arizona.

Burgess confirms West Series sponsors

Bridget Burgess is returning to the West Series for her second full season of competition this year, and she’s doing it thanks to support from a pair of sponsors: HMH Construction and GEARWRENCH.

Driving for her family-owned BMI Racing team, Burgess earned two top-10 finishes last year, including a best finish of eighth at Sonoma Raceway.

Her mother Sarah Burgess, who doubles as the team owner and crew chief for her daughter, also recently revealed the team has acquired a second car, which can only help the team based out of the Utah Motorsports Campus in Tooele, Utah.

Notes:

  • Venturini Motorsports recently announced that Corey Heim’s victory in the Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire at Daytona International Speedway made the organization the winningest team in ARCA Menards Series history. The victory, the 80th by the team, came 37 years after team patriarch Bill Venturini won his first ARCA event at Michigan’s Flat Rock Speedway.
  • Bill Sedgwick, a two-time West Series champion in the early 1990s, will serve as crew chief for Jake Drew during Friday’s General Tire 150. Sedgwick won 17 times in West Series competition, with his last triumph coming in 1999 at the now-defunct Portland Speedway in Oregon.
  • NASCAR Xfinity Series JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry will make his West Series debut in Friday’s General Tire 150 driving the No. 17 MMI Chevrolet for Steve McGowan. Berry’s team will be lead by crew chief Amber Slagle, who competed in three West Series events last year for McGowan as a driver.