Trevor Huddleston becomes an ARCA Menards Series West champion after nearly a decade of trying

At 29, Trevor Huddleston is a veteran presence in an ARCA Menards Series West field that gets younger with each year.

Having been a part of the division since 2016, Huddleston has made a name for himself as a persistent, hardworking competitor with nine victories, three poles, 40 top fives and more than 1,300 laps led. Throughout that period, one accomplishment that consistently eluded Huddleston was a West Series title.

By practicing for the Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 100 at Phoenix Raceway on Friday afternoon, Huddleston officially joined the long, prestigious list of West Series champions. He accomplished that goal in 2025 with his most efficient season to date, winning a quarter of the events and only finishing outside the top five once prior to Phoenix.

A championship in the West Series was Huddleston’s goal from day one. He never lost faith despite the near decade-long disappointment, which is why he felt immense relief upon obtaining that pivotal milestone.

“Every racer thinks they can become a champion,” Huddleston said. “You could see it, and you could dream it, but it never worked out for us in the past to the point where you kind of start to doubt if you’ll become a West Series champion. I always believed in my group and myself, but there was a time where I thought this would be the one that just got away.

“To now finally get over this hurdle, I feel like it’s a huge weight off our shoulders and a huge satisfaction.”

Motorsports runs deep in Huddleston’s family, as both of his grandfathers were active competitors. Oren Prosser, Huddleston’s grandfather, was inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame after winning five titles at Saugus Speedway.

What formally started Huddleston’s own path into racing was a dream manifested by his father Tim Huddleston. In 1988, Tim started what became High Point Racing in his high school’s auto shop along with his auto shop teacher and five of his classmates, putting together a car for Saugus’ weekly show for the following year.

Tim and his friends committed themselves to building High Point Racing from the ground up. After Saugus closed in 1995, High Point Racing focused their efforts on Irwindale Speedway, where Tim found his comfort zone as a competitor by winning dozens of events and securing three track titles.

Always ambitious, Tim has never been content settling on any part of High Point Racing. He wanted his program to become something that could one day excel on a national level, which required bringing in the right people to assist.

“It’s a team; it’s a village,” Tim said. “In 2001, Jeff Schrader came aboard to basically be the competition director and my crew chief then. When I stepped out and Trevor stepped in, he’s been his crew ever since. It’s been amazing, but it takes everybody.”

Patience was needed on Tim’s behalf before High Point Racing could make the jump to the next level. Along with focusing on several different endeavors, Tim and his wife Lisa Huddleston were also ensuring their son had everything necessary to thrive behind the wheel.

After progressing through Irwindale’s different classes while also branching out to different tracks, Trevor Huddleston made his West Series debut in the 2016 season-opener at Irwindale. Driving a third car for Sunrise Ford Racing with his father as his crew chief, Huddleston completed all the laps and brought home a 10^th-place finish.

The Huddlestons had formed a close relationship with Sunrise Ford Racing owner Bob Bruncati, transferring drivers from High Point Racing to Bruncati’s operation. That alliance opened the door for Huddleston to run his first West Series race with Bruncati, which eventually translated to a full-time ride for 2018.

Only one year would pass before Huddleston ended up creating another cherished memory at Irwindale during the second race of the season.

With 10 laps remaining, Huddleston chased down and passed Derek Kraus for the lead but found himself under duress from Tanner Gray moments later. Gray rapidly erased his deficit by utilizing Irwindale’s bottom groove, while Huddleston kept his No. 9 Ford glued to the top lane.

A strong run from Gray on the final lap allowed him to pull alongside Huddleston, who remained unfazed up top. Huddleston got the momentum he needed to edge Gray at the finish line, but not before contact between the two cut Huddleston’s left rear tire down, sending him into the outside wall.

Huddleston is not sure if he even breathed once during the closing stages, but he was determined to outlast Gray and pick up a cathartic victory in front of the local crowd.

“That was exciting to say the least,” Huddleston said. “It was intimidating because it was the first time I had raced against some of the people from the East Coast. Obviously [David Gilliland Racing] with Tanner Gray, you knew they were going to be in contention to win. [Irwindale] being my home track, I had a chip on my shoulder to perform the best we could.

“We ran 150 laps, won the race, and somehow the car was totaled.”

Tim Huddleston experienced a plethora of emotions watching his son obtain his first victory and subsequently crashing after the checkered flag, all while remembering he still had a job to do as Irwindale’s track president and announcer.

“That was epic; what a day,” Tim said. “The coolest part was being able to interview him. How lucky could I have been? To be able to interview him in Victory Lane for his first ever ARCA win, that was pretty darn cool.”

The Irwindale triumph laid the foundation for where both Huddlestons are in the West Series today. Aside from 2022, Trevor Huddleston has competed full time in every West Series season over the past eight years, establishing himself as one of the most experienced drivers on the grid.

Tim Huddleston achieved his goal of bringing High Point Racing to the West Series platform during the 2020s. When Bruncati elected to retire as a car owner, he worked out a deal for Tim to acquire Sunrise Ford Racing’s assets starting in 2022 with his son behind the wheel of the rebranded No. 50.

Now in its fourth full-time year, High Point Racing has cemented itself as a cornerstone of the West Series culture alongside other teams like Jan’s Towing Racing, Central Coast Racing and Bill McAnally Racing. The team has established a model of consistency with just one full-time car along with a second car used for developmental drivers.

Trevor Huddleston can’t help but reflect on how much he and the West Series have changed in the decade he’s spent in the division. He’s is in disbelief not only over being a series champion, but also the fact he has been around long enough to be considered an elder statesman.

“When I started, I thought of the veterans as the Derek Thorns, Ryan Partridges, Greg Pursleys and people like that,” Huddleston said. “Now to have my name as one of the veterans, it’s definitely kind of a trippy feeling. It doesn’t really feel like it was that long ago when I was just starting out, but it shows how fast the time flies.

“Each year, the West Series provides immense talent with kids and young adults who come in and are beyond talented. It always makes for action-packed excitement.”

Adaptability is something Huddleston knows will be important if he wants to keep adding West Series championships to his resumé. Driver development will remain a centerpiece of High Point Racing’s mission, as the program has helped launch the careers of many drivers like Cole Custer, Dean Thompson, Blaine Perkins and others.

Tim Huddleston has full confidence in High Point Racing continuing to succeed in the West Series with the work ethic his son displays. With Tim overseeing three different oval tracks on the West Coast in Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and All American Speedway alongside Lisa, he counts on Trevor to keep everything in order.

High Point Racing exists because of the blue-collar mindset Tim’s father Mike Charette, a renowned drag racer, instilled into him at a young age. Tim sees that same attitude with Trevor and could not be prouder to see his son’s determination reward him with a West Series title.

“[Trevor] has really stepped up an amazing amount,” Tim said. “He does so much of the work himself. He runs the shop, him and one other guy. They maintenance all of our late models, our spec late models, [they] turn the trailer and maintenance the ARCA cars. He’s doing it himself.

“Jeff Schrader does all the setup, but it’s [Trevor] and one guy.”

Trevor Huddleston said the West Series title is special in numerous regards. He’s proud to not only lead Schrader to his first championship, but also everyone on his High Point Racing team, some of whom were part of the same group that started in the high school auto shop with Tim Huddleston four decades ago.

Climbing from the auto shop to the top of the West Series pedestal was a journey filled with high points and lows points for Huddleston, but he knew he needed to weather the adversity and keep improving. By putting together a career year, Huddleston is now immortalized as a West Series champion alongside many greats that came before him.

“There were a bunch of times we could have given up,” Huddleston said. “We would have never quit, but maybe not try to keep investing our lives and souls into it. We stuck with the program and didn’t let the bad races get us down. The second that race is over, we look to the next one and try to figure out how we can be better.

“It was a never give up attitude, and the way [everything worked], it played into our favor.”

The next few weeks for Huddleston will be about celebrating the West Series title and how far High Point Racing has come. Once the offseason concludes, Huddleston plans to go right back to work building upon everything that made his family’s program a championship-caliber organization.