ARCA Menards Series East at Five Flags Speedway
Pensacola 150 Pre-Race Notes
- The ARCA Menards Series East kicks off its 39th season of competition in the Pensacola 150 at Five Flags Speedway. It marks the series’ eighth visit to Five Flags Speedway dating to the first in 2013.
- Previous ARCA Menards Series East winners at Five Flags Speedway include Ben Kennedy (2013), Ben Rhodes (2014), Sam Mayer (2020), Sammy Smith (2021, 2022) William Sawalich (2023), and Gio Ruggiero (2024).
- Max Reaves (No. 18 Cook Out Toyota) makes his ARCA Menards Series East debut driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. Reaves, who turned 15 in January, won a Pro Late Model feature during the World Series of Asphalt Racing at New Smyrna Speedway; he takes over the No. 18 from William Sawalich, who earned the team its fourth consecutive AMSE championship in 2024.
- Carson Brown (No. 4 PayCafe / EBB Logistics Chevrolet) will make his ARCA Menards Series East debut driving for Hettinger Racing, owned by Chris Hettinger, son of former ARCA Midget Series champion Jim Hettinger. Brown will be doing double duty, also entered to participate in the Appalachian Sucker Punch ASA STARS National Tour Sunshine State 200 on Sunday. Brown’s crew chief will be Bruce Cook, who co-owned the 2023 ARCA Menards Series West owners championship-winning team.
- Timmy Hill (No. 56 Hill Motorsports Toyota) will make his second career ARCA Menards Series start on Saturday; his only previous start came in 2010 when he finished tenth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Hill and the Hill Motorsports team have announced intentions to compete for the ARCA Menards Series East championship in 2025. Hill has 498 starts across the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Craftsman Truck Series; his father Jerry made 54 ARCA Menards Series starts between 1990 and 2002.
- Connor Mosack (No. 28 Pinnacle Racing Group) will make his first East start since a pair of top-ten finishes in 2022, including a career-best third at Iowa Speedway. Mosack, who races full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for McAnally-Hilgeman Racing, will take over the car that Connor Zilisch won four of the eight East races in 2024.
- Tyler Reif (No. 23 Sigma Performance Services Chevrolet) transitions into the ARCA Menards Series East a year after clinching the ARCA Menards Series West owners championship for Central Coast Racing. Reif has already made his first start for new owner Joe Farre; he finished 19th after a crash in overtime battling for the lead and the win in the ARCA Menards Series / ARCA Menards Series West race at Phoenix Raceway two weeks ago.
- Mark Noble’s MAN Motorsports returns with two entries in the Pensacola 150 for drivers Hunter Wright (No. 95 Sunset Park RV / Cedar City RV Toyota) and Jackson McLerran (No. 96 JSJ Construction / Arylco LLC Toyota). Wright finished fifth at Five Flags last year while McLerran was involved in a crash in his debut with the team last year at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park which resulted in a 25th-place finish.
- Zachary Tinkle (No. 11 Racing for Rescues / Fast Track High Performance Racing Toyota) returns to compete for the series championship for the third consecutive season. Tinkle finished fourth in the series standings in 2024 with a pair of top-five finishes and four top-ten finishes. Tinkle will be joined by Cody Dennison (No. 9 Flux Toyota), Mike Basham (No. 10 Double H Ranch Ford), Takuma Koga (No. 12 Macnica Yit Ikdeo / CKB Toyota), and newcomer E.J. Tamayo (No. 01 Tamayo Sports Florida/Amici Engineering Ford) out of the Fast Track High Performance Racing stable.
- Isaac Kitzmiller (No. 79 A.L.L. Construction Chevrolet), 15-year-old son of ARCA Menards Series championship contender Jason Kitzmiller, will compete for the series’ Bounty Rookie of the Year award. The younger Kitzmiller is a protégé of former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday, Jr.
- Ben Kennedy holds the ARCA Menards Series East track qualifying record at Five Flags Speedway, set in 2013, at 17.125 seconds/105.109 miles per hour.
- Sammy Smith holds the ARCA Menards Series track race record at Five Flags Speedway, set in 2021, at 76.694 miles per hour/1 hour, 18 minutes, 14 seconds.
- There are 23 teams entered for the Pensacola 150, the most for any ARCA Menards Series East race at Five Flags Speedway since there were 26 entries for the series’ first race at the track in 2013.
- The Pensacola 150 will be streamed live on FloRacing on Saturday, March 22 at 8 pm ET/7 pm CT. Live timing and scoring data from all on-track activity is available at ARCARacing.com. Follow @ARCARacing on X (formerly Twitter) for up-to-the-minute updates and information.
About ARCA
The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), founded in 1953 by John and Mildred Marcum in Toledo, Ohio, and acquired by NASCAR in April 2018, is the leading grassroots stock car sanctioning body in the United States. Bridging the gap between NASCAR’s top three national touring series and weekly and regional tour racing all across the country, the organization sanctions over 100 races per year in the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East, ARCA Menards Series West, ASA STARS National Tour, ASA CRA Super Series, ASA Midwest Tour, ASA Southern Super Series plus weekly racing at Toledo and Flat Rock Speedways. For more information about ARCA visit www.arcaracing.com, or follow ARCA on Facebook (@ARCARacing) and Twitter (@ARCA_Racing).
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