ARCA NOTEBOOK: Queen Set For Toledo Coronation

Brenden Queen (28) will lock up his first ARCA Menards Series championship on Saturday. (Aaron Gash/ARCA Racing photo)

TOLEDO, Ohio – A coast-to-coast season for the national ARCA Menards Series all comes down to familiar soil Saturday, when the tour’s home track of Toledo Speedway plays host to the 2025 finale.

Twenty-five drivers and teams are entered for the Owens Corning 200 presented by CGS Imaging; it’s the largest entry list for an ARCA race at Toledo since 27 cars were entered in 2017.

Below are the final set of storylines for the year as a national champion is set to be crowned:

– When he takes to the track for practice, Pinnacle Racing Group’s Brenden Queen will earn the final 50-point bonus of the season, this one given to each driver that participates in the last of the four five-race segments of the calendar.

Once he and second-place Lavar Scott receive those bonus points, Queen will lock up the ARCA Menards Series driver’s championship with an insurmountable lead.

He leads by 85 points following the Reese’s 150 at Kansas Speedway, with a maximum 99 points available when including the segment bonus points.

– While the driver’s title scenario is already forecast, PRG team owner Mark Webb needs Queen to finish 16th or better to lock up the ARCA Menards Series owner’s championship, regardless of what the Joe Gibbs Racing team No. 18 team does.

JGR has a chance to steal the title in the final race, but will need to finish among the top five and have the No. 28 team finish outside the top 20 in order to do so.

– When she takes the green flag Saturday at Toledo, Isabella Robusto will lock up the Bounty Rookie of the Year Award.

Robusto will follow Hailie Deegan to become the series’ second female rookie of the year; Deegan won top rookie honors in 2020.

Robusto has already set the single-season record for most top-five finishes by a female driver with 10; she trails only Erin Crocker Evernham, who has 12, for career top fives in national ARCA competition.

Robusto trails Jason Kitzmiller by 13 points in the battle for third in the final ARCA Menards Series point standings. Both have a best finish of third this year, with Kitzmiller’s coming at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway in February and Robusto’s coming at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in April.

– Fifteen-year-old Tristan McKee will make his fourth start of the season at Toledo. McKee became the second-youngest winner in ARCA Menards Series history at 15 years, six days of age when he won in his series debut at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in September.

– Max Reaves will make his second appearance at Toledo in a month’s time in the Owens Corning 200 presented by CGS Imaging.

Reaves won the ARCA Menards Series East race at Toledo Speedway’s sister track, Flat Rock Speedway, in May and finished third in the ASA STARS National Tour super late model Glass City 200 at Toledo on Sept. 13.

– Jackson McLerran will make his third start of the season and his first ever at Toledo Speedway. He will have 2013 Glass City 200 winner Dennis Strickland, who started his racing career at Toledo in the mid-1980s, as his spotter.

– The Owens Corning 200 presented by CGS Imaging will be the 85th ARCA Menards Series race at Toledo Speedway since 1963. Only Salem Speedway, with 111, has hosted more ARCA Menards Series events.

Mason Mitchell holds the ARCA Menards Series track record at Toledo, set in 2014, at 15.682 seconds (114.781 mph).

– Ten-time Toledo Speedway winner and 10-time ARCA national champion Frank Kimmel holds the race record, set in 1998, at 86.400 mph in a 150-lap race.

The high-water mark for most cautions in an ARCA Menards Series race at Toledo is 18 for a record 114 laps, set in 2008 in a race won by Matt Carter.

The fewest cautions in an ARCA Menards Series race at Toledo is two, set in 1985 in a race won by Ed Hage and matched in 1998 in a race won by Kimmel. The fewest laps run under caution is 13 in 2021, when Ty Gibbs went to victory lane.

– Broadcast coverage of Saturday’s Owens Corning 200 presented by CGS Imaging airs at 4 p.m. ET, live on FS2 and the FOX Sports App.