Phoenix Raceway bookends the 2023 ARCA Menards Series West season, which begins with a 150-lap combination race with the ARCA Menards Series.
According to ARCA Communications Manager Charles Krall, there are five drivers who should be viewed as favorites. Overall, series officials are expecting around 18 full-time entries.
“Sean Hingorani will be very competitive,” Krall told Frontstretch. “He’s obviously running for both [ARCA Menards Series] East and West championships for Venturini Motorsports and he’s going to have Jerry Pitts helping him in the West so I think that’ll be a very good solid combination. Tanner Reif is sliding over into a Bill McAnally Racing car and I think that’ll make him an immediate championship contender. He won twice last year so I think he’ll pick up where he left off.
“Trevor Huddleston has won before and he has the remnants of Bob Bruncati’s team. Young Bradley Erickson with Naake-Klauer Motorsports will be competitive right away. You can never count out Todd Souza. Todd only has one win but he has been extremely competitive the last couple of years with a bunch of top five and more top 10s. Every year, it seems like there is one bad race that takes him out of championship contention.”
Reif and Huddleston are the only two full-time drivers with a West series victory on their resumes.
“Oh yeah, we 100% have our sights on winning as much as possible but also focusing on the main goal of carrying that big trophy home at the end of the year,” Huddleston said.
Huddleston bought retiring West champion team owner Bob Bruncati’s equipment. As such, Huddleston will compete for his own team, High Point Racing, in the No. 50 Ford. The team will also have Ford manufacturer support.
“It’s actually a deal that we’ve been working on for a few years now with Bob Bruncati at Sunrise [Ford Racing],” Huddleston continued. “He was planning his exit strategy so he could spend a little bit more time at home, and we were looking to move up into a different division.
“Our relationship with Bob through Irwindale Speedway and me racing for him for a couple of years formed this partnership where we, in one smooth transition, bought the racecars. Nothing is really changing as far as who is working on some of the cars. The cars are all his championship-winning ones from last year and we’re going to try to ride the momentum to this year.”
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