Tyler Reif will drive the No. 13 full time in the ARCA Menards Series West in 2024 for Central Coast Racing, team owner Todd Souza confirmed to Frontstretch.
Reif will drive the No. 13 Toyota as the team is switching from Ford to Toyota in 2024.
Michael Munoz will serve as the crew chief. Central Coast Cabinets, which Souza owns, will be the primary sponsor.
“We’re shooting to win the championship this year,” Souza told Frontstretch. “We’re circling all 12 [racetracks]. We are geared up, we are going to be the car to beat, to be truthful. I’m not cocky or anything, I’m just realistic with what we have with our arsenal right now. Our alliances and our program, from last year to where it is headed. What we gained; we are ready to make a good run at a championship.”
While the team currently has no manufacturer support, Souza is working to try to attain support from Toyota Racing Development.
Reif joined CCR after the sixth race of the 12-race 2023 West season. Reif overall finished runner up in the points with one win, in the season opener at Phoenix Raceway, five top fives, seven top 10s and two poles.
“A driver at his caliber, you know he’s pretty seasoned for 16 going on 17 [years old],” Souza continued. “He’s a wheelman. It complements both ways. Our program compliments him and he compliments our program too, it works both ways. I think with what we have going, we are going to be hard to beat. With our program and what we have put into it, where we ended last year and we are starting this year, and with a driver with whom we have six races under our belt now, we know him a lot better and he knows us a lot better. How we worked together is going to be further improved than where it was last year. And we were close last year.
“I think if he would’ve come on board with us at the beginning of the year last year, he would’ve had a good shot at winning the championship. But being he did not join our program until after race six, he was with someone else for the first six, if he was with us for the whole 12 I think he would’ve had a shot at winning it last year too.”
Reif was originally supposed to run full time in both the ARCA Menards Series East and West in 2023. However, he only made one start in the East at the season opener at Five Flags Speedway.
Souza meanwhile made one start in a standalone ARCA Menards Series event, finishing seventh at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. In 2023, Souza…
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