As the 2024 ARCA Menards Series season hits the quarter mark of its season, a full-time driver has yet to reach victory lane. In fact, of the 10 full-time drivers this season, only one has led laps. That’s Greg Van Alst, who led three laps at the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. However, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for the series. In fact, it’s just the opposite.
This is something very unlike the upper levels of NASCAR, especially with the modern-day playoff format each of the top three series partake in. However, ARCA isn’t those series, and the lack of winning among championship contenders thus far has set up a very intriguing championship battle to start the season. It seems as if season-long consistency will crown a champion at Toledo Speedway come October, which really gives the series an old-fashioned feel to it.
However, the point still stands that none of these drivers have competed for victories this far. Two full-time drivers, Michael Maples and Alex Clubb, work on much smaller budgets than their fellow full-time competitors. However, both have had their own successes to start 2024. Clubb scored his career-best finish at Daytona, and Maples, a rookie to ARCA, has kept pace with his Fast Track Racing teammates most every weekend thus far.
As for the remainder of the eight full-time drivers, just because there is a lack of winning throughout the group, it doesn’t take away from the quality of the group overall. The trio of Venturini Motorsports drivers have shown flashes of consistency, each scoring three top 10s in the first five races of 2024. However, early wrecks at Daytona took Kris Wright and Toni Breidinger out of contention for wins, and with a deeper field, put them in a deeper points deficit to start the season. Amber Balcaen suffered much of the same fate, losing out on valuable points at Dover Motor Speedway after a wreck.
Christian Rose and Van Alst each find themselves in the top five in points to start the season. Rose in particular has shown noticeable improvement from 2023, matching his top five total of two in the first three races of 2024. However, after a wreck at Dover due to tire failure, and contact while running inside the top 10 at Kansas Speedway, he has back-to-back finishes of 14th or worse, putting him 20 points back to start the season. Van Alst has finished every race but only done so within the top 10 twice, at Daytona and Dover. However, by finishing every…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …