In a season featuring more parity than the series has seen in recent years, the ARCA Menards West Series once again sees its title battles coming right down to the wire in 2024. With only two races remaining in the season, both the drivers’ and owners’ championships are still up for grabs.
Before previewing the season’s end and the championship battle that will define it, let’s start with how we got here. Through 10 races this season, the West Series has featured an unexpected amount of parity, with six different drivers finding victory lane.
William Sawalich took the season-opening combination race at Phoenix Raceway and added another victory in the third race of the season at Portland International Raceway.
Kole Raz took the win in the season’s second race at Kern Raceway to become the season’s only first-time winner to this point.
NASCAR Xfinity Series star Sam Mayer dominated to win Sonoma Raceway before Sean Hingorani reverted to last season’s championship form as he swept the series’ two dates at Irwindale Speedway.
Tyler Reif then asserted himself into the championship battle with consecutive victories at Shasta Speedway and Tri-City Raceway, and then Trevor Huddleston followed suit by scoring consecutive victories at Madera Speedway and All-American Speedway to establish the three-horse championship race we now observe.
Hingorani, who enters the home stretch as the points leader, is familiar with this territory after his championship run last year. Propelled by a series-best nine top-10 finishes (all of which are top fives) and his two wins mentioned above, Hingorani enters the final two races of the season with a five-point advantage atop the drivers’ points standings.
Hingorani’s outlook for the final two races seems fair as the series returns to Kern, where he finished fourth earlier this year. After that is Phoenix, where Hingorani has scored consecutive top fives dating back to last year’s finale and this year’s spring race, where he finished third and fifth, respectively.
Between his experience in this position and his recent performance at the tracks remaining on the schedule, Hingorani is likely entering the final two races as the championship favorite.
Reif enters these final two races trailing Hingorani by a narrow five-point margin. Trailing Hingorani in the top-five and top-10 categories by only one tally with eight finishes of each distinction, Reif has also had a very…
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