After an eventful race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, the NASCAR circuit heads to the Midwest to the Kansas Speedway. There was a lot of hype around this weekend as in recent years, the NextGen car has performed extremely well at the intermediate. Kicking off our race weekend was the youngsters of the ARCA Menards Series. These young hotshots were looking to make a name for themselves here tonight so that they can then climb up the NASCAR ladder. So, with no further ado, here are the three biggest takeaways from the Tide 150 at Kansas Speedway.
This is only the fourth race of the 2025 ARCA Menards Series season so perhaps it’s too early to talk about series championship favorites. That said, it appears as though Brandon Queen is the top dog of the series right now and there isn’t a whole lot of competition to challenge him. He knocked off an early win at the season-opening race at Daytona. That said, Daytona tends to be a wildcard race that isn’t conclusive as to how the rest of the season will go. In the second race of the season at Phoenix Raceway, however, he was given a chance to show some of his short-track racing skills. Queen, being the 2024 CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car Champion, finished runner-up the second race of the season.
Talladega was a bit of a wildcard, as usual. But tonight, Queen proved that he could get it done on the intermediates as well. He started the race in the 5th position and got to the race lead in a hurry. He went on to put on a masterclass in dominance. With him showing speed on superspeedways, short flat ovals, and intermediates, there is a legitimate argument to be had that Butterbean is one of, if not the, championship favorite in 2025. Tonight, he won his second race in only the fourth start of the year. Thus far, he has a win percentage of 50% and an average finish of 7.25. The only blemish is his 25th place finish at ‘Dega. That’s insane! Looked like there was going to be a party at a Waffle House in Kansas tonight!
While the NASCAR Xfinity Series is on a break longer than Ross and Rachel, William Sawalich is continuing to race. Tonight, he rejoined Joe Gibbs Racing in the ARCA Menards Series and he showed some speed. He was fasted in practice and qualified 3rd. In the race, he was the only driver in the field tonight who could hang with Butterbean Queen. Granted, maybe that’s got more to do with the equipment he’s in than anything else. Still, a second-place finish is nothing to scoff at. That said, a discussion needs to be had about his performance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
In the eyes of many fans, Sawalich was rushed up to the second-tier series. After dominating the 2024 ARCA Series season, Sawalich was given the Ty Gibbs treatment and put in a JGR Xfinity car over drivers like Corey Heim, who has arguably showcased more talent. Since joining the Xfinity Series, Sawalich’s best finish is 9th (at Atlanta and COTA, respectively) and, after 12 races, he has an average finish of 24.3…in JGR equipment. Meanwhile, his best truck finish is only 6th. There’s a reasonable argument to be had that he was not ready for the NASCAR Xfinity Series and needs further development.
It has been a struggle the last couple of years for fourth-generation driver Thad Moffitt. A descendant of racing royalty, Moffitt made noise in the offseason between 2023 and 2024 when he joined a new start-up venture named Faction 46 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Things were looking up for Moffitt’s career and then, everything just went up in smoke. Moffitt’s results at Faction 46 were lackluster and by race 13 of 2024, he was pulled from the truck. By race 14, he was back in his number 46 Chevy, but the team’s assets were acquired by Young’s Motorsports. Faction 46 shuttered its doors and windows. With Young’s, he ran 5 of the last 10 races and ultimately found himself out of a ride by season’s end.
2025 was supposed to be a complete reset for Moffitt. Rather than returning to the truck series, he elected to dip down to the ARCA Menards Series for a full campaign. He signed with Nitro Motorsports to drive the number 46 Toyota. And though he has shown flashes of speed this year with the team, something always goes wrong. He struggles to put full races together and tonight was no different. In the closing laps of tonight’s race, Moffitt was clipped and turned into the wall, ending his night prematurely. This comes after a runner-up finish at Talladega a couple of weeks ago.
The result on the page is a 16th-place finish for Moffitt tonight. Fortunately for him, most of the field was several laps down or in the garage by the time of his incident.
That does it for the ARCA race at Kansas! What do you think, race fans? Are you impressed by Butterbean’s performance? What do you think about Sawalich’s stint in the NASCAR Xfinity Series? Do you think a better step would have been to remain in ARCA or move up to trucks? Let us know what you think!
