The ARCA Menards Series has seen issues arise over the last few seasons. Dwindling car counts, severely underfunded teams, a change in series ownership, and inexperience have plagued a once successful series. The series races on a unique series of tracks. As of this writing, there have been 2 races on dirt tracks, 2 on road courses, and 14 on paved tracks (including 5 short tracks). The question is…what has gone so wrong?
Lack of Full-Time Drivers:
We are 18 races into the 2022 ARCA Menards Series season, and there are only 7 drivers that have competed in all 18 races. Of those 7, there are only 3 that have run competitively all season. The remainder of the Top 10 in points are drivers that are running a part-time schedule or are in the Top 10 by virtue of having started most of the races. Even series win leader Sammy Smith has only 14 starts in his No. 18 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Now, this is not a knock on those teams and drivers trying their hardest every week to even make it to the track, but there is just simply a lack of competition and funding. Owners like Wayne Peterson, Brad Smith, Billy Venturini, Max Siegel, and Gibbs are keeping the series alive at this point, by being the veterans in the garage area. Veteran drivers like Frank Kimmel are long gone now, which has contributed to the influx of young, inexperienced drivers the last few seasons.
Lack of Competitive Teams:
In the early 2000’s especially, almost every NASCAR Cup Series team or manufacturer had a development team or affiliated team in the series. On a given weekend, you would see teams like Roush Fenway, Ganassi, Gibbs, Hendrick, and RCR have at least one car in the field. This combined with former ARCA teams like Eddie Sharp Racing, Roulo Brothers Racing, and Cunningham Motorsports all made for a decently competitive series.
Fastforward to 2022, and almost all of these teams have been shuttered. The teams that are left like Kyle Busch Motorsports, REV Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Venturini Motorsports, GMS, and David Gilliland Racing are fighting it out amongst themselves, leaving scraps for the rest. Underfunded owners and drivers like Wayne Peterson and Brad Smith (owner/driver) are relegated to if not starting and parking, finishing in the lower end of the field, just fighting to get what little of the purse money is left to make it to the next race. Ask Brad Smith and his #48 Chevrolet crew. In a race recently, his brother was his sole pit crew member for the weekend.
Older Car Models:
The biggest thing anyone can see about the ARCA Menards Series in 2022, is the lack of “modern” car models. Using long since defunct Ford Fusions, Chevrolet SS’s, and older model Camrys, some of these chassis surely are far from 100%. Just this season, NASCAR approved the Ford Mustang for ARCA competition, while the Camaro and current Camry are still not approved. David Gilliland Racing and Taylor Gray are the only Ford team that has switched to the Mustang as of this writing.
Lack of Experience in the field:
With the relatively high number of underfunded teams currently in the series, it has led to these teams finding a driver that can bring some money (often times because of family ties to a company) with them, or “pay to play” drivers as some call it. This inexperience in the heavier ARCA cars has been a breeding ground for cautions and lack of respect amongst competitors. This lack of respect for others and equipment is doing quite a bit of damage to the series and its reputation, along with this mind-set bleeding into the higher series of NASCAR.
An example of this can be seen above from Michigan 2021. Tim Richmond’s No. 27 sits in the garage area mangled, because of a retaliation incident involving Drew Dollar and Thad Moffitt. Richmond was swept up in the accident, resulting in a broken tibia. Also, Richmond and co-owner Alex Clubb’s small team took a huge hit, despite just being a side-effect of the incident.
There is much that needs to change in order for ARCA to return back to it’s glory days. Perhaps stronger licensing requirements are in order. While drivers 16 years and older can enter events as a rookie at some tracks, it does not mean they should be. Understandable that these drivers need experience before moving up, but the ARCA cars are fairly similar to the older Cup Series cars…including horsepower. If these young, up-and-coming drivers could learn to respect the equipment, competition, and effort every team in the series (including their own), these issues would begin to turn around.
