Category: ARCA

Season Winding Down and Playoff Battles Cranking Up In CJR

With three weeks remaining in the 2024 Crown Jewel Racing Season, the season may be winding down, but the playoff battles are heating up. Cory Mott locked himself into a chance to fight for a Championship in Phoenix in the VRS Truck Series while a non-playoff driver, Matt White, captured a win in the TCSP Cup Series. Let us dive in and recap a week of the exciting racing in the CJR League.

ARCA

Stewart Harding Walker has now won back-to-back weeks in the ARCA Series, winning at the Track Too Tough To Tame last week and winning again last night at the Milwaukee Mile. Jim Mott is still holding on to a commanding lead in the ARCA Series Season Standings and Bob Baker is trying his best to capture second place from missing ARCA Driver Thomas Villano.

VRS Truck Series

The VRS Truck Series kicked off the Round of 8 at Auto Club Speedway. Cory Mott was able to avoid the carnage right behind him on the final lap and take the checkered flag for the win. Mott is the first driver to lock himself into the Round of 4 and the opportunity to win the VRS Truck Series Championship in Phoenix. The VRS Truck Series will be back in action tonight at 8:30 EST at Homestead, and you can catch all the action on the Crown Jewel Racing Network.

Bob Henry’s Xfinity Series

The Bob Henry’s Xfinity Series and the TCSP traveled to Fabulous Las Vegas last week. Zack Saunders would take first place in the season standings with his win over Brian Messer last week. Tyler Belanger, Jacob Fifield, and Stewart Harding Walker hope to shake those standings up tomorrow night at Homestead.

Team Conti Sim Performance Cup Series

Newcomer on the block Matt White took the checkered flag to stop Stephen Menke from locking himself into the Round of 4. Thomas Wolfe still maintains the top spot with +41 to the good. Menke, Cory Mott, and Nic Vasquez are still within torpedo range of the cutline drivers of Vince Mitchell, Zack Saunders, and Zach Johnson. Cody Leach, who has declared he will not be able to race in Martinsville next week due to Sponsorship obligations that could not be resolved, will almost certainly need to win on Wednesday night to keep his playoff hopes alive.

The only Incident Points assigned last week occured on Lap 163 when Nishil Condoor lost control and came up the track collecting Justin Bell, Garth Griswold, and Playoff Driver Stephen Menke.

Homestead will bring the excitement this week, so make sure everyone tunes into all the exciting action this week in the Crown Jewel Racing League.

2025 Project K-9 Hero Series Schedule Release

The 2025 ARCA season will be run to support the Project K-9 Hero charity organization – championing retired police and military K-9s.

At Project K-9 Hero, our vision is to honor the unwavering dedication of retired Police K-9s and Military Working Dogs by creating a global environment that celebrates their heroic service. We strive to reshape perceptions, ensuring these valiant animals are revered and respected for their loyalty. Through our efforts, we aim to provide these remarkable companions with the dignified post-service life they rightfully deserve, offering access to comprehensive healthcare and advocating for a quality way of life in recognition of their selfless contributions.

Three Championship Format

The 2025 Project K-9 Hero Series will feature three separate championships – National, East, and West. This format will match the ARCA Menards Series in which it is based upon, with some events counting towards the standings for multiple championships. Each race has the designated series outlined above on the schedule release graphic. At season’s end, three champions will be crowned in the Project K-9 Hero Series and will earn prizes.

Double Header Nights

The 2025 schedule features three double header nights in which two races will be run. After a successful double header night in 2024, we have expanded to three nights at the request of the participants. The first double header night will be on Sunday June 1, 2025 and will feature races at Charlotte and Langley Speedway. The second double header will feature back-to-back races at Irwindale for the West Championship. The final double header night will be Sunday August 24, 2025 and feature an asphalt race at South Boston Speedway, and a dirt race a the legendary Eldora Speedway – both for the National Championship.

We look forward to seeing you on track for the 2025 Project K-9 Hero Series in 2025. Registration will open on December 9, 2025 at 12:00 PM.

PENALTY REPORT: Pocono and Michigan

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CJR Officials announced penalties on Thursday stemming from this weeks events at Pocono and Michigan.

ARCA

Aiden Schramm has been penalized post race for violating Section 4.1.2.1 of CJR’s Official Sporting Code. CJR officials ruled on lap 9 of the Pocono ARCA event that Aiden had intentionally wrecked opponent Jim Mott. As the incident involved only the two cars it is classified as an L1 penalty and Aiden will be penalized with a Stop and Hold for 1 lap at the next ARCA event.

TCSP Cup Series

Officials also announce the IC/Penalty report following the TCSP event at Michigan International Speedway.

LapDrivers InvolvedResult/Penalty
992, 69, 22, 8Racin’
1330, 3830
2329, 3, 103
4066, 51, 1Racin’
4729, 131Racin’
5611, 66, 8811
8238, 6, 2938
8611
10166, 61, 94, 00Racin’
11022, 131, 68Netcode
1141, 38Racin’
Much better than last week

Drivers who received 1 IC and will be penalized with an EOL at the beginning of their next race are.
#30 Mason Hoeffner
#3 Ben Lawson
#11 Russell Bratka
#38 Zander Short
#1 Cory Mott

Outstanding Penalties to be served at the beginning of their next race are

#91 Zack Saunders
#15 Cody Leach

LAS VEGAS: Hamilton wins as chaos ensues behind

LAS VEGAS, N.V. — Noah Hamilton leads 22 laps and secures his first victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Last night saw the 14th round of the 2024 ARCA series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 26 drivers would fill out the grid for 100 laps as the sun set in the distance.

Qualifying would see the #42 Nishil Condoor guide his Chevrolet Camaro to pole position with a 31.211, which would end up beating #17 Thomas Villano’s 31.245 putting the point leader in 2nd. Aiden Schramm would start 3rd in the 14 car and would end up leading the most laps with 48 in total.

The green flag would fly as Nishil Condoor would lose the lead early to Aiden Schramm, the race would continue until lap 11 where a yellow flag saw an incident including Mason Hoeffner and Caleb Tipton. This incident would kick off a slue of cautions throughout the first half of the race.

Off that restart, Nick Cordova and Joe Gibbons would end up making contact through the tri-oval which would end up collecting Sam Bennett, Garth Griswold, and Bill Martin. After a single car incident involving Ray Gill, Aiden Schramm and Stewart Harding Walker would make contact in front of the field. This incident would have the #18 Cory Mott collected in the chaos.

At the midway break Noah Hamilton would find his #2 Ford Mustang out front as another yellow flag would fly for an incident started from Gordon Fraley and Haden Higginbotham. After the break Aiden Schramm would find his way back out front.

Well on the first one it seemed that Gordon thought we we’re going to make it four wide and he quarter paneled me – this one now looks like he did the same thing.

Haden Higginbotham, #10 Missile Racing Camaro

Tempers would cool down after two quick cautions but the eventual race winner Noah Hamilton would collect front end damage, he would end up at the back of the field after pitting to repair. A five car battle out front would ensue including Nishil Condoor, Noah Hamilton, Vince Mitchell, Aiden Schramm, and Thomas Villano. Condoor would end up getting the best of the battle as Schramm and Hamilton would battle for 2nd.

However with 11 laps to go, Cory Mott would be involved in another incident where his #18 Camry would end up sliding into the outside wall and clip the #22 Garth Griswold, ending the Hollywood Motorsports driver night early.

On the restart, Thomas Villano would make an aggressive move three wide for the lead and would end up turning then leader at the time Nishil Condoor. Austin Runkel would end up having no where to go and run into the side of Condoor’s machine ending both of their nights.

In total the race would include 12 cautions and with a natural overtime including the final. Joe Wright would end up sideways as drivers came out of turn 4 for the white flag, however a caution would see them line back up and go for it once more.

Hamilton would end up pulling away on the restart as Schramm and Villano battled for 2nd. The feel good story of the night would go to Jonathan Leger as he would make a move of the year contender to pass both Schramm and Villano out of turn 4 to take 2nd place. Both of those drivers would also allow Vince Mitchell to sneak through for 3rd as they had to settle for 4th and 6th.

Thomas Villano holds onto his point lead over a race absent Jim Mott who did not start last night’s event. Top Tier driver Cory Mott who had a pretty rough night would be able to recover to a 9th place finish and catapult himself past an also absent Bob Baker in points.

When asked about winning his first race in Crown Jewel competition Noah Hamilton had this to say.

Feels pretty good, I definitely didn’t expect it that’s for sure. Coming into tonight I thought a top 5 would be a miracle, but it worked out!

Noah Hamilton, #2 Apex Motorsports Mustang

ARCA competition will be on hold next week and will return on August 11th at Irwindale for a short track showdown. Tomorrow night’s Bob Henry’s 2004 Cup action will kick off from Dover at 8:25 PM ET.

OFFICIAL: MAKING ARCA GREAT AGAIN

Crown Jewel Officials have announced changes to the Crown Jewel ARCA Series. After being sighted at multiple tracks across the country this weekend testing the Generation 6 (GEN 6) Cup Car. Crown Jewel Officials have announced that the ARCA series will move forward with the mid-season change over to the GEN 6 with a 90 KG weight addition and a 5% power reduction. Officials announced this change will take effect immediately causing car owners to scramble with paint scheme changes for next week’s race at Phoenix Raceway on July 21st.

“I have really been communicating with Crown Jewel Officials and pushing for them to make this change happen. I hope these changes will make a positive impact and keep the ARCA Series around for the foreseeable future.”

Thomas Villano #1 Chevrolet ARCA Series Driver

FONTANA: Cory Mott scores second victory of the season in ARCA

FONTANA, C.A. — Cory Mott leads 19 laps en route to his 2nd win of the ARCA season.

Sunday night kicked off the 12th round of the Grand National Tour (ARCA) for the Crown Jewel Racing community. 13 drivers set the grid for a 75 lap event held at the slick and hot Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

Newcomer Aiden Schramm was able to put himself on pole with a 42.435 holding off Haden Higginbotham’s 42.491. Schramm would end up leading the most laps in the race with a total of 51, but would eventually fall back to 4th by the end of the race.

Chaos started the race early on as on lap 3 Bob Baker and Jonathan Leger came into contact out of turn 4 and would have to use their fast repairs. Just 2 laps later Bill Martin would end up mowing down the outside wall and have to use his fast repair as well.

The race would stay green however until lap 9 where Gordon Fraley would attempt to make a slide job for the lead out of turn 4. He would end up getting turned off the nose of Schramm and crashed down pit road. The next caution would be on lap 14 just off a restart, where Cory Mott would end up sliding too far up in turn 1 and come into contact with Tyler Krawczyk who would also collect Ryan Taft in the incident. Both Krawczyk and Taft would end up over 50 laps down and would not be able to finish the race. After that only two more caution flags flew, one for incident and one for the halfway competition yellow.

At the break, current points leader heading into the race Thomas Villano would end up taking the lead over Schramm, but would end up dropping back in the field after pit stops. The field would go back green with Schramm in front with Haden Higginbotham back on his outside.

An underdog story of the night came from Bill Martin as he would slowly move his way up the field. Martin would start 8th and by lap 46 he found himself up to 3rd, he would hold that position to the end of the race and secure his first top 5 in the Crown Jewel community.

I’m still trying to learn – This is a good confidence booster for me and hopefully I can improve throughout the rest of the year.

Bill Martin, #75 High Rock Vodka Chevrolet

Haden Higginbotham would finish 2nd and secure his 8th top 5 of the season, and close back in to the top 3 in points. The Missile Racing driver was looking to tie the season high of 3 wins held by Thomas Villano and other Missile Racing driver Ryan Persinger. Persinger, however was absent once again from the field and would continue to drop in standings, now sitting currently in 8th.

Well I ran well today, could’ve gave Cory more of a run for his money but it would really help if my teammate Ryan would do a race every once in a while. I’ll have to yell at him a different date about that.

Haden Higginbotham, #10 Missile Racing Chevrolet

Top Tier would pick up another win with Cory Mott as he would dominate the closing laps of the race. Both of the other podium drivers Higginbotham and Martin would go on to say in post race interviews that he was able to save his tires the best out of everyone. With a track temperature of 117 at the beginning of the race, drivers were sure to be slipping and sliding everywhere on the racing surface.

I used the first half of the race to learn – turns out these cars are similar to the cup cars (Next Gen) where you just wrap the bottom for the first 20 laps, and slowly drift up the track. I could tell Haden was really pushing behind me but once I got around Aiden, it would pretty much be just hitting my marks.

Cory Mott, #73 Top Tier Racing Chevrolet

Next week will be an off week for the Grand National Tour so drivers will be well relaxed for their next outing at Phoenix Raceway on the 21st of July. Thomas Villano was able to put 4 more points between himself and current 2nd place Jim Mott. Tonight’s action will kick off at 8:25 PM ET with the Sportsman Truck Series at Chicagoland Speedway.

NASHVILLE: Porter sweeps, Villano picks up Kern Raceway

Cody Porter picks up two wins this week, one in the Sportsman Truck Series and one in the rain-delayed Circuit Cup Series race in Nashville. Thomas Villano finds his third win of the ARCA season at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway.

Crown Jewel started off the weekend out in Bakersfield, California. A small crowd showed up following the real-life Cup Series Nashville race – seven drivers took to the high banks of Kern County Raceway. Robert Fraley took his first career pole with a qualifying time of 20.286s and lead the field to green. Robert would also bring out the first caution of the race, spinning from the front of the field and collecting Cory Mott. At this point, the race became the Thomas Villano show. Thomas would take the lead and lead 128 laps before claiming his third victory of the season. Villano currently leads the standings by 21 points over Jim Mott heading into Auto Club this upcoming week.

Monday night saw the Sportsman Truck Series returning to action for the Split #2 finale at Nashville Super Speedway. Zack Saunders took the pole with a qualifying time of 30.079s and lead the field to green for 150 laps around the 1.33-mile oval. Saunders would only lead 17 laps however, along with his teammate Mike Burnett – who would go on to win both stages in the race. In the closing laps however, Cody Porter would make his move to the front of the field and lead the field to the checkered flag for his first career win within the Crown Jewel Community.

READ MORE: USHERING IN A NEW ERA: HOW THE MCRL BECAME CROWN JEWEL

As this was the Split #2 finale, three more drivers locked themselves into the Sportsman Truck Series playoffs – John Connor, Cory Mott, and Henry Kallhoff. These three drivers will join Mike Burnett, Zack Saunders, and Nishil Condoor in the playoffs later this season. Split #3 will provide the last 6 playoff spots – three coming from the Split #3 standings, and three coming from the full-season wild card standings. For the current playoff situation, make sure to visit the Sportsman Truck Series Playoff page for a full breakdown.

Disaster struck on Wednesday night. At approximately 7:30 PM EST, iRacing experienced an outage that created a ripple effect, tanking server performance. Circuit Cup Series officials decided to delay the race – a “weather delay” was put on the stream, and server performance was monitored. One final attempt to create the league session occurred at 10:00 PM EST, and it was successful – the race was on.

I set up for the long run – I worked with Oskar Jensen to get the setup dialed in for the long run. Firing off, we were not good – really had to drive our balls off. But towards the end we were mowing them down left and right!

Cody Porter, #04 Money Shift Racing Ford Mustang Darkhorse

After a two-hour and eighteen-minute delay, Thomas Wolfe led the field to green after qualifying with a time of 30.379s. Two quick cautions struck as cars tangled in the middle and back of the field. A 30-lap run ensued where Thomas Wolfe would find himself out front when a caution struck at lap 41 – ending the stage. Stage two saw much of the same dominance from Wolfe, where he would lead every single lap in the stage and win. Backroad Bandit teammate Kristopher Burnham would put up a fight in stage three, leading 51 laps before falling back to Wolfe. However, from the middle of the pack came a surging Cody Porter, taking the lead with just nine laps left in the race. Cody Porter would go on to win the race and sweep the week at Nashville Super Speedway.