ARCA: Ben Peterson goes back-to-back at Talladega, 3-for-3 overall
by Ben Schneider / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer with Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
Ben Peterson’s hand-signed name on the roof rail of the #0. (ALL PHOTOS: Brock Beard)
Ben Peterson finished last for the 3rd time in his ARCA Menards Series career in Saturday’s General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway when his No. 0 Auburn / War Eagle Ford fell out with overheating issues after 10 of 77 laps.
The finish came in Peterson’s 3rd career ARCA start.
Ben Peterson after the race in his Auburn colors.
While Peterson has only made sporadic appearances in the ARCA Menards Series behind the wheel for his grandfather’s Wayne Peterson Racing team, his four appearances have all resulted in articles on this site. After finishing last at Salem in 2019 with brake issues, Peterson made a second appearance on the site following the very next race at IRP, with his “did not start” status resulting in credit for a 22nd-place finish and, at the time, the second last-place finish of his ARCA career.
After we at LASTCAR.info decided to tweak our definition of “last-place finisher” at the start of the 2023 season, Peterson returned to the driver’s seat at Talladega in 2024, running seven laps before a mechanical issue left him with another last-place finish. (The Third Turn lists a more specific “reason out” for Peterson as “gears.”) Then, on Saturday, Peterson again found himself as the first car behind the wall, this time making it 10 laps before a recurring overheating issue brought an early end to his race once again.
Brock caught up with Peterson after the race. He made sure to put on his Auburn cap and polo shirt prior to the interview, and was quick to thank the university for sponsoring him. “And shout out to Auburn athletics for sponsoring this race,” he said. “We're able to pull it off last minute. And hats off of the entire department. It's kind of Auburn being Auburn, us being able to do everything last minute, and kind of show off the University all the things they've been doing: football, basketball, being the top four. We also have baseball in the top 10, and track and field, they're both going to the postseason. We also have men's and women's golf - they're looking to get a national championship this year. And hopefully we pull off that national championship with Football coach Hugh Freeze. So we're looking forward to it and we're glad to highlight them on the car.”
As to the race itself, Peterson said, “First off, Glory to God. Nothing too bad. We just have to take care of this car for Kansas - this car is going to be going there. So I was able to take about 10 laps or so and bring it in with no no damage done, and live to see another day. . .This is actually an intermediate (car), so last year I ran short track car here, and you know, this one's just gonna be an intermediate - not really built for any of the big speedways, but we're just trying to make it most and build up points for times like Daytona and things like that.”
Ben Peterson’s car by itself in the Talladega garage.
Brock asked about the challenges of running a car designed for smaller tracks at Talladega. “You know, you can definitely feel a difference from last year into this year. I know that short track car was a little bit of a handful, but this one improved a lot. It's mainly about getting the air taken off the spoiler and seeing how free it is, and not wanting to go straight so bad.”
There was also the challenge of operating a small team. “So we have one full time guy, Nate, and then my grandfather tries to do what he can do, moving things around. And he's the owner, and then everybody else. We have some UNOH students - they're our interns. And we all kind of just compile different races wherever, bring a couple different people. So it's a very grassroots organization.” Part of that organization was an open-topped trailer which towed the No. 0 to the track. “We don't race our haulers. So, whatever we can have to the track that works, is what we're going to bring. So we have an old Chevy truck and an open hauler, and that's all we need. We don't need all these big, fancy haulers. It'd be nice when it's hot outside, to have some AC but haulers don't win anything. We don't get paid any extra to bring a hauler either.”
Ed Pompa loses laps early for a stop of his own. He’d finish in 30th.
Matt Kemp pulls up to the Fast Track Racing hauler mid-race.
Had Peterson made it just a few more laps, he would have been able to secure the first non-last-place finish of his ARCA career, as Matt Kemp’s No. 12 Fast Track Racing entry made it 14 laps before suspension issues forced him behind the wall as well. Kemp, who had never even seen Talladega’s track before, discussed his brief run:
“Well, we had a few things going on,” said Kemp. “We were dragging pretty bad, and we didn't want to take any chances with the way it was feeling right there. So we kind of went out back under yellow, tested out a little bit, and it just didn't work out for us. So I us. So just appreciate the opportunity to do this. It's been really awesome.” He also mentioned drafting with his teammates at Andy Hillenburg’s Fast Track Racing team: “I was working with my teammates there, Ed Pompa specifically, for a little bit. We were just kind of taking it easy, biding our time. You saw how Daytona went, and was hoping that didn't happen again, and just in case, we were taking some precautions. But yeah, we were working pretty good with Ed and sucked up in the pack pretty good. So I was pretty happy with it.”
Moments after this interview, a young fan walked up to Kemp with his father, asking what put him out of the race. He was happy to answer.
Alex Clubb’s No. 03 after the race.
While 38 cars appeared on the entry list, only 36 took the green flag to start the race. Nick White, attempting to make his series debut after withdrawing from Daytona, was forced to with withdraw for a second time this past weekend, with Frontstretch’s Dalton Hopkins reporting his car lost an engine. Catchfence’s Chris Knight reported that Becca Monopoli’s entry suffered a similar fate, forcing her to withdraw from the event as well. Both drivers were credited with 38th- and 37th-place points, respectively.
The No. 86 only used Clubb Racing, Inc.’s owner points - the car belonged to another owner, as did the engine, which failed after the wrong expansion tank was added, causing it to lose all water during practice. It was a bullet dodged by Alex Clubb’s own No. 03 team, which brought their only superspeedway car and only Ilmor engine to the Talladega track. Unfortunately, this also meant they had to take a conservative approach to the race, which Clubb has grown weary of taking:
“We came home in one piece,” said Clubb, who finished 20th, “but I'm just getting tired of riding around in the back to save a car. So I told my guys on the radio that if we're coming to Daytona and Talladega next year, we're racing - we're not gonna ride around. So I told them, if we're not coming to race next year we're not coming. So hopefully we'll be able to just come and race, and just come with the idea that if we destroy a car, we destroy it. Because I'm a racer and I hate riding around. . .We only have one Ilmor, so I'm trying to get another one. If we lose the Ilmor, then we're done for the big tracks. So I got an open motor in the 86 but I don't have a second open motor done. So we have to just come out and ride around and get finishes and collect points and money so we can go to the next one. And it's just getting old.”
Dale Shearer preparing his car for loading after the race.
Brock also caught up with Dale Shearer, whose #98 Shearer Speed Toyota pulled into the garage in the final laps, taking 29th. He explained the decision: “Your decision is - okay, I want to be two laps down. I'm going to come in - I'm done. But you go out there and refuel, and you're on it, and you catch the pack right as you get the wreck. And look at it like this - I'm putting this in the trailer, take it home, unload it tomorrow, clean it. And, you know, I mean, that's - I'm pleased with it. I like to finish. Well, the problem is, I could finish 2, 3, 4spots ahead - it doesn't pay any more, maybe 100-150 bucks. If it was like NASCAR, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, I'd go right through there. . .”
Shearer also discussed the history of his car, and the state of Ilmor’s engine program: “I ran this at Daytona, 2016, that's the first time I ran the car. Okay, this is first speedway. It was a (Ford) Fusion, and then I re-skinned it (as a Toyota Camry). I didn't qualify for Daytona a year ago, then Talladega was last year, and I didn't get around and Daytona got beyond me this year. So back down here, and this, this one has all the cool stuff. It has the Ilmor, it has the digital dash, it has all the stuff the cool kids have. This thing has the money in it. Then my other car I'm gonna run, the rest here, it's got the old Ford C3s, little NASCAR Cup engines. And I'm just gonna run them 'til they chuck and when they chuck, I'll go with the Ilmors. They're slowly weeding them out. Either I'm gonna run them till they blow, or they just legislate them out. I keep can't run the Ford seat. You can't run those engines like on these tracks. You can run them on a mile-and-a-half or under, but you can't run them here.”
Brayton Laster’s #06 on pit road during his extended stop in the early laps.
Following Peterson and Kemp up the running order was another Wayne Peterson entry in Brayton Laster, whose #06 Peterson Motorsport Chevrolet suffered an ignition issue coming to take the green flag at the start of the race. Laster’s team lost nearly 15 laps diagnosing and fixing the issue before returning to the track to log laps and finish in one piece.
Brock caught up with Brayton after the finish to review what exactly happened on pit road:
“Yeah, we went to take the green flag, and we went to go fire the motor up this morning. And we thought maybe some water got down to the intake, which we taped it off and had the car covered, but it wasn't wanting to crank. And so we finally got it running back here during the engine warm-up and pre-race for final race inspection. It just didn't sound great. We weren't sure what it was. We were obviously very limited on what we could change. And it paced great, fired up back here in the garage. We took the green and just lost power. Brought it down pit road, they opened the hood up, they're looking ateverything. They're tearing apart anything they can under the hood with the distributor, and trying to figure out: Is it a loose spark plug wire? Do we change the plugs? Maybe water got somewhere it shouldn't have? And then they were having me look under the dash myself, and they were looking on the passenger side of the car to the coils and the ignition boxes there. And we were just chasing any wire we could. And finally, under the dash, I saw a connector was kind of barely touching the female end of the plug. And so I would touch it, and then my light would come on, my power light. And we have two power systems so that it's on a different system that controls the ignition. And so during all this, the gauges, everything - they were on the whole time. But it's this ignition power light was kind of flickering, and I'm like, 'hey, that's probably our problem there.' And so we went in there. They handed me some wire strippers, and I sat there. I fixed it myself in the car and plugged it back up and fired her up, and it was good after that. And you know, it's not quite the day we wanted, obviously, this is a big track. I have a little motor and an old car, so that doesn't help us. But, you know, it's in one piece. That's all we can ask for.”
Laster expects to debut a new car at Charlotte later this month. His perseverance at Talladega ultimately came up just a few laps short of gaining him a couple of more spots, as his 58 total laps were two fewer than Tim Richmond, who fought through a clutch issue that ultimately ended his race after 60 laps. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Cody Dennison, whose accident on Lap 62 sent him behind the wall.
Lawless Alan and crew celebrate their win in Talladega.
Up front, Lawless Alan picked up his first career win, putting Venturini Motorsports in Victory Lane the week after the team’s announcement of their sale to Nitro Motorsports effective at the end of the 2025 season. Ironically, it was Nitro’s own Thad Moffitt who scored a career-best second-place finish, while Alan’s VMS teammate Isabella Robusto placed third, the highest-ever finish for a female driver at Talladega in ARCA history.
“It felt great, just staying cool, calm and collected the whole time,” said Alan after the race. “Not really worried about where I was, so long as I was up towards the front, always coming up with a plan, and then that plan would be changed. So always coming up with new plans. But it feels really good to get the win for AutoParkIt, for Venturini, for Toyota, for me, it feels - there's no other way to describe it, then it just feels good.”
Alan recalled the frantic finish between himself and Moffitt: “Me and Thad (Moffitt) stayed digging, even when the caution came out. We were not letting each other by because we weren't sure 100% who won the race. I knew that I was ahead of them the whole time, but I'm like, man, I've lost races to the timing line before. I was staying stone cold, not letting my emotions go, preparing for disappointment. And then we waited that whole lap and a half, and then they declared me the winner on the back stretch, and my spotter told me. And then I was like, just to confirm, like we are the winners, right? And they were like, 20 is the winner. And then I could celebrate!”
Alan also shared what he’d gone through after the end of the 2024 season, and how he landed the ride with Venturini: “Yeah, as far as I understand it, after Phoenix, I didn't really have anything lined up. And then Toyota, it was like a part time deal at best kind of thing. And Toyota got together in some sort of meeting, and then they were like, Who's the guy to watch? And then a couple people said me. So then they offered me this chance with Venturini, and from then, just the support that Toyota has given me and the support that Venturini has given me and AutoParkIt, it's just it's meant the absolute world to me. I knew when I made the decision to go with these guys, this was either going to be a career maker, a career ender, and it seems as though, hopefully it'll be a career maker.”
DID NOT START
38) #22-Nick White
37) #86-Becca Monopoli
THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #0-Ben Peterson / 10 laps / overheating
35) #12-Matt Kemp / 14 laps / suspension
34) #06-Brayton Laster / 58 laps / running
33) #27-Tim Richmond / 60 laps / clutch
32) #9-Cody Dennison / 61 laps / accident
2025 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES OWNERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP (After Race 3 of 20)
1st) CCM Racing, Brad Smith Motorsports, Wayne Peterson Racing (1)
2025 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES MANUFACTURERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP (After Race 3 of 20)
1st) Ford (2)
2nd) Toyota (1)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Click HERE throughout the 2025 ARCA season to view the full drivers’ standings for both the ARCA Menards Series and its East and West divisions. You can also find the manufacturers’ and owners’ standings for all three series HERE.
2025 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP (After Race 3 of 20)
