Fresh off A.L.L. Construction Racing’s career-best second-place finish in the ARCA Menards Series last Thursday night at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway with Landen Lewis, team principal Jason Kitzmiller returns to the seat set to take the checkered flag on the team’s limited season schedule in Friday night’s Reese’s 150 at Kansas Speedway.
Lewis made his second consecutive ARCA Menards Series start in “Thunder Valley” driving the team’s No. 97 Chevrolet SS and while the teenage phenom ran into setbacks during the 2023 race, this year’s Bush’s Beans 200 saw Lewis have the potential to surge forward and score the team’s first career ARCA Menards Series victory.
In ARCA overtime, Lewis gave it his all but could not defeat 2024 ARCA Menards Series East champion William Sawalich and finished 0.397 seconds behind the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Still, the team’s performance, led by 10-time ARCA Menards Series champion Frank Kimmel, has given positive momentum ahead of a Friday night showdown in the Midwest, with Kitzmiller eyeing a career-high fourth top-10 finish in a single season.
“I’m so proud of this A.L.L. Construction Racing team,” said Kitzmiller. “It’s been a good couple of months from the ARCA side of things. We had a strong performance at Michigan International Speedway and then Landen was able to climb back in the ARCA car at Bristol and finish what he started from the 2023 season.
“Now, we’re heading to Kansas Speedway, one of the most enjoyable mile-and-a-half tracks on the ARCA circuit, and I am looking forward to having the opportunity not to contend for another strong finish but really put an exclamation point to what has been a solid ARCA Menards Series season.”
Outside of a disappointing DNF (did not finish) at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in April, it’s been a top-10 or bust year for the Statesville, N.C.-based team.
Kitzmiller, the Petersburg, WV native, started 2024 with a career-best sixth-place finish in a chaotic Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway season-opener, then followed it up in the early summer with a ninth-place result at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway was flanked by a solid seventh place in the Irish Hills of Michigan last month.
With his fifth and final race on deck for 100 laps of action on deck at Kansas, Kitzmiller is all in on trying to reel in his first career top-five ARCA Menards Series finish.
In two previous Kansas Speedway starts the 50-year-old veteran has a best finish of 11th.
“I’ve always had fast cars at Kansas Speedway and this weekend, I’d like to showcase that again by contending for a top-five finish,” added Kitzmiller. “I know it’s not going to be an easy task, but we’ve made some great progress with our team over the last couple of months and I’d like nothing more than to end our season with a lot of momentum like we started our season.”
Outside the ARCA Menards Series circle, Kitzmiller continues to have a hefty presence in the Grand National Super Series, where he recently won again in the series’ double header feature at Tri-County (N.C.) Speedway.
Following Kansas, Kitzmiller, who sits second in the Grand National Super Series championship standings, is expected to compete in the series penultimate race of the season at Carteret County Speedway.
Since 2020, Kitzmiller has 26 ARCA Menards Series starts to his credit, with seven top-10 finishes overall, including a career-best sixth-place finish at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (February 2024).
The Reese’s 150 (100 laps | 150 miles) is the 19th of 20 races on the 2024 ARCA Menards Series schedule. Practice begins Friday, September 27 from 12:10 p.m. to 12:55 p.m. General Tire pole qualifying follows beginning at 1:10 p.m. The race is set to take the green flag later that afternoon shortly after 4:30 p.m. CT (5:30 p.m. ET). The event will be televised live on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM Satellite Radio (XM channel 391 | online channel 981) handling the radio waves. ARCARacing.com will also stream live timing and scoring throughout the entire day’s festivities.
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