by Ben Schneider / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer

Spencer Davis finished last for the first time his ARCA Menards Series West career in last Saturday’s West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame 150 at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway when his No. 42 MMI Chevrolet fell out with electrical issues after completing 104 of 150 laps.

The finish came in Davis’ 3rd career West Series start.

While Davis has only made sporadic appearances in the West Series, the 26-year-old has already been competing in NASCAR for over a decade. He ran the full 2014 Whelen Southern Modified Tour season at just 15 years old, scoring a pair of top-five finishes at Bowman Gray and Bristol. From there, he advanced to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, where he won a race at Dominion Speedway in 2016 and finished eighth in that season’s point standings. In 2018, Davis moved up to the NASCAR Truck Series with Kyle Busch Motorsports for five races, debuting with a seventh-place finish at Daytona, which remains his career-best to this day. His best full season came in the East Series in 2019 for Rette Jones Racing, where he finished fourth in points and picked up a second win at Gateway. In 2020, Davis became an owner-driver in the Truck Series, running two partial seasons in his own No. 11 Toyota. He then shifted back to the Modifieds on a part-time basis in 2022 before returning to Trucks in 2023 with Roper Racing, where suspension issues following a practice crash at Kansas led to his most recent appearance on this site in September of that year.

As for the West Series, Davis made his debut at Phoenix in 2015, finishing 27th with NTS Motorsports. His second ARCA West start would not come until just last year, where he finished 11th at the fall race at Kern while driving for Cook Racing Technologies. Last Saturday, Davis and Cook reunited at Kern for the 2025 season-opener, but their race was cut short roughly two-thirds of the way through the event with electrical issues, forcing the No. 42 behind the wall and bringing out the race’s only caution.

For the first time since 2006, the West Series opened its season in the month of January. With many in the sport still firmly in the offseason, only 12 cars appeared on the entry list. David Smith, the defending LASTCAR ARCA West Drivers’ Champion, anchored both practice sessions, running a lap time of 19.804 seconds before improving slightly to a 19.784 in qualifying.

Following Davis up the running order was Blake Lothian, who lost both a cylinder and a right front tire but still brought his car home in one piece in 11th place. Smith completed a total of 139 laps, one more than Lothian and good enough for a top-ten result. Polesitter Daniel Hemric fell back to ninth after suffering a tire issue in the final laps, while Cody Dennison rounded out the Bottom Five, scoring an eighth-place finish in his West Series debut.

Up front, Tanner Reif took the lead from Hemric on the start before losing it to Trevor Huddleston on Lap 7. Huddleston led every lap the rest of the way to score his sixth career win despite a hard charge from Kyle Keller, who ultimately settled for second ahead of Reif in third.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

12) #42-Spencer Davis / 104 laps / electrical

11) #51-Blake Lothian / 138 laps / running

10) #05-David Smith / 139 laps / running

9) #19-Daniel Hemric / 147 laps / flat tire

8) #72-Cody Dennison / 148 laps / running

2025 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES WEST OWNERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP (After Race 1 of 12)

1st) Cook Racing Technologies (1)

2025 LASTCAR ARCA MENARDS SERIES WEST MANUFACTURERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP (After Race 1 of 12)

1st) Chevrolet (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 WEST DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP (After Race 1 of 12)