Reif Earns Season-Best Finish at Kern

Venue: Kern County Raceway Park

FINISH: 4th

Start: 3rd

Laps Led: 0

Tanner Reif delivered his best result of the young ARCA Menards Series West season on Saturday night with a fourth-place finish at Kern County Raceway Park (KCRP) in the NAPA Auto Parts / BlueDEF 150. The driver of the No. 16 BlueDEF / NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet SS equaled his track best finish at KCRP in his second start in Bakersfield, Calif.

Reif turned in his best qualifying effort at KCRP by posting the third-fastest lap and lined up on the inside of row two. The 17-year-old fell into line in a podium position in the opening laps before inheriting the runner-up spot on lap five as the No. 15 car was black flagged. Reif consistently ran in the second position for the balance of the first half and was reeling in the race leader when the first caution flew just shy of the halfway point.

Crew chief John Camaleri and the No. 16 team armed Reif with a fresh set of right side tires during the halfway break and made minor adjustments to help him rotate in the center of both corners. Reif lined up second for the race’s second half and stayed within touch of the race lead. After relinquishing the second position, Reif tracked down the top two cars in heavy lapped traffic and mounted a charge the lead before a caution waved with 26 laps to go. The event came down to a three-lap dash, and Reif took the checkered flag in the fourth position for his second top-five result of the season.

Tanner Reif Quote:

“We had a real strong BlueDEF / NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet tonight. We were definitely a top-three car all night, but just got too tight at the end. I’m proud of all the guys on our BMR team for making gains on our Chevrolet since Irwindale. We made a lot of progress and it showed with the speed we had tonight. We’ll take a few weeks off and hopefully have as much speed when we go road course racing at Portland.”