Reif Returns to Site of His First Win at Irwindale
Back to a Special Place … Tanner Reif returns to Irwindale Speedway this weekend one year after scoring his first career ARCA Menards Series West (AMSW) victory at the half-mile bull ring. The driver of the No. 16 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet SS hopes the southern California short track can jump start his sophomore season. The Las Vegas teenager started the season off with a 12th-place finish in the AMSW opener at Phoenix Raceway on March 10th. In 2022, Reif’s landmark victory at Irwindale propelled him to a runner-up finish in the season-long standings after an adverse opening race. He took full advantage of the short tracks last season and hopes to duplicate those efforts in 2023 beginning on Saturday night.
Irwindale Rewind … Reif absolutely dominated last year’s spring race at Irwindale and withstood an overtime restart to lead all 153 laps. He started from the pole after posting a quick time of 18.43 seconds and never relinquished the top spot for the remainder of the evening. When the tour returned to Irwindale in July, Reif posted a seventh-place finish, and now looks to pad Bill McAnally Racing’s (BMR) stat line in his third start at Irwindale.
BMR at Irwindale … Since 2001, BMR has put up staggering statistics at Irwindale Speedway. Former two-time AMSW champion Brendan Gaughan picked up a “hat trick” of sorts by winning three times at Irwindale with the NAPA brand and BMR in ’01 en route to the championship. In the past 22 seasons, BMR has claimed 17 total wins at Irwindale, including sweeps in 2004 with Austin Cameron, 2017 with Todd Gilliland, and 2021 with Jesse Love.
Chassis Selection … Crew chief John Camilleri and the NAPA Auto Care team have prepared chassis No. 91 from BMR’s fleet for Reif to race at Irwindale. This Chevrolet SS most recently finished third at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last October with Landen Lewis at the controls.
Tune In … The second event on the AMSW schedule goes green at 10:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. PT) and can be streamed live on FloRacing (www.floracing.com). Stay connected with the NAPA Auto Care team by following @BMR_NASCAR on Twitter, @bmrnascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Tanner Rief Quote:
On the first short track of the season at Irwindale:
“I’ve had a lot of success at Irwindale, and won last year’s spring race, so I’m excited to get back there. I’m confident in our NAPA Auto Care team and looking forward to seeing how our Chevrolet drives in practice to get it dialed in for the race. The team has been putting in a lot of effort to gain speed for this weekend and to apply to the rest of the short tracks this year. Irwindale is a fun place to race. You can move around and use several different lanes, so hopefully we’ll be able to make all the right moves and put our NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet up front on Saturday.”