Raising the Bar … Tanner Reif looks to continue raising the bar on Saturday night in the third round of the ARCA Menards Series West (AMSW) at Kern County Raceway Park (KCRP). The driver of the No. 16 BlueDEF Platinum/NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet SS is coming off his first top-five finish of the season, and has his eyes set on more in his second start at KCRP. Reif enters Bakersfield’s high-banked half mile three weeks removed from a fifth-place result at Irwindale Speedway and hopes to continue his ascent in the championship standings.
Kern County Lowdown … Reif is hunting his third career AMSW victory in his second appearance at KCRP. Last season, the Las Vegas driver finished fourth in his debut at the high-speed half mile after starting sixth. Through his first 13 AMSW races, Reif has taken a shine to the two half-mile venues on the tour. In four combined starts at KCRP and Irwindale, Reif has posted one win, three top-five and four top 10 finishes, and hopes to add to all three of those categories on Saturday night.
BMR at Kern … Since 2013, 12 AMSW races have been contested at Bakersfield’s half-mile jewel. BMR has been dominant at KCRP with six consecutive wins from 2016-2019, the most of any organization. Drivers Todd Gilliland and Derek Kraus combined to win those six races, with Kraus sweeping the series’ visits in 2018. Before KCRP was founded, the BMR team also captured two victories at Bakersfield’s former half-mile track, Mesa Marin Raceway, in 1999 and 2000.
Chassis Selection … Crew chief John Camalleri and the No. 16 team have prepared chassis No. 112 for Reif to wheel at KCRP. This Chevrolet SS kicked off the season at Phoenix Raceway in March with a 12th-place finish.
Tune In … Reif’s second appearance at KCRP goes green on Saturday night at 10:15 p.m. ET and can be streamed live on FloRacing (www.floracing.com). Stay connected with the No. 16 BlueDEF Platinum / NAPA Nightvision team by following @BMR_NASCAR on Twitter, @bmrnascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Tanner Rief Quote:
On returning to KCRP fresh off his first top-five finish of 2023:
“It was good to knock down a top-five at Irwindale to give our team some positive momentum. Kern was a bit of a struggle for me last year even running top-five, but with the effort that everyone at BMR has put into our BlueDEF Platinum, NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet, I think we can have a successful weekend this time around. It’s definitely one of the faster places that we go to with the banking and the transitions in and out of the corners. We’ll be focused on getting all the speed out of the car we can in practice to give ourselves a good shot to run up front on Saturday and have a strong points night.”
McAnally Hilgemann Racing PR
