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Lawless Alan earns first career ARCA pole at Kansas following break through win

JHby: Jonathan Howard05/09/25Jondean25
Lawless Alan ARCA pole
Mandatory Credit: Jason Allen-Imagn Images

When he won at Talladega, Lawless Alan said that it was the worst thing that could happen to the ARCA Menards Series field. Well, he followed it up with a pole win at Kansas Speedway today.

Ahead of this evening’s ARCA Menards Series action, Lawless Alan took down a 26-car field for the pole. Alan was able to hold off Thad Moffitt, grandson of Richard Petty.

William Sawalich, full-time Xfinity Series driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, is P3. Don’t look now, but Mason Mitchell, a three-time winner and ARCA champion, is P4 for tonight’s race. Other notable names include Brenden “Butterbean” Queen and Isabella Robusto. They are P5 and P6, respectively.

Lawless Alan won at Talladega for his first-career checkered flag in ARCA action. Now he has his first career pole award. Is this a breakout season?

This is a great thing to see. We know that Lawless Alan tried racing in the Truck Series full-time for a few years. Things didn’t work out. He is still young and honestly, this year’s ARCA field gives him more opportunity to shine than the last few years would have.

Alan is still 25 years old. While it has become normal for teenagers to be full-time in Xfinity and be in Cup by the time they’re 21, but 25 is still young! Maybe Alan doesn’t end up in the Cup Series one day, but he can prove himself to be a very reliable stock car driver for the right program.

On the other hand, William Sawalich might be hurting his stock. The 18-year-old is not having a great 2025 season.

Lawless Alan gets the edge over William Sawalich

As Lawless Alan makes his stock rise in the ARCA Menards Series, I fear that William Sawalich is doing the opposite. Not just in his ARCA races, but in all of his races. He has two runner-up finishes in the development series in his part-time schedule.

In his full-time ride for JGR in the Xfinity Series, Sawalich has struggled on a weekly basis. He hasn’t had a top-10 finish since COTA back in March this year. To put it simply, he has been disappointing in his rookie year.

JGR and Toyota are giving Sawalich as much on-track time as he can ask for. When does it get to the point where the extra laps are doing more harm than good? At times, when an athlete struggles, taking a step back can be just as helpful as sucking it up and trudging through.

I’m not sure what William Sawalich is going through, but right now I’d rather be Lawless Alan. If Sawalich can go out and dominate tonight’s race, that would go a long way to helping his confidence. If he gets beaten by Lawless or Thad Moffitt or someone else, it might be another shot to the ego.