Pair of Irwindale Podiums for Moore & Herzog at Irwindale

IRWINDALE, Calif. (March 26, 2022) – Bill McAnally Racing drivers Cole Moore and Austin Herzog navigated through a chaotic overtime restart to earn podium finishes during Saturday’s NAPA AUTO PARTS 150 at Irwindale Speedway for the ARCA Menards Series West.

Each driver earned their career-best ARCA Menards Series West finish with Moore finishing second in the No. 99 CMeleon Chevrolet SS, while Herzog’s third ARCA start yielded a third-place finish in the No. 16 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS.

Moore was the second highest finishing West driver at Phoenix out of those who also raced in Irwindale, as well, leaving him in a strong position after two rounds of 2022.

Qualifying placed Moore on the outside front row while Herzog started from outside of the fourth row. Moore dove inside for a few attempts at the lead position early in the race. A busy restart on lap 66 allowed Herzog to advance from seventh to fifth. Moore ran fourth while Herzog was fifth heading into the halfway break at lap 75.

Moore briefly ran third on the restart before settling into fourth. The BMR teammates battled for the fourth position before Moore had the position in hand with ten laps remaining. A caution on lap 147 set up a green-white-checkered overtime finish. Contact between the second and third place cars set up a three-wide battle into turn one. Moore went high and Herzog went low, advancing into the second and third positions respectively, and a podium finish for each.

A special group of VIP guests attended the event on behalf of NAPA AUTO PARTS, experiencing race day including a garage and hauler tour and a driver Q&A in the pits. The VIP Crew Member was Jim Fergot, representing a NAPA AUTO PARTS store in Rancho Cucamonga.

BMR worked with District Manager Derek Sasabuchi for the 150-lap race, along with NAPA Store Manager Rob Cole.

Quote – Cole Moore
“It feels really good! We had probably a fourth-place car. We’re racing for a championship, so those are some big points we picked up there. I was thankful that Austin ran me clean. We were not great on a long run there. Glad the last restart went in our favor.”

Quote – Austin Herzog
“It feels awesome. These NAPA guys worked so hard all weekend. We did a lot of adjustments between qualifying and the race and obviously they paid off. We had really good adjustments at the halfway break. Can’t thank these BMR guys enough. It’s awesome for the BMR cars to come home 2-3. It was a good weekend and excited to get to Kern.”

ARCA Menards Series West Event:
Race: NAPA AUTO PARTS 150 (Race 2 of 11) March 26, 2022
Location: Irwindale Speedway, Irwindale, Calif. (1/2-mile oval)

BMR Drivers:
Austin Herzog
No. 16 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS
Age: 19
Hometown: Clovis, Calif.
Practice/Qualified: 8th
Finished: 3rd (Running, completed 153 of 153 laps)
Career stats:
2 starts, 2 top 10s

Cole Moore
No. 99 CMeleon Chevrolet SS
Age: 24
Hometown: Granite Bay, Calif.
Practice/Qualified: 2nd
Finished: 2nd (Running, completed 153 of 153 laps)
Career stats:
19 starts, 5 top fives, 14 top 10s

Race winner: Tanner Reif

Next Race:
ARCA Menards Series West
NAPA AUTO PARTS 150, April 23, 2022, Kern County Raceway Park, Bakersfield, Calif. (1/2-mile oval)

About Steven Blakesley

Steven Blakesley is a motorsports announcer and public relations specialist with more than 15 years of experience. His biggest pet peeve is race fans who only enjoy one form of racing over all others.