Rock-Solid Carson Brown Rolls Into Lime Rock

COLUMN BY: Mike Arning / TRUE SPEED COMMUNICATIONS – MOORESVILLE, NC – Despite making just eight career ARCA Menards Series starts, Carson Brown has proven to be rock solid. The 17-year-old racer from New London, North Carolina, has an average finish of 3.5, a mark highlighted by a victory March 5 at Phoenix Raceway.

That win at Phoenix, however, marked the first time Brown raced at a track where he already had ARCA experience, having finished second at the 1-mile oval four months earlier in the ARCA Menards Series West season finale. At every other ARCA race he’s run, Brown has been a first-time ARCA competitor. Looking at the results, you’d never know it.

Brown has only two finishes outside of the top-five, with his three second-place finishes and two third-place drives underscoring his consistency leading into his ninth career ARCA start Friday at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut.

To ensure that his lack of experience at Lime Rock isn’t an impediment, Brown has turned to advanced simulation technology to learn Lime Rock’s old-school layout.

“You learn your brake markers, your elevation changes, how the tires are going to grip up and where, what curbs are where – it gets you prepared so that when you are out there on the track, you know what to expect,” Brown said. “But it’s going to be a big learning curve, no matter what the sim says.”

Lime Rock is among the oldest continually operated road-racing circuits in the United States. Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and Laguna Seca Raceway in Salinas, California, are the others. However, only Lime Rock’s 1.478-mile, seven-turn circuit remains the same as it did when it opened in the spring of 1957.

“Lime Rock’s elevation changes will throw everyone for a bit of a loop,” Brown said. “It’ll open up passing zones, which is good because on the sim it seems like a place where it’s hard to pass.

“If you’re the leader, you have clean air, and that’ll make it harder for second place to make many moves. But we’ll see what happens as the pavement gets more rubber laid down on it and we start finding new lines to run.”

Lime Rock is fast, narrow and relentlessly technical, demanding equal parts precision, patience and bravery. Brown brings all of those attributes and more.

While it will be Brown’s first trip to Lime Rock, it will not be his first road-course race. On May 8, he started second and finished second in the ARCA race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. Prior to that first road-course start in ARCA, Brown made five starts in Trans Am’s CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series in 2025, winning in his fourth TA2 start Sept. 20 at VIRginia International Raceway near Alton.

“I feel like the TA2 car and the ARCA car are very close,” Brown said. “They’re definitely different in regard to the amount of downforce each car has and how their set-ups work, but they drive pretty close, and that at least gets you a good foundation as far as road-course racing in a stock car-type vehicle. Just setting that foundation in TA2 was really important. It gave me something to build on every time I showed up at the racetrack.”

Showing up at the racetrack means showing up during the week. Brown is committed to his craft and he is a regular inside the GM Tech Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is immersed within Wise Optimization, the driver development arm of GM Motorsports, where sim sessions, physical fitness and mental wellness are staples of his race preparation.

“That preparation shows up on the racetrack,” said Brown, who was signed by Richard Childress Racing to a driver development contract earlier this year. “Even if people know how hard you’re working, you still need to show results. You still have to prove yourself.”

Racing is a never-ending performance review. Each lap time, whether in practice, qualifying or the race, is a barometer of one’s performance, and stacked trophies aid the climb up the racing ladder.

“You always try and set expectations that you feel you can meet, but you also try and set some that are a little out of reach to make you comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Brown said. “So as a driver, I’m doing everything I can to meet those goals, and that’s our mindset going into Lime Rock.”

While Lime Rock is unfamiliar to Brown, the team he’s going there with is not. Pinnacle Racing Group, the reigning ARCA champions who Brown has raced with for his last seven ARCA starts, will field the No. 28 Whelen Chevrolet he will race in Friday’s Lime Rock Park ARCA 100.

“We’ve had a lot of speed with Pinnacle Racing Group and our No. 28 Chevrolet, and I think we can keep improving on what we’ve built together,” Brown said. “When we were together at Watkins Glen, rain washed out practice. So if we can get some practice in at Lime Rock and get the car dialed in a little bit more, we should fire off a lot better at the start.

“I’m definitely looking forward to my second road-course start in ARCA. We were really fast at Watkins Glen. I just needed a little bit more at the beginning of a run to keep track position. If we can manage the car, then everything will come after that. Our communication amongst the team has always been really good, and I know we’re going to have a good day every time we show up together.”

Brown’s day at Lime Rock begins at 1 p.m. EDT with a one-hour practice followed by a 20-minute qualifying session at 2:15 p.m. The Lime Rock Park ARCA 100 goes green at 4 p.m. It will be broadcast live on FS2 and streamed on the FOX One app with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio providing live audio coverage.