Joining forces with Eric Caudell’s CCM Racing is newcomer to ARCA, Kadence Davenport. No relation to dirt specialist Jonathan Davenport, the 20-year-old driver from Huxley, Iowa will be piloting the No. 7 Chevrolet in three upcoming short tracks on the 2025 ARCA Menards Series calendar. Her three-race deal with the team will begin at Elko Speedway this coming weekend, followed by Indy Raceway Park in late July, and concluding with Iowa Speedway, her home track, in early August. Sponsorship will come from her father’s company, Davenport Concrete. Andy Jirik, who previously served as Eric Caudell’s crew chief at Talladega, will again crew chief for the No. 7 this weekend at Elko. Davenport will be one of five women in the field of 24 joining Isabella Robusto, Taylor Reimer, Quinn Davis, and Becca Monopoli on that list.
Davenport comes from a background in karting and dirt racing and has been racing since she was six years old. She has competed at tracks such as Lancaster Event Center Raceway, Jacobson Event Center, Hawkeye Downs Speedway, Marshalltown Speedway, and many more. In December 2019, she also scored a feature win at Little Sunset Speedway in the Jr. 2 Clone Medium division, where she has also competed frequently. She is also a frequent competitor at Newton Kart Klub, which is located only a few miles west of Iowa Speedway, and both facilities are located within Newton, Iowa.
To prepare for her debut race at Elko, Davenport tested at Hawkeye Downs Speedway to get laps in and acclimate to the stock cars of ARCA after a prior attempted test session at the track, which was cut short by rain. CCM Racing is also no stranger to Elko, having two starts at the 3/8 mile oval with Caudell himself driving the No. 7 to a 13th-place finish in 2019, and Colton Collins running at the track in 2022, where he also finished in 13th. Including starts in ARCA East, CCM Racing, since 2019, has started 40 races across the ARCA Menards Series platform. The team’s best finish to date was an eighth-place run at Winchester in 2020 with Caudell driving. Caudell has also shown strong speed at the superspeedways in ARCA, where he scored a top ten at Talladega in 2021 and also led four laps at Talladega in 2023.
Going into Elko, Davenport joins multiple drivers who are also making their debuts in the ARCA Menards Series. Tony Musolino from Pennsylvania and hometown hero Ty Fredrickson from Minnesota are joining Davenport for their debuts. Quinn Davis, who previously ran the ARCA East race at Nashville in May, will also be making her first start in the main division of the ARCA Menards Series. With Elko celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, the race should be a special one for the fans, and the car count of 24 is also the largest since the inaugural ARCA Menards Series race at Elko in 2012. While the car count will be high, Kadence Davenport is ready to take on the ARCA Menards Series for the first time in the 250-lap event on Saturday. The ARCA Menards Series will visit Elko Speedway for the Shore Lunch 250 presented by Dutch Boy on Saturday, June 21 at 9 PM ET/8 8 p.m. CT. The race will be aired live on FS2 and streamed on the FOX Sports App.
Image via Elko Speedway Facebook Account