In what looked like was going to be Jesse Love‘s fourth consecutive ARCA win in a row, William Sawalich denied those chances.
Love, who led 197 of the 200 lap race, had nearly a two second lead over the second-place driver of Sawalich, but during the final ten laps of the race, Sawalich gained very quickly on Love. With two laps to go, Sawalich took advantage of lap traffic, and made an aggressive move to take the lead away from Love on the last lap. He would hold on to earn his first career win in the ARCA Menards Series national.
“(The pass) was a little bit more dirty than I wanted it (to be), but it’s the last lap,” said Sawalich. “I’ve had that happen to me before and he totally had a lap to get me back. I didn’t think we’d be able to get him, but lapped cars helped for sure. (This win) is very cool and very special, we’re going to enjoy this one until Elko.”
Love, on the other hand, wasn’t too pleased with the move made by Sawalich.
“I’m glad there’s some accountability, but I’ve been raced dirty by the No. 18 in a lot of different races throughout my whole ARCA career,” said Love. “I thought I had a ten-car length gap and was just trying to keep the nose on it while not doing anything stupid with the lapped cars. Then all of a sudden, I’m ass-packed and lifted up into 3. I’ve got to set an example for kids who come in and run people over, so (Joe Gibbs Racing) is going to be building a lot of race cars. I’m really proud of our team and we didn’t deserve to go out like that. We’ll set an example, but there were some things I could have done better as well to not put us in that position.”
Sean Hingorani, the full-time East and West Series driver for Venturini Motorsports, would finish in the third spot, with Andrés Pérez de Lara and Toni Breidinger rounding out the top five. Frankie Muniz, Christian Rose, Tony Cosentino, Zachary Tinkle, and Jon Garrett would round out the top ten.
The next ARCA Menards Series race will be held next week at Elko Speedway on 24 June.
Pos. | Grid | No. | Driver | Team | Make | Laps | Led | Status |
1 | 2 | 18 | William Sawalich | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 200 | 3 | Running |
2 | 1 | 20 | Jesse Love | Venturini Motorsports | Toyota | 200 | 197 | Running |
3 | 3 | 15 | Sean Hingorani | Venturini Motorsports | Toyota | 200 | 0 | Running |
4 | 6 | 2 | Andrés Pérez de Lara | Rev Racing | Chevrolet | 199 | 0 | Running |
5 | 4 | 25 | Toni Breidinger | Venturini Motorsports | Toyota | 199 | 0 | Running |
6 | 8 | 30 | Frankie Muniz | Rette Jones Racing | Ford | 198 | 0 | Running |
7 | 5 | 32 | Christian Rose | AM Racing | Ford | 198 | 0 | Running |
8 | 9 | 45 | Tony Cosentino | Tamayo Cosentino Racing | Ford | 196 | 0 | Running |
9 | 7 | 11 | Zachary Tinkle | Fast Track Racing | Toyota | 196 | 0 | Running |
10 | 10 | 66 | Jon Garrett | Veer Motorsports | Chevrolet | 194 | 0 | Running |
11 | 11 | 03 | Roger Carter | Clubb Racing Inc. | Ford | 175 | 0 | Running |
12 | 14 | 31 | Tim Goulet | Rise Motorsports | Chevrolet | 171 | 0 | Running |
13 | 12 | 12 | Matt Kemp | Fast Track Racing | Ford | 75 | 0 | Rear End |
14 | 15 | 06 | A. J. Moyer | Peterson Motorsports | Toyota | 75 | 0 | Too Slow |
15 | 16 | 48 | Brad Smith | Brad Smith Motorsports | Ford | 51 | 0 | DNF |
16 | 13 | 10 | Tim Monroe | Fast Track Racing | Toyota | 15 | 0 | DNF |
17 | 17 | 49 | Jeff Smith | Brad Smith Motorsports | Chevrolet | 2 | 0 | DNF |