Gus Dean scored his first career ARCA Racing Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday in a very tight finish down the backstretch. Dean made his ARCA debut in the season opener at Daytona and ended his day after being involved in a crash. Today, Dean ended his day in the victory circle.
“The car obviously was a top notch car all day long as it got really hairy there towards the end,” said Dean in victory lane on FOX Sports 1 after the race. “Mason and those guys made an excellent pit strategy as they made an excellent pit call that really played out for us to come back through the field. “
With a caution on lap 56, and weather in the area, ARCA officials decided that if another caution flown before the checkered flag, that the race would be over. That happened as the caution would fly with four laps to go that involved a number of cars, and according to video, Dean was barely ahead of second-place finisher Josh Williams.
Williams nearly became the first repeat winner in the ARCA Racing Series in 2016. Williams, who scored the win earlier in the year at Nashville Fairgrounds, started the day in 14th behind the wheel of his No. 6 Musselman’s Apple Sauce Ford. The 22-year old Florida native holds 10 top five and 39 top 10 finishes through 85 ARCA Racing Series starts.
Williams spoke after the race about using the finish as momentum going into Toledo. “It’s really big for us. We’re a family owned team on a low budget and thankful for everyone helping us on this car,” said Williams on FOX Sports 1. “We’re gonna go win some more. I guarantee it.”
Finishing in third was Chase Briscoe in the No. 77 Cunningham Motorsports Dodge. Briscoe came into the day looking to score his first career ARCA win in only his sixth career start. He now holds three top five and five top 10 finishes and leads the series points standings.
John Wes Townley had a good start in his No. 05 Chevrolet. However, unfortunately for him, a tire went flat in the opening laps after making contact with another car. He was forced to pit and was unable to rebound from there and went on to finish 29th out of 35 cars.
The next race for the ARCA Racing Series will be at Toledo Speedway on May 22 for the Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care. Coverage of that race will air on the American Sports Network. Timing and scoring, along with audio, will be provided on ARCARacing.com.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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