The ARCA Menards Series West joined forces with the ARCA Menards national series Friday at Phoenix Raceway for the General Tire 150 combination race. The series again had a stacked entry list of 43 entries, and for the second event in a row, three teams failed to make the show.
William Sawalich scored the top starting spot, piloting the No. 18 Toyota entry with a lap of 27.316s / 131.791 mph. It marked Sawalich’s 14th career ARCA pole across the three divisions.
The top five starters were Sean Hingorani, Gio Ruggiero, Andres Perez, and Grant Enfinger.
#31 Garrett Zacharias; #06 Cody Dennison; and #48 Brad Smith failed to make the race.
William Sawalich led the way over the opening 19 circuits – even surviving a restart after a crash that occurred on the opening lap. On lap 20, Gio Ruggiero took the lead from Sawalich to pace the top spot over the next 48 laps.
The second yellow of the race flew at lap 60 as David Smith and Jake Bollman came together in turn three. This evaporated a three-plus second lead between Ruggiero and Sawalich.
Going green with seven to go until the halfway break, Sawalich re-took the lead from Ruggiero.
The two traded the lead a couple more times until Sawalich took the lead once again at lap 81.
Sawalich commanded the lead upfront over the next 35 laps until lightning halted the event with 35 to go. ARCA officials brought the cars to pit road in hopes of the lightning in the area moving out to resume the race.
Unfortunately, rain also arrived, forcing ARCA to deem the race official.
Sawalich wins the event, followed by Ruggiero, Enfinger, Connor Mosack, and Sean Hingorani taking hope top fives.
Leading 68 of 115 laps, Sawalich leaves Phoenix Raceway with his second career West victory.
Making her debut, Isabella Robusto finishes sixth with Jack Wood, Andres Perez, Toni Breidinger, and Lavar Scott rounding out the top 10.
The ARCA Menards Series West heads next to Irwindale Speedway on March 30th with coverage live on FloRacing.
As for the ARCA Menards Series, they’ll go Superspeedway racing for the last time this year on April 20th. FOX Sports 1 and MRN Radio will have live coverage.
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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