The ARCA Menards Series invaded Kansas Speedway for their penultimate race of the 2024 season on Friday. A total of 28 drivers entered the event on the 1.5-mile paved oval with no DNQs following qualifying.
Connor Zilisch led practice early Friday afternoon posting a time of 31.000s / 174.194 mph. Tanner Gray, Andres Perez, Corey Day, and Isabella Robusto rounded out the top five. Zilisch entered Friday looking to turn things around following a frustrating night at Bristol Motor Speedway last week.
Isabella Robusto captured her first career ARCA Menards Series pole later in the day. She posted a time of 30.896s / 174.780 mph. Giovanni Ruggiero, Kris Wright, Zilisch, and Gray qualified in the top five.
Robusto encountered problems early after getting into the wall two laps into the Reese’s 150. The day quickly turned from a high to low for the No. 55 Venturini Motorsports driver as the incident ended their day early – finishing 28th because of the crash.
Tanner Gray, meanwhile, quickly cleared with the lead at the drop of the green.
The field ran clean and green with Gray leading to the scheduled competition caution scheduled for lap 50 – despite Andres Perez making heavy contact with the outside wall.
A pair of cautions flew between the competition caution and the final yellow with four laps to go. As a result of these, Lavar Scott and Amber Balcaen managed to get the free passes. This would help the pair of drivers later in the race.
Caution flew with nine laps remaining in the race. This created an interesting situation upfront as the leaders elected to pit except for Amber Balcaen. Balcaen stayed out to restart as the leader while Gray and others pitted.
The race went back green with four laps to go. Gray managed to clear Balcaen for the lead with three to go.
Gray continued his lead over the next pair of laps to win the Reese’s 150 – securing his second career ARCA victory.
Zilisch rebounds the disappointment of Bristol last Thursday with a runner-up finish. Lavar Scott, Corey Day, and Giovanni Ruggiero finished top five.
Amber Balcaen, Andy Jankowiak, Lawless Alan, Issac Johnson, and Jason Kitzmiller rounded out the top 10.
The series moves on to Toledo Speedway for the season finale on October 5th. The Owens Crowning 200 airs live on FOX Sports 2.
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 forracingonfuel.comandtheracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes formotorsportsnat.comandTracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter@NASCAR_Brett.
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