Sprint Cup Series Regular Trevor Bayne Dominates ARCA Race at Pocono

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Before a test on Wednesday, Trevor Bayne had never seen Pocono Raceway, but he quickly learned how to get around it in an ARCA Racing Series car.

This is the second year in a row that a Sprint Cup Series rookie has come in and dominated the ARCA Series event at Pocono. Last year, it was Kyle Larson. This year it was Bayne.

“This car was really good,” Bayne said in his post-race press conference. “It was nice to be able to turn under whoever I want and just be fast.”

The driver for the No. 22 Cunningham Motorsports Ford led 42 laps on the afternoon as there were multiple strategies that prevented him from leading more laps.

His main goal was to just turn laps and to make reps behind the wheel so he could be competitive in the Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday. So far on the Cup Series side, it hasn’t looked as solid as Bayne was 31st in final practice, and that’s about as high as he’s been on the speed charts all weekend long.

“Jack asked if we could borrow this car for tomorrow,” Bayne said. “We’re definitely off a little bit. I have things to learn. I need to be smoother with my shifting and carry more speed through the corners. I think a top-20 tomorrow would be great, which sounds easy but in this series it is so hard.”

Championship leader Grant Enfinger finished second in the ARCA Series race and picked up his fifth top-10 in eight races this season.

“We didn’t have anything for the No.22, he was the class of the field,” said Enfinger. “This is a much-needed second place finish. We got off to a good start to the season and since then have kind of struggled.”

The defending ARCA Series champion Mason Mitchell finished third in Saturday’s race after finishing second in last year’s event at Pocono.

“I felt our car was better this year than it was last year,” said a disappointed Mitchell. “It just seemed like we were off-strategy all race long. I’m pretty disappointed.”

The rest of the top five were Will Kimmel and Matt Kurzejewski.

There were three cautions in the first 18 laps of competition. But after that there was only one caution in the final 62 laps and that came with 19 laps to go.

Matt Tifft, driving the No. 52 car, was fastest in Friday’s final practice. However, the team had to go to backup car after Tifft went for a spin and made contact with the wall in Turn 3 in qualifying just a couple hours prior to the race. Tifft rebounded in the race after swapping from a Toyota to a Chevrolet, but came home in the 10th position.

Cole Custer, Michael Lira and Kyle Benjamin all had problems and finished deep in the field. Early on in the race Custer lost power to his car and finished in the 24th spot. Lira who was fastest in testing on Wednesday wound up 26th after crashing his primary car in practice on Friday. Kyle Benjamin also lost power early on and finished the race deep in the field in the 28th-position.

There have been 19 different winners in the last 19 races at Pocono for the ARCA Series. They will be back in Pocono in early August to try and make that a whopping 20 different winners in 20 races.  

Dustin Albino
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