The ARCA Menards Series East waited an extra day after rain postponed Friday’s General Tire 125 at Dover Motor Speedway. William Sawalich earned the pole via the 2022 ARCA East owner point standings as practice and qualifying were canned as a result of precipitation.
Jake Finch survived ARCA overtime in a heated battle for the lead with Landen Lewis late to score his first career ARCA East victory on Saturday. Finch, in a Venturini Motorsports Toyota, started the afternoon ninth in the Phoenix Construction-sponsored car.
Lewis sat runner-up by 0.164 seconds behind Finch. It was the first ARCA East start for Lewis, who scored an ARCA West event win last year at Kern County Raceway Park and an ARCA victory in 2021 at DuQuoin.
Finch led the field for 89 circuits at the one-mile concrete oval en route to the victory.
Luke Fenhaus took home the third-place finish following a 14th-place start. In the season-opener last month at Five Flags Speedway, the Wisconsin driver earned the runner-up finish behind race winner William Sawalich.
Pole sitter Sawalich and Levar Scott ended the day top five.
Second-place starter Zachary Tinkle, Toni Breidinger, Ed Pompa, Conner Jones, and Sean Hingorani took home top 10 finishes.
Hingorani’s team had a slow start after the car wouldn’t fire following the command which forced the team to diagnose the engine behind the wall. After returning for a pair of laps halfway through the first segment, the crew had to go back behind the wall for more diagnoses before finally returning to the track just before the end of segment one. The team went on to finish 10th despite being 42 laps down.
Conner Jones showed strength by leading 30 of the 127 circuits before what the team described as “over-adjusting” the car during the first of two scheduled race breaks at lap 30. The handling of the car went away, causing Jones to fall numerous spots and even two laps down at one point. Unfortunately on lap 116, Jones blew a right front tire and crashed hard into the outside wall ending the team’s run.
The race featured two stoppages for scheduled race breaks while the lone yellow flag involved Conner Jones on lap 116.
The next race for the ARCA Menards Series East will take place at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on May 13th at 8:00p ET. live on FloRacing.
