The ARCA Menards Series got dirty Sunday at Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois. The Dutch Boy 150 on the one-mile dirt oval featured 18 entries with Brent Crews and Sean Corr leading the field to green.
Crews piloting a third Venturini Motorsports car led the first 18 circuits of the event before series points leader Jesse Love took the top spot. Love went on to lead the next 35 laps before Crews would use the bumper to take the lead again following a restart with 47 to go.
Crews then cruised to victory, leading the remaining 47 laps.
“He (Love) was super fast to start off. The second we came to pit road and came back off I knew it would be a super quick car,” said Crews after the race. “Jesse had us held up in one and two and I got under him. I knew he was gonna run me really hard and I stuffed the inside and we didn’t make it work.”
Crews, finishing third in his debut Friday at Watkins Glen, scored his first career ARCA win at just 15 years old. As he first noted in his interview with FS1 after the race, the win was quite special for the young racer.
“This is the highest caliber stuff I’ve ever done,” Crews stated in his TV interview. “To be able to win here just means a lot.”
Andres Perez de Lara sat 20.717 seconds behind crews at the checkered flag. The runner-up result now serves as Perez de Lara’s best career ARCA Menards Series finish across 15 starts. The event also marked Perez de Lara’s first race ever on dirt.
“It was really fun out there!” Perez de Lara exclaimed after the race. “It was my first time ever on dirt so I didn’t know what to really expect. We progressed throughout the day, which was really important because practice and qualifying weren’t as good as the race.”
It won’t be the only time this year the series will visit a dirt track. In Just a few short weeks the series will visit DuQuoin State Fairgrounds on September 3rd.
“I know a lot more stuff going to DuQuoin. So we can start from there and just keep working,” Perez de Lara added.
Jesse Love finishes third after leading 35 of 100 circuits.
Kelly Kovski and William Sawalich rounded out the top five.
Finishing top 10 were Ken Schrader, Frankie Muniz, Taylor Reimer, Jon Garrett and Brayton Laster.
Two cautions slowed the Dutch Boy 150 Sunday at Illinois State Fairgrounds.
Sean Corr spun in turns one and two on lap 32 of the event. Corr, after earning his best starting spot of second since winning the pole at Daytona in 2012, finished 13th.
Taylor Reimer spun all by herself on lap 47 in turns three and four. Reimer continued, earning an eighth-place finish.
The series will join the ARCA Menards Series East for a combination event at Milwaukee Mile on August 28th. The Sprecher 150 airs live on FOX Sports 1 and FloRacing at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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