Logan Seavey (No. 20 Craftsman Toyota) took the lead on lap 66 and withstood four late-race restarts to claim his first career ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards victory in Monday’s General Tire Grabber 100 at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds. Seavey’s win was the 50th for the Venturini Motorsports team dating back to team owner Bill Venturini’s first series win at Flat Rock Speedway in 1984.
Seavey, the current USAC P1 Insurance National Midget Series point leader, started fourth but was 12th after two laps, the tough DuQuoin outside groove not doing him any favors on the intial start. Seavey methodically used his dirt track experience to his advantage, quickly working his way back into the five by lap 11.
Under pit stops at lap 47, Seavey dropped back to eighth but immediately jumped back into the top five on the restart. By lap 60 he was third, and by lap 66 he took over the lead, a lead he would never reliquish.
“To get win number 50 for them is really cool,” Seavey said. “Another win on dirt is really cool. They won at Springfield too. We had the best car here and I have the best team. Pit stops are key here. Pit road is more conventional. We beat the 28 on pit road. We needed him to get jumbled up in traffic and he did.”
Sheldon Creed (No. 28 United Rentals Toyota) dominated the opening half of the race, leading 44 of the first 46 laps before losing the lead under the first round of pit stops. Creed, the current ARCA Racing Series championship points leader, would eventually drop into the back half of the top ten before spinning on lap 97. He would finish tenth.
Will Kimmel (No. 69 FASS Diesel Fuel Systems Ford) had a career-best second place finish, despite jumping the final restart.
“I might have gone a little early,” Kimmel said with a laugh post race. “They came over the radio and told me to give the spot back and I did. They never said anything else so we ran hard to the finish. Second place is huge for Kimmel Racing.”
Riley Herbst (No. 18 NOS Energy/ORCA Coolers Toyota) was third, Springfield winner Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) was fourth, and Zane Smith (No. 41 LaPaz Margarita Mix/ICON Vehicle Dynamics Toyota) rounded out the top five. Smith clinched the CGS Imaging 4 Crown title with his fifth-place result.
“I owe it all to my team,” an exhausted Smith said following the race. “It felt like we were on pit road all day long. We had some sort of overheating problem, just like Springfield. We couldn’t get it figured out but we made it. We had a great time at Talldega and Pocono, it was pretty cool at Madison and we struggled here but it all worked out.”
There were ten cautions for 48 laps. One of the cautions, the seventh of the afternoon on lap 67, involved Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Healthcare Ford). Braden had led from lap 49 to lap 65, and was looking for his first career victory. He was examined and released, finishing 15th.
The ten cautions kept the average speed to just 66.33 miles per hour. The time of the race was one hour, 30 minutes, 27 seconds.
Creed retains his unofficial point lead by 190 points over Smith heading into Friday night’s Shore Lunch 200 at Lucas Oil Raceway. MAVTV will have live coverage starting at 9 pm ET on Friday; ARCARacing.com will have live timing, scoring, track updates, and scanner audio throughout the day for registered users.
