ARCA Menards Series at Illinois State Fairgrounds:
Springfield ARCA 100 Post-race Notes
- William Sawalich (No. 18 Starkey SoundGear Toyota) earned his tenth career ARCA Menards Series victory and his first on dirt in Sunday’s Springfield ARCA 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Sawalich started from the General Tire Pole and led every lap, a feat he also accomplished earlier this season at Salem Speedway and held off Isabella Robusto (No. 20 JBL Audio Toyota) on a one-lap overtime finish by 0.888 seconds at the finish.
- Second-place Robusto and third-place Taylor Reimer (No. 55 BuzzBalls Toyota) finished third to mark the first time in ARCA Menards Series history that two female drivers finished in the top three in the same series race. All four Venturini Motorsports female teammates finished among the top-ten, with Toni Breidinger (No. 25 Sunoco Toyota) in sixth and Amber Balcaen (No. 22 ICON Toyota) in eighth. The previous record for the most female drivers in the top-ten in a single ARCA Menards Series race was two, four times: Daytona in 2018 (Natalie Decker, 5th; Leilani Munter 8th) and three times this season, at Phoenix (Robusto 6th; Breidinger 9th), Talladega (Balcaen 7th, Breidinger 10th) and Berlin (Breidinger 6th, Balcaen 10th).
- Hometown favorite Kelly Kovski (No. 16 Brandt Chevrolet) finished fourth, his eighth career top-ten finish and 24th career top-ten finish. He also finished fourth at Springfield in 2023; five of Kovski’s top-five finishes have come at Springfield, the other three came at DuQuoin.
- Lavar Scott (No. 6 Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet) finished fifth after being shuffled out of the groove on the final restart of the day to start the last lap of the race. Scott managed to gain ten points in the battle for the ARCA Menards Series championship after his teammate and series points leader Andres Perez (No. 2 Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet) finished 15th after overheating issues left him 45 laps down to the leader.
- Kris Wright (No. 15 FNB Corporation Toyota) finished seventh and jumped to third in the ARCA Menards Series championship standings. All five Venturini Motorsports cars finished in the top eight.
- Christian Rose (No. 32 West Virginia Department of Tourism Ford) finished ninth after being spun into the outside wall in turn three on the final lap.
- Tim Monroe (No. 12 Illinois Trucking Association/Riverside Chevy Chevrolet) finished tenth in his first ARCA Menards Series start of 2024.
- The race was slowed by cautions 6 times for 27 laps and was extended by 5 laps into overtime.
- The next race for the ARCA Menards Series is the Sprecher 150 The Milwaukee Mile on Sunday, August 25. The race will be televised live on FS1 and streamed live on FloRacing starting at 1 pm ET/12 noon CT.
About ARCA
The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), founded in 1953 by John and Mildred Marcum in Toledo, Ohio, and acquired by NASCAR in April 2018, is the leading grassroots stock car sanctioning body in the United States. Bridging the gap between NASCAR’s top three national touring series and weekly and regional tour racing all across the country, the organization sanctions over 100 races per year in the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East, ARCA Menards Series West, ASA STARS National Tour, ASA CRA Super Series, ASA Midwest Tour, ASA Southern Super Series plus weekly racing at Toledo and Flat Rock Speedways. For more information about ARCA visit www.arcaracing.com, or follow ARCA on Facebook (@ARCARacing) and Twitter (@ARCA_Racing).
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