- Reigning series champion William Sawalich earned his first ARCA Menards Series East victory of 2024 with a dominant performance in the Music City 150 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. Sawalich started third but took the lead at lap five, and except for getting beat to the start/finish line on a restart, led the rest of the way to score his fifth career series victory in his tenth career start.
- Isabella Robusto tied the record for best finish by a female driver in an ARCA Menards Series East race, second, and did so in her series debut. Kenzie Ruston set the record when she finished second at Iowa Speedway in 2014.
- Connor Zilisch finished third, his third top-five finish in three career ARCA Menards Series starts. Zilisch assumed the lead in the series championship standings and unofficially holds a five-point lead over Sawalich headed into the Dutch Boy 150 at Flat Rock Speedway.
- Zachary Tinkle finished a career-best fourth, his third top-ten finish of the season.
- Andrew Patterson made his ARCA Menards Series debut driving for team owner Mark Noble and finished fifth.
- Tyler Scofield scored his first career top-ten finish in sixth; Scofield made his series debut at Five Flags but fought electrical problems which relegated him to a 15th-place finish.
- Caleb Costner finished a career-best seventh; combined with his teammate D.L. Wilson’s tenth-place finish they put both of the Costner Motorsports team’s cars in the top ten.
- Jayson Alexander, an active member of the North Carolina Army National Guard and the University of North Carolina Charlotte ROTC program, finished eighth in his series debut, giving team owner Andy Hillenburg two cars in the top ten.
- Nashville late model regular Hunter Wright gave the MAN Motorsports team two top-ten finishers with his ninth-place finish.
- Gio Ruggiero led the ARCA Menards Series East championship standings coming in to the Music City 150, and he started the day by scoring his first career General Tire Pole Award. Ruggiero led the first four laps but experienced a cut left rear tire while battling with Connor Zilisch for the second position; the tire went down as he entered turn one on lap six sending him hard into the turn one wall. Ruggiero would return to the track to pick up four positions but would call it a night after 49 laps. He finished 14th.
- Tanner Reif experienced engine issues in practice forcing the Cook Racing Technologies team to change engines before the race; Reif made it to the grid for the start but experienced overheating problems. As he tried to get to pit road to have those problems looked at, he made contact with the tire protecting the end of the pit wall doing significant damage to his car and ending his night. He finished 15th.
- The next race for the ARCA Menards Series East is the Dutch Boy 150 at Flat Rock Speedway on Saturday, May 18. The race will be streamed live on FloRacing at 7:30 pm ET.
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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