Sam Corry led every scheduled lap en route to his first ARCA Menards Series West career victory in the General Tire 150 at Sonoma Raceway on Friday, June 26.
The 18-year-old Corry from Cornelius, North Carolina, commenced Friday’s on-track activities by notching his first ARCA West career pole in his second start in the series’ division. Once Friday’s main event commenced, Corry never relinquished the top spot as he withstood a total of four cautions, four ensuing restarts and side-by-side challenges from teammate Mia Lovell through each restart.
A key moment of Corry’s road to victory occurred with eight laps remaining when Lovell nearly executed a bold move beneath Corry to assume the lead, only for Lovell to slip and go wide through Turn 11. Amid Lovell’s misfortune, Corry reassumed the top spot, but he then had to withstand a three-lap shootout following a late-race caution. Nevertheless, Corry withstood the pressure and fended off Lovell to achieve the first ARCA West victory for himself and Nitro Motorsports.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Sam Corry secured the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 92.806 mph in 77.193 seconds. Teammate Mia Lovell qualified in second place with a lap of 92.48 mph in 77.465 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Sam Corry gained the upper advantage from the launch and he wasted no time motoring away from the field through the opening set of turns. As the field navigated through Sonoma’s 12-turn circuit, Corry led the first lap from teammate Mia Lovell while Eric Johnson Jr., Mason Massey and Patrick Staropoli occupied the top-five spots ahead of Todd Souza, Cole Denton, Jeff Anton, Robbie Kennedy and Gavin Ray, respectively.
Over the next four laps, Corry stretched his early advantage to more than two seconds over Lovell while Johnson, Massey, Staropoli, Souza, Anton, Kennealy, Denton and Taylor Mayhew trailed in the top 10, respectively. By then, Hailie Deegan, who had mechanical issues in practice that prevented her from posting a qualifying lap, was strapped in 21st place and mired three laps down after she wrecked through the Esses on the second lap. In addition, Trevor Huddleston, the reigning ARCA Menards Series West champion, was mired in 15th place behind Sage Karam.
On Lap 10, the event’s first caution flew due to Eric Nascimento Jr. coming to a stop towards the pit road entrance in between Turns 10 and 11a after he had fallen off the pace through the Esses. At the time of caution, Corry was leading by more than three seconds over Lovell while Johnson, Massey, Staropoli, Anton, Souza, Robbie Kennealy, Cole Denton and Mayhew were scored in the top 10, respectively.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 14, Corry fended off Lovell through the first two turns to retain the lead. As Corry led Lovell up through the third turn, Massey assumed third place from Eric Johnson Jr. while Jeff Anton moved up into fifth place in front of a group of competitors. With the field cycling back through to the start/finish line, Rodd Kneeland slid off the course in Turn 10 and barely clipped both the tire barriers and the concrete wall, but he managed to pit without drawing a caution. Amid the incident, Corry led the next lap by nine-tenths of a second over Lovell.
From Laps 15 to 20, the lone incident that occurred on the track was when Mayhew slipped, ran over the curb in Turn 4a and just dodged Andrew Chapman while spinning through the turn. Meanwhile, Corry was leading by more than two seconds over Lovell as Johnson fended off Anton and Massey for third place despite nearly getting loose through Turns 2 and 3 a few laps earlier.
On Lap 24, a competition caution flew as the event reached its halfway mark for a brief intermission period. At the time of caution, Corry had stretched his lead to nearly three seconds over Lovell while the rest of the field, starting with third-place Johnson, trailed by double digits. In addition, 16 of 22 competitors were scored on the lead lap.
At the start of the second half of the event with 20 laps remaining, Corry fended off Lovell to continue to lead through the first two turns while Anton and Massey dueled against one another for third place in front of a stacked field. Just as Massey assumed third place from Turns 4a to 7a, he then went off the course in 7a and had issues motoring away due to a mechanical issue. Not long after, Anton went off the course in Turn 10 and lost a bevy of spots, which allowed Staropoli, Souza and Cole Denton to move up into the top-five mark. As Corry led the next lap over Lovell, the caution returned due to Massey stalling his entry in Turn 7a.
The next restart with 16 laps remaining featured Corry fending off Lovell to retain the lead for a second consecutive time as the former proceeded to lead through the next pair of turns. Behind the two leaders, Staropoli retained third place in front of Souza, Denton and Robbie Kennealy while Huddleston was up into seventh place. During the next lap, Karam overtook Huddleston for seventh place while Corry was leading by half a second over Lovell.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Corry maintained his lead by more than two seconds over Lovell while third-place Staropoli trailed by nearly eight seconds. Behind, Souza and Denton retained the remaining top-five spots over Johnson, Kennealy and Anton while Huddleston was in ninth place ahead of Sage Karam, Mayhew, Ryan Philpott, Gavin Ray, Andrew Chapman, Tyler Tomassi, Tim Spurgeon and David Smith, respectively.
Then with eight laps remaining, Lovell reeled in Corry and made a move beneath Corry to assume a brief lead just before she went wide in Turn 11. This allowed Corry to execute a crossover move and reassume the top spot as Corry led the next lap by eight-tenths of a second. The caution then flew with seven laps remaining due to David Smith spinning and stalling backwards in Turn 2.
Throughout a three-lap shootout to the finish, Corry fended off Lovell for the event’s duration to motor his way to the victory. Despite Lovell’s late-race effort in reeling in with two laps remaining, Corry slightly increased his advantage and managed to beat Lovell by eight-tenths of a second for his first ARCA Menards Series West career victory and the first ARCA victory for Nitro Motorsports.
“Patience was definitely the word of the day today,” Corry, a former USF2000 Championship competitor, said. “My spotters Collin Fern and Will Rodgers all day on the box there just telling me to be patient and save these tires. I can’t thank them enough; they’ve been a huge help in my career up to now. Being here and having raced here before has definitely been a help, but to be with the same team that we were with in Trans Am coming over to the stock car world has been big.”
“Today was a testament of our patience for sure,” Corry added. “I have no words right now. I’m so excited for this team. They have put in so much work on this race car. They work so hard. To Nitro Motorsports, to Toyota Racing, thank you. I can’t thank these guys enough.”
Mia Lovell, who notched her first top-three result at Tri-City Raceway in early June, achieved a career-best runner-up result in her seventh ARCA West career start. Eric Johnson Jr., Cole Denton and Patrick Staropoli finished in the top five, respectively. Todd Souza, Robbie Kennealy, Jeff Anton, points leader Trevor Huddleston and Gavin Ray completed the top 10 in the final running order. With his ninth-place result, Huddleston retains the series’ lead in the standings by 34 points over Cole Denton.
There were no lead changes as Corry led every lap from start to finish, and the race featured four cautions for 14 laps. In addition, 15 of 22 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results:
- Sam Corry, 47 laps led
- Mia Lovell
- Eric Johnson Jr.
- Cole Denton
- Patrick Staropoli
- Todd Souza
- Robbie Kennealy
- Jeff Anton
- Trevor Huddleston
- Gavin Ray
- Ryan Philpott
- Taylor Mayhew
- Sage Karam
- Andrew Chapman
- Tim Spurgeon
- Tyler Tomassi – OUT, Accident
- David Smith, three laps down
- Rodd Kneeland, six laps down
- Mason Massey, 12 laps down
- Haile Deegan – OUT, Mechanical
- Eric Nascimento Jr. – OUT, Mechanical
- Dave Smith – OUT, Did Not Start
Next on the 2026 ARCA Menards Series West schedule is Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon. The event is scheduled to occur on August 8 and air at 9 p.m. ET with coverage provided by FloRacing.
