- Sammy Smith passed General Tire Pole Award winner Daniel Dye with six laps remaining to earn his first career ARCA Menards Series victory in Saturday night’s ZinsserSmartCoat 200 at Berlin Raceway. Smith is the defending ARCA Menards Series East champion and has six career East wins, including three this year at New Smyrna Speedway, Five Flags Speedway, and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. With his victory at Berlin, Smith is the 350th driver to win at ARCA Menards Series race.
- Dye led 192 of the race’s first 194 laps and was leading comfortably before his ignition system failed. Dye dropped all the way back to seventh at the finish.
- Tom Hessert III made his first ARCA Menards Series start since October 2018 when he finished ninth at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Driving for Venturini Motorsports, Hessert qualified fifth and ran in the top five all night, finishing second. It is Hessert’s 56th career top-five finish.
- Two drivers who had disappointing finishes last weekend at Iowa Speedway rebounded with top-five finishes at Berlin. Jesse Love rebounded from an alternator failure while running in the top five with five laps to go at Iowa to finish third at Berlin. Taylor Gray finished 18th at Iowa Speedway with engine failure but rebounded at Berlin to finish fourth.
- The Rev Racing duo Rajah Caruth and Nick Sanchez finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Caruth dropped off the lead lap early but a received that lap back under the second caution of the night when Amber Balcaen crashed in turn three. Sanchez fought mechanical issues with his car but persevered to finish just behind his teammate.
- Long-time independent team owner/driver Brad Smith capitalized on some early-race attrition to score just his second-ever top-ten finish. Smith, who has made 392 career starts in his ARCA Menards Series career, finished tenth, his first top-ten result since he finished ninth at Winchester in September 2020. Smith’s first ARCA start was at Rockford Speedway in Rockford, Illinois on June 12, 1988. Current ARCA Menards Series points leader Rajah Caruth was born June 11, 2002.
- Caruth has assumed the championship lead free and clear of his teammate Sanchez. They were tied for the lead entering the Zinsser SmartCoat 200, but with Caruth finishing one position higher than Sanchez, he now leads the standings by one entering the Menards 250 at Elko Speedway 318-317. Dye sits third with 307 points, with Toni Breidinger and AmberBalcaen rounding out the top five.
- Smith leads the Sioux Chief Showdown standings by 14 points over Sanchez with Caruth in third 15 points back, and Jesse Love and Taylor Gray rounding out the top five each an additional point behind.
- Dye’s dominance throughout the day allowed him to jump to the lead in the Sprecher Lap Leader standings. Dye led 192 laps, giving him 224 laps atop the leaderboard so far in 2022. Corey Heim, who is running a limited schedule this season, is second with 156. Berlin winner Sammy Smith is third with 151.
- Rajah Caruth leads the full-time ARCA Menards Series drivers with a 6.14 average finish, a full position ahead of teammate Nick Sanchez at 7.14. Daniel Dye is third at 7.86.
- Caruth leads the series with four top-five finishes, but Sanchez leads with six top-ten finishes.
- Daniel Dye scored his first General Tire Pole Award since winning the pole at Berlin in 2021. He is the sixth driver to earn a pole in seven races in 2022. Corey Heim started on the pole at Daytona and Kansas, Sammy Smith won the pole at Phoenix, Drew Dollar at Talladega, Brandon Jones at Charlotte, and Jesse Love at Iowa.
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