Pit Stop Radio News

• Connor Zilisch won Friday’s General Tire 150 at Dover Motor Speedway. He is now credited with a victory in both the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East. He’s the 359^th driver to win at least one ARCA Menards Series race and the 130^th driver to win at least one ARCA Menards Series East race.
• Combined with Jake Finch’s victory at Talladega Superspeedway last week, it’s the first time there have been back-to-back first-time winners in the ARCA Menards Series since Tyler Ankrum and Luke Fenhaus won at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Iowa Speedway in consecutive races in 2023.
• Finch won the ARCA Menards Series East race at Dover in 2023 at 17 years, 10 months, and 13 days of age. Zilisch won in 2024 at 17 years, 10 months, and 4 days of age.
• Gio Ruggiero finished second at Dover, his second runner-up finish in two career ARCA Menards Series starts. He also finished second at Phoenix Raceway in March. Ruggiero, who won the series opener at Five Flags Speedway, now unofficially leads the ARCA Menards Series East championship standings by three points over Zilisch.
• Carson Kvapil finished third in his second career ARCA Menards Series start; he finished second in his series debut at Kansas Speedway last September. He finished second in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover.
• Lavar Scott, from nearby Carney’s Point, New Jersey, finished fourth in front of dozens of friends and family members. It was Scott’s first top-five finish of the season and ties his best career ARCA Menards Series finish.
• Andres Perez unofficially assumed the ARCA Menards Series championship points lead with his fifth-place finish. Perez’s unofficial lead is just one point over eighth-place finisher Greg Van Alst.
• Kris Wright persevered for a sixth-place finish despite getting together with Venturini Motorsports teammate Toni Breidinger on lap 136. Breidinger’s day was cut short, relegating her to 15^th at the finish.
• Andy Jankowiak scored his best finish of the season in seventh, his first lead-lap finish of the season.
• Caleb Costner earned his first career ARCA Menards Series top-ten finish in ninth. His teammate D.L. Wilson finished eleventh.
• Zachary Tinkle, who was awarded with the 2023 General Tire Spirit Award at the pre-race driver’s meeting, finished tenth; it was his first top-ten finish in the ARCA Menards Series since he finished ninth at Berlin Raceway in 2023.
• Christian Rose led the ARCA Menards Series championship standings entering the General Tire 150, but he made hard contact with the turn 4 wall completing lap 74 and finished 21^st. Rose has finished in the top five in four of his last six ARCA Menards Series starts.
• William Sawalich set a track record in General Tire Pole Qualifying at 161.812 miles per hour and led 67 of the race’s first 108 laps. He and Zilisch made contact while racing for the lead after the second of the two scheduled race breaks and his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota made significant contact with the turn 4 wall, ending his day in 17^th position. It’s the first time in 10 career ARCA Menards Series East starts that Sawalich finished outside the top five.
• Alex Clubb made his 50^th career ARCA Menards Series start. He completed 96 laps before electrical issues sidelined him, leaving him 18^th at the finish.
• The next race for the ARCA Menards Series is the Tide 150 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, May 4. The race will be televised live on FS1 at 2 pm ET and will be broadcast on select affiliates of the MRN Radio network nationwide.

ARCA PR