ARCA Menards Series at Kansas Speedway: Reese’s 150 Post-race Notes

Kansas Speedway
  • Tanner Gray (No. 18 A Place of Hope Toyota) earned his second ARCA Menards Series victory of the year in Friday night’s Reese’s 150 at Kansas Speedway. Gray started fifth but drove to the lead by lap 10, a lead he only gave up for three laps under caution at lap 94 when Amber Balcaen (No. 22 ICON Toyota) chose not to pit for tires. Gray also won at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
  • The win was Joe Gibbs Racing’s tenth ARCA Menards Series victory of the season, matching the total of the No. 20 Venturini Motorsports entry in 2023 with one race remaining. The No. 18 team  also won ten times in 2021 with Ty Gibbs at the wheel.
  • Connor Zilisch (No. 28 Silver Hare Development / Chevrolet Performance Chevrolet) finished second, his eighth top-two finish in nine career ARCA Menards Series starts.
  • Despite damage to the nose of his car that hampered its aerodynamics in traffic, Lavar Scott (No. 6 Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet) finished third for the second consecutive week. Scott was able to cut 18 points off the lead his teammate Andres Perez (No. 2 Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet) holds in the ARCA Menards Series championship standings headed into the finale at Toledo Speedway on Saturday. Perez cut a tire after contact with another car and scraped the turn one wall, necessitating repairs to the right front suspension, relegating him to 21st at the finish.
  • Corey Day (No. 82 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet) finished a career-best fourth in a second entry fielded by Pinnacle Racing Group; it was his first career top-five finish.
  • Gio Ruggiero (No. 20 First Auto Group Toyota) finished fifth in his first start on an intermediate track. Previously, the biggest oval track he had raced at was Dover Motor Speedway and the Milwaukee Mile, both one mile in length.
  • Balcaen finished sixth, matching her career best set at Daytona International Speedway in 2023.
  • Andy Jankowiak (No. 73 Acacia Energy Toyota) was racing for fourth with Corey Day on the final lap when Day slid up the track, forcing Jankowiak into the outside wall. The contact forced Jankowiak out of the throttle, costing him several positions. He was scored in seventh, the final car to finish on the lead lap.
  • Lawless Alan (No. 33 AUTOParkIt Ford) finished eighth, his third top-ten finish in four starts in 2024.
  • Isaac Johnson (No. 34 Vector CAG / Endress + Hauser Ford) finished ninth, his second consecutive top-ten finish; he finished sixth in his most recent series start at Salem Speedway in July.
  • Jason Kitmiller (No. 97 A.L.L. Construction Chevrolet) rounded out the top ten despite grazing the wall and losing three laps while his Frank Kimmel-led team changed tires and made repairs. It was Kitzmiller’s fourth top-ten finish in five starts this season.
  • Isabella Robusto (No. 55 Mobil 1 Toyota) became the sixth female driver to earn a pole in ARCA Menards Series competition when she won the General Tire Pole Award on Friday. Unfortunately her good fortune was short lived; she made contact with Andres Perez just past the start/finish line at the completion of the first lap and made hard contact with the turn one wall, ending her day and relegating her to last in the 28-car starting field.
  • The next race for the ARCA Menards Series is the Owens Corning 200 Presented by CGS Imaging at Toledo Speedway onSaturday, October 5. The race will be broadcast live on FS2 and streamed live on FloRacing starting at 4 pm ET.

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