Kansas Speedway is the only track that will host the ARCA Menards Series twice this season as 20 drivers will compete in the Dutch Boy 150 on Saturday (May 14).
The Dutch Boy 150 will be an early test for ARCA’s top championship contenders who should enter this race evenly matched. All sans Amber Balcaen have experience at this 1.5-mile track and feel strongly they can win. Factor in Corey Heim, who captured the 2020 season finale there, and this 100-lap race should be the antithesis of last year’s iteration when Ty Gibbs led every lap en route to victory.
Among those expected to contend? The top-two drivers in the ARCA standings, Rev Racing teammates Rajah Caruth and Nick Sanchez. Caruth leads Sanchez by four points in the battle for the season championship.
Caruth has competed at Kansas before, finishing ninth, one lap down, in the 2021 ARCA season finale.
“For Kansas, it is hard to base it on last year’s finishing result just cause so many things are out of my control,” Caruth told Frontstretch. “As long as I do what I am supposed to do on the racetrack, and do my preparation, then everything should go well in the race. I do not expect anything worse than a top three.”
Matt Bucher serves as both Rev’s competition director as well as Sanchez’s crew chief. Bucher echoed Caruth’s expectations.
“It is our first 1.5-mile track of the year and that kind of sets the tone for the bigger, more higher-profile races,” Bucher told Frontstretch. “Nick raced there twice last year, and Rajah raced there at the end of the year.
“We knew Rajah was going to step up to run full-time with us this year, so we brought him along to Kansas last year. I do not think his finishing performance, as far as the number, was indicative of where he ran. I felt like he was a top-five car there last year as well. We are excited to get going; the two plate races are wild cards so to get them out of the way so we can go race at places where we have a little bit…
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