Nick Sanchez entered the weekend second in the standings, but with his third ARCA Menards Series win of the season Saturday (Aug. 6) in the Henry Ford Health 200 at Michigan International Speedway, the Rev Racing driver has seized the championship lead.
Sanchez didn’t have the fastest car, but a combination of strong restarts and inch-perfect defensive driving let the 21-year-old claim the fourth ARCA Menards Series win of his young career, all of which have come on speedways 1.5 miles or longer.
“It was all defense,” Sanchez told MAVTV from the frontstretch. “My team brought me a fast car, but it wasn’t the fastest one, so we had to capitalize on restarts like we always do … we did not have the speed to win this race, we took it away from them.”
Hear from the winner 🏁@Nicksanchez080 | @MAVTV pic.twitter.com/j66TrO0EAC
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) August 7, 2022
Corey Heim recovered from late-race contact with the wall to finish second in the No. 20 Venturini Motorsports entry, with Daniel Dye, Sammy Smith and Gus Dean rounding out the top five.
Rajah Caruth drops to second in the standings with a sixth-place run, while Bret Holmes, Cody Coughlin, Greg Van Alst and Morgan Baird completed the top 10, the only 10 cars to finish on the lead lap.
Heim started the race from pole and stretched out a commanding lead in the early laps. While series points leader Rajah Caruth and second-place Nick Sanchez started up front, championship contender Daniel Dye had to start from the rear after a flat tire in qualifying. He was joined at the back of the grid by Sammy Smith, who gave up a front-row starting spot with unapproved repairs.
A power move on the start saw Heim open up a commanding gap on the rest of the field, leaving Bret Holmes, Sanchez and Caruth battling for second.
Lap 25 saw the afternoon’s first caution. Manitoba, Canada’s Amber Balcaen hit hard on the entrance to turn 1 and scraped along the wall before coming to rest in turn 2.
The 30-year-old rookie was running in the top 10 at the time of the crash.
🟡 Caution 🟡@amberbalcaen10 gets into the wall to bring out the first yellow at @MISpeedway @MAVTV | @FloRacing pic.twitter.com/BrF1joy6VO
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) August 6, 2022
Heim’s crushing performance in the opening stint proved all for naught, as the No. 20 crew struggled to take off the right front tire under the first race break. The slow stop, under ARCA’s modified…
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