The 38th season of the ARCA Menards East Series will begin on Saturday, March 23 at Five Flags Speedway. The 0.5-mile short track, famous for hosting the Snowball Derby in December, will host the East field for the seventh time.
The 18 drivers entered for the 150-lap race are the most entered at Five Flags since the 2020 edition. Of those 18, one driver stands out for his short track prowess.
Yep, Bubba Pollard will pilot the No. 1 Chevrolet for longtime team owner James Finch. Short track fans know Pollard for his successes, which most recently included his victory in the 2024 Rattler 250 at South Alabama Speedway. The Pensacola 150 will be Pollard’s East series debut; he already has five starts in the ARCA Menards Series.
Pollard has won at numerous racetracks; can he win the East race?
“Yes, I promise you he’ll be a contender in all three of them,” Five Flags track co-owner and general manager Tim Bryant told Frontstretch.
While Pollard has never won the Derby, coming oh-so-close in 2023, he’s still been successful at the track. He is a multi-time Blizzard Series champion, a super late model four-race series leading into the Snowball Derby. He has won over 30 races at Five Flags too.
Bryant wouldn’t name Pollard the favorite to win the East race though. Instead, Bryant said two others are the top two to be reckoned with on Saturday night.
“Gio Ruggiero, certainly, is a contender no matter what he drives,” Bryant said. “And of course, he’s going to be in a Venturini Motorsports car here so we know he’ll be a contender. But I fully believe the favorite for the ARCA race is William Sawalich. He is coming off an ARCA win at Phoenix Raceway and he’s driving a Joe Gibbs Racing entry, so he’s going to be the guy with a target on his back.”
Sawalich is the defending East winner at Five Flags, his first victory en route to the 2023 series championship. He outdueled Ruggiero at Phoenix too; they finished 1-2, respectively. Ruggiero also finished third in the 2023 Snowball Derby.
Ruggiero will challenge Sawalich for the 2024 East crown, and Ruggiero has been successful in late models too. Among his achievements is the victory in the 2023 Winchester 400, another historic short track race.
Ruggiero is piloting the No. 20 for VMS, the entry that finished third in the ’23 Five Flags East event. Who drove it that day? The son of Pollard’s team owner, Jake Finch, who will drive the No. 55 VMS…
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