Dover Motor Speedway held its first combination race featuring the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East and it sure was eventful.
About one-third of the race was contested under caution [52 of the 150 laps] and it featured eight cautions, the most for an East event there since 2012.
When the checkered flag flew, Connor Zilisch parked his No. 28 Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet in victory lane, his first ARCA series victory. For Pinnacle, it is its third East win and second main series win.
Eight of the top 10 in the national division points changed positions.
How did The Monster Mile affect the Frontstretch power rankings?
1. Andres Perez de Lara
On the strength of a series-high three top 10s, Andres Perez de Lara became the new points leader. Among series regulars, he has the best average finish, 8.3, and his worst finish was a 12th-place DNF at Daytona International Speedway.
Perez de Lara made his 25th career ARCA start at Dover.
Overall, he has 11 top fives, 19 top 10s and only one finish outside the top 20 – 40th in the 2023 Daytona race. He was underage for that event so he only drove one lap during practice.
Perez de Lara’s runner-up points finish in 2023 and his lead in 2024 are due to his ability to finish races. He only has four DNFs in his 25 starts. Two at Daytona, an engine failure at Michigan International Speedway – where he led the most laps in that race – and a crash in the second race at Kansas Speedway last year.
Perez de Lara has proven he is a clean racer, and his lead lap fifth-place showing at Dover is the type of consistent run that will keep him in the championship fight, if not winning it overall.
2. Greg Van Alst
Greg Van Alst had an up-and-down day at “The Monster Mile.” He was 15th in both practice and qualifying and he ground his way throughout the race. He fell one lap down three times, only to receive the lucky dog on three subsequent cautions to return to the lead lap. He finished as the last driver on the lead lap in eighth place.
His methodical approach kept him both second in points and one lap behind the leader.
“We started off the weekend in the Holzerman General Contracting Ford terrible,” Van Alst told Rubbins’ Racing News post-race. “We unloaded bad and just kept working on it all day long. There at the end, I felt like we finally had something to race with. And I think we had a right-front inner liner or equalizer or something…
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