For the first time in his ARCA Menards Series career, Tanner Gray is victorious, taking the checkered flag at Charlotte Motor Speedway after holding off a handful of drivers on fresher tires during the last green flag run of the race.
Gray stayed out with 10 laps to go, and maintained the lead over Carson Kvapil, who led most of the race, giving him a victory just three weeks after leading the most laps and finishing second at Kansas Speedway.
“Obviously, we fought a lot of adversity there with cutting a tire early, and having to come back from a lap down,” Gray told FOX Sports. “I thought we executed the second part of the race really well, and were able to get a good restart the last 10 laps, and kind of defend.”
Kvapil would ultimately wind up in second place after leading most of the event. Andres Perez de Lara, who remained in the top 10 for most of the race after starting on the pole, finished third.
“We had a pretty good car all race long,” Kvapil told FOX Sports. “We led quite a bit of it there, and showed good speed, just didn’t have clean air, and just a little too tight at the end there,”
To round out the top five, Will Kimmel came across the line in fourth, and Lavar Scott earned his second top five of the season, finishing fifth.
Gus Dean scored his third top 10 in three races this season, finishing sixth. Two drivers who are pulling double duty this weekend, Dean Thompson and Lawless Alan, finished seventh and eighth respectively. Jason Kitzmiller stayed out on older tires with 10 laps to go, finishing ninth. Sebastian Arias, in his second ARCA national division race, wound up in 10th.
When the green flag waved at the start of the race, the inside line got the early jump, with Perez having an undisputed lead by turn 1, with the third place starter, Gray, lined up right behind him in second. The leaders quickly found themselves single file by lap 3, but a quick caution for a Jayson Alexander spin in turn 2 bunched the field back up.
The green flag flew once again on lap 7, and both lanes got off to an equal jump, unlike the initial start. Gray and Perez remained side by side for the first two laps of the restart, but by lap 10, Gray pulled out to the lead, with Perez falling into line behind him in second. By lap 21, Gray’s lead was well over a second over Perez, but the caution flew once again for Alexander, who again went for a spin, this time in turn 4.
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