Tanner Gray finally took home a trophy. The pilot of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota captured the General Tire 150 victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday (May 24) evening for his first ARCA Menards Series triumph.
With Gray’s victory, there has not been a driver who has gone back-to-back in ARCA since 2023 champion Jesse Love won his fourth straight, at Watkins Glen International.
Moreover, Gray kept the series regulars out of the win column. Andres Perez de Lara still extended his points lead to 16. He and the top three maintained their points positions, Lavar Scott entered the top five (up to fourth), Kris Wright stayed in fifth and Christian Rose slipped two spots to sixth.
1. Andres Perez de Lara
Perez de Lara scored his second career pole, earning a valuable bonus point, led the opening eight laps and came home third.
“We want better but you’ve got to be happy overall with the day how it went,” he told media post-race. “We showed a lot of speed. Just on my end, I made a mistake on the restart going wheel spinning. At least we bounced back. Obviously, we got to keep it on the game. We showed a lot of speed, were there at the end just couldn’t quite get it again.
“We’re so close to that win, I know it’s going to come soon, but I just got to thank all my Rev [Racing] guys. They brought me a really fast car […] at the end of the day we were one of the fastest cars out there, we just failed to execute on those little things that is preventing us from the win. But we’re close to it, and yeah, just confident that we’re building momentum for the season, which is good.”
The part-time competitors in 2024 have been quicker than the full-timers. Of the 11 who’ve participated in every event, Perez de Lara has been the best, not just in terms of points. He is tied for the most top fives and outright has the most top 10s and most completed laps.
The completed laps statistic is most impressive. When others have suffered misfortune, Perez de Lara has consistently gained spots by keeping his No. 2 clean. If he continues to avoid misfortune, he will be hard to beat for the championship.
2. Carson Kvapil
Carson Kvapil led a race-high 61 laps and appeared set to head to victory lane until a caution fell on lap 86. Kvapil’s Pinnacle Racing Group team opted to pit him, thereby forfeiting the lead. He never regained it, coming…
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