For the first time since 2008, Tyler Reif has given Central Coast Racing a win in the ARCA Menards Series West, scoring the victory July 27 at Shasta Speedway.
It’s Reif’s first win of the 2024 season and second of his career. He did so by leading all 150 laps at Shasta.
It was the team’s first win since team owner Todd Souza found victory lane at Utah Motorsports Park in 2008, when Reif was only 1 year old.
The win gave Reif the West points lead.
“We worked with a bunch of different lines and it paid off tonight,” Reif told FloRacing. “I think everything went our way tonight, and that’s what we’ve been needing,”
Sean Hingorani ended up in second, doing so after spending a majority of the race on Reif’s bumper but losing touch in lapped traffic throughout the latter portions of the race.
Trevor Huddleston finished third, with Derek Copeland crossing the line in fourth and Kyle Keller finishing fifth.
Jack Wood, Souza, Nick Joanides, Takuma Koga and David Smith rounded out the top 10.
Only 10 of the 13 cars entered in the event finished the race.
On the initial start of the race, Reif pulled out infront of Hingorani by turn 1, and had sole possession of the lead by the time the field reached the backstretch. Hingorani quickly lost second to Wood in the process as well. Hingorani got around Wood a few laps later but still trailed Reif by a good distance. For Wood, it continued to be a freefall, as Huddleston got around him a handful of laps later.
By lap 35, Hingorani had closed into Reif’s bumper but pulled away from the driver of the No. 5 when the pair worked through lapped traffic. By lap 57, Hingorani closed in once again. However, like the last time, lapped traffic stopped the effort, and Reif pulled away once again.
One of those lapped cars was Reif’s CCR teammate and team owner, Souza. Souza held up Hingorani for a few laps around the halfway mark of the event, allowing Reif to pull away further.
Deeper in the field, Wood continued his freefall from his front-row starting position, allowing Keller to pass him for fifth, dropping the Bill McAnally Racing driver to sixth.
Lapped traffic continued to show costly for Reif, as he found himself caught by Keller and Wood battling for fifth around lap 100, once again allowing Hingorani to close in to his rear bumper. Like previous times, however, Reif was able to escape his grasps and pull away.
It was the last…
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