Who would have thought the 0.555-mile high-banked short track Salem Speedway would be the site of yearly domination? For the third straight year, the winner led every single lap. This year, it was William Sawalich who lapped up to third place in the field.
Sawalich’s fourth career victory sets him as the series leader in victories and it shook up the Frontstretch power rankings. As for the actual point standings, Andres Perez maintained his points lead, now ahead of his teammate Lavar Scott who leapfrogged Greg Van Alst for the runner-up spot in points. Van Alst, Kris Wright and Christian Rose round out the top five in points.
Sawalich’s absolute dominance aside, all other finishing positions, sans last place, featured changes from the starting lineup. As such, here are those power rankings.
1. William Sawalich
Sawalich was perfect at Salem. He was the fastest in the practice session, won the pole, led every lap, won the race and earned the maximum number of points in a race, 49. He also extended Joe Gibbs Racing’s lead in the owner point standings to an unofficial mark of 29.
Furthermore, Sawalich has now contested 20 races in the national ARCA tour, which is the amount of a full season. His stats? Eight wins, 17 top fives, 18 top 10s, 11 pole awards and 1,203 laps led.
That’s impressive, but he drives for the top team in the garage, JGR.
So let’s compare Sawalich’s stats to Jesse Love’s 2023 championship run. Love amassed 10 wins, 17 top fives, 18 top 10s, seven poles and 1,477 laps led.
Love comes out on top in that comparison but head-to-head it’s much closer. Sawalich bested Love seven times and Love came out ahead six times. Love won five times whereas Sawalich went to victory lane four times. Their average finishing positions are razor-close too. Sawalich’s is 3.6 and Love’s is 3.8.
What’s my point then?
Sawalich was not just dominant at Salem; he’s been phenomenal every time he’s driven his No. 18 Toyota. With his eighth career win, he climbs to the top in these rankings.
2. Andres Perez
Perez’s season reminds me of Daniel Dye’s 2022 season. In 11 races, Perez has five top fives, 10 top 10s and an average finishing position of 5.8. In the 20-race ’22 season, Dye had 13 top fives, 17 top 10s and an average finishing position of 6.4.
The difference between Dye’s season and this one was that in ’22 Nick Sanchez, Sammy Smith and Taylor Gray all both won and…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …