The ARCA Menard’s Series’ doubleheader weekend saw two of the sport’s most promising up-and-coming prospects find victory lane at two very different disciplines of racing.
Connor Zilisch found victory lane in his fourth straight ARCA race at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway on Friday evening (Aug. 16). Two days later (Aug. 18), William Sawalich dominated his way to victory on the mile-long dirt track at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.
So how do Sawalich and Zilisch stack up in this week’s edition of the Frontstretch ARCA Power Rankings?
1. William Sawalich
Sawalich is coming off a dominant victory at Springfield, a race in which he led every lap, despite a late-race one-lap shootout restart after an incident on the scheduled white flag. Sawalich was able to hold off Lavar Scott on the restart, winning his sixth race of the season and third straight in races that he has entered.
Unlike a few of his competitors, Sawalich didn’t run both races this weekend. As he is yet to turn 18, he was ineligible to run at Michigan.
The season to date for Sawalich has been impressive, perhaps even better than his rookie year in 2023. Across all divisions of ARCA, Sawalich has found victory lane eight times. In his full rookie season last year, he won a total of seven times.
This season, outside of a crash at Dover Motor Speedway that resulted in a 17th place finish, Sawalich hasn’t finished worse than third. That’s good for eight podium finishes in nine races, an average finish of 3.1. Further, Sawalich has sat on the pole seven times this season and has only started outside of the front row once.
The remainder of Sawalich’s ARCA season is largely dependent on his age. He’s eligible for five of the six races remaining on the schedule, only excluding Kansas Speedway at the end of September. That race is roughly a week before Sawalich’s 18th birthday, meaning Tanner Gray will be in the Joe Gibbs Racing entry one last time this season instead. As for next week at the Milwaukee Mile, Sawalich led 141 of the 150 laps in last year’s race en route to victory lane.
2. Connor Zilisch
As impressive as Sawalich has been, Zilisch has matched him every step of the way. Zilisch went into Friday’s race at Michigan winning in each of his previous three ARCA starts this season. However, the race marked his first time running the series at a track larger than a mile in length. Zilisch…
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