Before the field had completed lap 1 at Toledo Speedway on Saturday, Oct. 5, Mexican-born driver Andres Perez had clinched the 2024 ARCA Menards Series Championship. The title is the second for Rev Racing and marks the first for a foreign-born racer in ARCA Menards Series history.
Despite spending most of the afternoon in second, late-race chaos saw him the checkered flag of the 200-lap event in sixth position behind polesitter William Sawalich, who earned his ninth victory of the season and 11th for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Gio Ruggiero led the race briefly but was forced to settle for his third-career ARCA runner-up result with Venturini Motorsports teammate Kris Wright behind him in third.
Brent Crews finished fourth, with Rookie of the Year Lavar Scott rounding out the top five. Despite some issues in the afternoon, Toni Breidinger held fast and crossed the line seventh with Cody Dennison earning his second-best career finish in eighth.
Willie Mullins and Christian Rose rounded out the top 10.
The first caution came at lap 21, after Amber Balcaen and Rose came together in turn 2. Rose attempted to use the bottom lane to overtake the Canadian racer but swept up the racing surface and into the No. 22 Toyota sending them both into a lazy spin.
Balcaen found trouble again on lap 60, but this time with Venturini Motorsports teammate Ruggiero while battling for third. The No. 20 collided with the back end of Balcaen’s Toyota, turning her around and in the way of Brad Smith and Breidinger.
It was a mostly calm set of green flag runs between the event’s two scheduled breaks on laps 75 and 125, however that ended when Tim Monroe went around with only 43 laps to go.
Michael Maples was the next to find an issue as the 60-year-old made contact with the outside wall and found himself stopped on the straightaway, forcing the event’s first red flag period.
First.
The following yellow flag set up one more restart with 19 laps to go for Sawalich and gave one more chance for the series’ champion Perez and Ruggiero to earn their first career race win.
That’s when it all hit the fan.
Perez, who restarted from third, moved both Sawlich and Ruggiero wide into turn 1, making the trio three wide for the lead. The three tried to continue their battle but resulted in Perez spinning around in front of the field sending a plethora of cars in multiple directions and Balcaen hard into the outside wall and ended…
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