William Sawalich led every single lap and survived a late overtime restart to win the ARCA Menards Series race at the Illinois State Fairgrounds for his sixth win of the season.
Sawalich won the pole and had his sixth win of the season in sight before the caution came out for Sean Corr with Sawalich one turn away from victory. He was able to survive the one-lap shootout and took the checkered flag for his third consecutive win.
“We knew what we had last year, and I feel like we had good speed,” Sawalich told FOX Sports. “I just had to be a little bit more comfortable with the dirt, it’s not really my thing.”
Isabella Robusto and Taylor Reimer finished second and third, marking the first time in ARCA history two female drivers finished inside of the top five. Finishing in fourth was Kelly Kovski, while Lavar Scott fell to fifth after restarting second on the final lap.
The remainder of the top 10 finishers saw Toni Breidinger finish sixth, Kris Wright seventh, Amber Balcaen eighth, Christian Rose ninth and Tim Monroe 10th.
As the green flag dropped for the initial start of the race, Sawalich found himself ahead by a few car lengths by the time the field entered turn one. Just as it appeared like Sawalich was going to settle in and pull away from the field, an early caution came out for Brian Clubb, who stalled on the backstretch on lap three.
When the race restarted again, Kovski was able to get a better restart, keeping pace with Sawalich into turn one, before Kovski got a lane too high into turn two. Sawalich was able to pull away, retaining sole possession of the lead once again. Ten laps later, Sawalich was still roughly a second out in front, but it was over Wright, who had gotten around Kovski for second place. However, as the run went on, Wright would begin to reel in Sawalich, but a caution for debris on lap 26 would rack the field up again for a restart.
Under the second caution period, points leader Andres Perez went to the garage with an overheating issue and a hole in the radiator. The damage would end the chances for the Rev Racing driver, who now had to focus on minimizing the points damage in the championship battle.
Sawalich would again pull out to a quick lead after the restart, but Wright was able to keep the gap narrow. Robusto showed strength immediately after this restart as well, gaining two positions up to third in the first two laps after the green flag.
Just as the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …