Brent Crews rules ARCA East Series race at Rockingham
Photo by ARCA Racing photo
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — There was never a question who had the fastest car Saturday afternoon during the ARCA Menards Series East’s return to Rockingham Speedway.
That honor belonged to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brent Crews, who started from the General Tire Pole and dominated the Rockingham ARCA 125 to score his first East Series win and fourth overall on the ARCA platform.
“We had an amazing race car all day,” said Crews, who led nearly all of the 125 laps run Saturday at the historic 0.94-mile oval. “I felt like it was really, really dominant and that made my job really easy.”
Crews had the best car throughout Saturday’s East Series event, the first race for the East Series at Rockingham since 2012, but the race was not without its challenges.
The Davidson, North Carolina native had to overcome multiple restarts and subsequent challenges from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, William Sawalich.
Shortly after a mid-race restart, it appeared Sawalich would clear Crews to take the race lead on the top, but Crews held steady on the bottom and cleared his teammate to retain the race lead.
When the final restart came on Lap 111, Crews powered past Sawalich to remain at the front of the field, just like he had done several times before. With no more cautions to stop him, Crews drove to victory with a comfortable 6.142-second advantage.
“Clean air was huge,” said Crews. “I was fortunate enough that I had a really, really good race car. Even when (Sawalich) was packing air on my right-rear, I felt like I had really good stability all race, which was a big thing.
“We debated going to the top a couple times but the shortest way around was the way to go today. (Sawalich) did a really good job on the restarts and pressured me a lot. Thankfully, even when I made a mistake I felt like my car was so good it would kind of pull me out of the hole when I made an error.”
The win for Crews makes him two-for-two in ARCA platform starts this season. He also won the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series West combination event held on March 7 at Phoenix Raceway.
Sawalich, who was also competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race later Saturday afternoon at Rockingham, was not sure what else he needed to compete with Crews.
“He definitely did a good job, especially on the long run, so props to him,” Sawalich said. “Glad JGR could pick up a one-two finish. We had a good Starkey Toyota Camry. Not sure what we needed, I haven’t been in an ARCA car in a little bit. I’m just super focused on the Xfinity race. I got 125 laps of practice and I can’t wait. I think we’re going to have a lot of speed there.”
Mexico’s Eloy Falcon, making his ARCA platform debut via a partnership between Rev Racing and Fast Track Racing, finished third. Patrick Staropoli and Andy Jankowiak completed the top five.
Isaac Kitzmiller, Kole Raz, Lanie Buice, Lavar Scott and Spencer Gallagher finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
The ARCA Menards Series East takes the next few weeks off before returning to action on May 3 with the running of the Music City 150 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. FloRacing will have complete coverage of the event starting at 8:30 p.m. CT / 9:30 p.m. ET.
The next race for the ARCA platform takes place next Saturday, April 26 at Talladega Superspeedway. Fans can watch the ARCA Menards Series General Tire 200 live on FS1 at 12:30 p.m. ET.
RACE RESULTS
Pos. Car No. Name Sponsor Laps Diff.
1 81 Brent Crews * Mobil 1 Toyota 125 —
2 18 William Sawalich Starkey Toyota 125 6.142
3 10 Eloy Falcon * Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet 125 9.653
4 25 Patrick Staropoli Syfovre Toyota 125 10.903
5 73 Andy Jankowiak KLAS Motorsports Toyota 125 11.406
6 79 Isaac Kitzmiller * A.L.L. Construction/Carter Cat Chevrolet 125 11.531
7 76 Kole Raz * Cyclum Nextgen Travel Centers Ford 125 13.14
8 2 Lanie Buice * Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet 125 14.299
9 6 Lavar Scott Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet 123 2 Laps
10 24 Spencer Gallagher Allegiant/Sigma Performance Svcs Chevrolet 123 2 Laps
11 11 Zachary Tinkle Scouting America/Fast Track Racing Toyota 121 4 Laps
12 28 Austin Green * Overplay Games Chevrolet 119 6 Laps
13 34 Austin Vaughn * Safford Trading Company Ford 116 9 Laps
14 1 Tim Monroe Creed & Garner Roofing/Pearsons Truck Svc Ford 116 9 Laps
15 12 Takuma Koga Macnica Yit Ikedo/CKB/Fast Track Racing Toyota 114 11 Laps
16 9 Blaine Donahue * Putting Dragon/Lazarus Ent/Dyer Marina Toyota 113 12 Laps
17 23 Tyler Reif SPS/Vegas Fastener Manufacturing Chevrolet 75 50 Laps
18 40 Andrew Patterson * Winsupply Chevrolet 70 55 Laps
19 31 Tim Goulet * Rise Motorsports Toyota 44 81 Laps
20 56 Timmy Hill Hill Motorsports Toyota 43 82 Laps
21 86 A.J. Moyer River’s Edge Cottages & RV Park/Ampere EV Ford 38 87 Laps
22 39 Caleb Costner Performance Cleaners Toyota 21 104 Laps
23 6 Nate Moeller Peterson Motorsports Toyota 18 107 Laps
24 48 Brad Smith Gary’s Speed Shop Ford 16 109 Laps
25 0 Corey Aiken * Vaugh Wilcox & Vaughn Racing Toyota 7 118 Laps
26 20 Jake Finch Phoenix Toyota 2 123 Laps
27 93 London McKenzie * McKenzie Real Estate Ford 0
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