INTERVIEW: Cody Ware, Rick Ware Racing impress at the Coliseum

ALL PHOTOS: Brock Beard

Among the thirteen drivers who missed the field for Sunday’s 150-lap main event during the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, perhaps none turned more heads than Cody Ware and the Rick Ware Racing team. 

Debuting a sleek black variant of his familiar Nurtec ODT #51 as part of a new technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing, Ware ran as high as 6th in opening practice and outpaced his teammate, modified champion Ryan Preece, by nearly a full tenth of a second. An early draw of 5th in qualifying left him in the back of the field for Heat Race #3, where he muscled past Corey LaJoie and opened up a gap by the end of the 25-lap affair. This culminated in the First Last Chance Qualifier, where Ware was in a tight battle for the final transfer spot for most of the 50 laps. He was still within striking distance of 3rd-place A.J. Allmendinger when the checkered flag dropped, just short of transferring into the big show. 

After returning to the garage area, I caught up with Cody to talk about his weekend.

“It's just really overall been a dream coming true to start to see the early stages of the alliance with Ford and Stewart-Haas come to fruition,” he said. “Obviously, we had great pace in practice yesterday. So, from the beginning of the weekend, we've just been having a lot of fun reaping the benefits of this new alliance and this new car. And then we struggled in qualifying - we just were one of the first cars out, so it is what it is there. But to be able to come out in the heat races and then the Last Chance Qualifier and race with the best guys in the sport.”

“And coming up one spot shy was very bittersweet. I've never been so happy and torn up at the same time, just because it's a testament to our speed and how far we've come. But it's also - when you're right there within arm's reach of being in the big show. And being at the Clash. It was really, really heartbreaking. But I'm still very thankful for what we have. And it has me really, really excited going into the Daytona 500 and the rest of the season.”

Ware (center) racing Allmendinger for the last transfer spot.

While still a relative newcomer to the Cup Series – just 55 points-paying Cup starts since 2016 – Ware was able to tap into some experience on quarter-mile tracks. “I've probably run a dozen or so modified races at Bowman Gray, so I've got a little bit of quarter mile racing experience. Obviously, this still is a bit of a different animal compared to Bowman Gray, but driving a full-size car, your full-bodied car compared to an open wheel modified. But I think that definitely helped me to know how to keep my head cool when things get crazy and dicey, like they always do on a quarter mile.” 

Teammate Ryan Preece also proved invaluable. “Yeah, 100%. I mean, to have a modified champion - a top tier driver, and in every series, a race winner in XFINITY - to be teamed up with us, and here at the Clash was really helpful. Obviously, he's a fantastic driver, but also really good with the mechanics and the engineering side of the cars as well. So, to get his feedback and look over data with him and try to improve my craft as well - all in all, from every facet from the race team, to the drivers we're bringing on board, we're trying to elevate, and I think we've made that good first impression coming out here to Los Angeles.”

I asked if this weekend’s race changed his expectations for the upcoming 2022 season. “I don't know if this this is what we were expecting. I think that what it does do is it does give me a lot of confidence as a driver going into the next handful of races. Obviously, a little bit of uncertainty is kind of off the table. Now we know that we're getting a lot of good information from Stewart-Haas and from Ford. Obviously, with the engines as well, going to Daytona, you want to have good power. So, to have the Ford lease engine program behind us is going to be big. And we were down there with Stewart-Haas at the Daytona test just last month and so to be able to work off of that and know that we've got a really good car for the 500, I'm excited to see what we can get done in qualifying and heading into race day.”

FEATURE: Harrison Burton, Justin Haley, and Ryan Preece debrief after opening practice at the L.A. Coliseum

PHOTO: Brock Beard

Rarely in NASCAR history has so much changed in so short a time. In 1981, when rule changes narrowed the cars’ wheelbase to 110 inches, the season opener in Riverside still saw full-bodied Chevrolets and Oldsmobiles race against a smattering of smaller Pontiac Grand Prix and Ford Thunderbirds. In 2007, the rollout of the “Car of Tomorrow” involved just 16 of the 36 races. Even when the “Gen 6” made its debut in 2013 as a cosmetic upgrade to the “CoT,” the Busch Clash was still held at Daytona.

But walking casually past the parks and museums at the University of Southern California to see a NASCAR race has been a downright surreal experience. No amount of coverage could prepare me to see a fleet of 36 brand-new cars with unusually clean wheels and displaced door numbers, each lined up in a parking lot sectioned off with fencing. Cars that, hours later, would be lined up in parking spots of their own under shade trees. Only when the cars traveled leisurely through a winding tunnel to finally enter the tiny quarter-mile track – constructed in just 41 days – did anything feel even close to normal.  

Harrison Burton and his #21 Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford were the first to roll onto the track in Saturday’s two-hour practice session. “(It's) a new car for the teams to work on,” he said afterwards. “And, it makes it challenging - you have limited time to try and figure all that out. So we tried a lot of stuff, got better throughout practice. And I think we'll be all right here - we just were a little off, but we know what we got to do to be fast enough. So try and move on from there.”

Since Burton’s group of 12 cars was the first to hit the track on Saturday, most tip-toed around the track for the first few laps, clocking in laps of over 14 seconds. By the next group, sub 13-second laps were the norm, and by the fifth group, a 14-second lap ranked just 29th overall. With this increase, drivers had to figure out how to navigate traffic. Those like Burton, who ranked 32nd of the 36 drivers in practice, found there was little one could do to get out of the way.

“There's not much room to move,” said Burton. “In the race itself, you're never gonna let somebody go too often. And if you're in a transfer spot especially. But if you are going to let somebody go, you pull down maybe on the straightaway and let them go on the outside so you don't get a freight trained. That's the problem - once you go on the outside, you're committed to the outside. So you might see guys - maybe it's first and second or third and second - where the position doesn't mean a ton, where they'll pull down and let the guy go on the outside and then keep going. Because if you pull to the outside, someone's gonna fill the hole. So there's not a lot of room, you kind of got to be smart about how you do it. And that's what makes these guys good is they know when and where to do what. So it's a good challenge.”

Burton did improve significantly in qualifying. He took 10th overall, far ahead of fellow rookie challengers Austin Cindric (20th) and Todd Gilliland (29th).

Kaulig Racing had a good showing through the first hour of practice. While A.J. Allmendinger finished the session 28th in his #16 chevyliners.com Chevrolet, teammate Justin Haley claimed 4th in the #31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet. Near the end of his group’s first run, Haley turned the fastest overall lap at 13.674. “It's good,” Haley said simply. “These guys at Kaulig Racing have been working really hard. It was just a feat to get out here for us. So to be that fast with how late they were working each night is pretty cool.” When asked what his expectations were, he shook his head. “We have no expectations. The good part about it is Matt (Kaulig) and everyone at Kaulig (Racing), we don't know where we're at. We don't know if we're a first place team or 15th place team or whatever. So we're gonna go into it and see what it gives us.” Haley continued to show speed in qualifying, taking the provisional pole through the first round of 16 cars. He ultimately ranked 3rd, bested only by the late draws of Kyle Busch and Tyler Reddick.

A surprising development over the offseason was the hiring of Ryan Preece to a reserve driver contract with Stewart-Haas Racing, which has itself entered a technical alliance with Rick Ware Racing. The net effect of this put Preece into Ware’s #15 Jacob Companies Ford for Sunday’s Clash, where after his first run he joined Daniel Suarez as the only two drivers in the 13-second bracket. “I think they went relatively well,” said Preece. “And obviously, we're just going to continue working towards getting a little better. But as far as maneuverability and how this track is - it's awesome. I enjoyed it. And I think a lot of people are enjoying it. And just - it's a lot of fun. So. . .I think the audience and everybody watching on TV are gonna be pretty pleased.”

Preece also believed NASCAR’s new NextGen car handled closer to a modified than the "Gen 6" car, retired at the end of 2021. “Oh, absolutely,” he said. “I mean, it drives - I mean, yeah, they're 1000 pounds heavier. But these cars drive so much closer to a modified than any stock car, I mean, other than a super late model, but I mean, they drive very similar. . .In any racing, you do whatever your car is doing. So if your car needs you to diamond it, you're going to diamond it. If you need to arc it, you arc it. But I think there's gonna be multiple different ways to skin a cat here and go about doing it.”

The same tide that lifted Preece also helped Cody Ware, whose #51 Nurtec ODT Ford ranked as high as 6th overall. The team showed equal determination. After Ware’s car stalled, requiring a push to the infield, the #51 returned to the track and ran its best lap near the end of the session. Ware ranked 13th overall, two spots ahead of Preece. Both will have to make up ground in Sunday’s heat races, however, as Preece ranked 28th with Ware in 35th – next-to-last ahead of a trailing Ty Dillon.

PREVIEW: Busch Clash battle at the bullring doubles as NextGen debut for Chartered entries

PHOTO: Jacob Ullman, @jacobu

Sunday, February 6, 2022

CUP Exhibition Race

The Busch Light Clash at the L.A. Coliseum

2021 Last-Place Finisher: Martin Truex, Jr. (Daytona Road Course)

LASTCAR TRACKSIDE COVERAGE

To kick off the 2022 season, I will be following the last-place action trackside as NASCAR debuts their NextGen cars! Stay tuned to my Twitter feed at @LASTCARonBROCK all weekend.

ENTRY LIST

Only the 36 Chartered teams are entered to compete in the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, which for the first time made 40 spots available, just like a regular points race. After four heat races and two last-chance qualifiers, only 23 will compete in the 150-lap main event. This list focuses on the notable driver and team changes for the Chartered 36 of the 39 teams present last fall at Phoenix. Teams and drivers present at Phoenix, but not in this race, are also mentioned. As always, teams not mentioned have the same driver / team combinations from November.

NEW TEAM: #1-Trackhouse Racing

TEAM CLOSED: #1-Chip Ganassi Racing

TEAM CLOSED: #42-Chip Ganassi Racing

NEW TEAM: #45-23XI Racing

NEW CHARTER: #99-Trackhouse Racing

TEAM CLOSED: #00-StarCom Racing

Last November saw the closing of Chip Ganassi Racing, which has been in operation in the Cup Series since Ganassi invested in Felix Sabates’ two-car effort in the summer of 2000. The team’s two Charters have both gone to Trackhouse Racing, which had lost their leased Charter last year. By expanding to a two-car team (with Daniel Suarez remaining in the #99), Trackhouse has retained Ganassi’s #1 and hired Ross Chastain, who ran Ganassi’s #42 last year. Chastain takes the place of Kurt Busch, who will drive 23XI’s new second team, the #45, with returning sponsorship from Monster Energy. Busch’s Charter came from StarCom Racing (by way of Spire Motorsports), which closed down after NASCAR forced them to sell their Charter. StarCom’s three NextGen chasses have been purchased by Rick Ware Racing.

DRIVER CHANGE: #2-Team Penske

TEAM UPDATE / DRIVER CHANGE: #6-Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing

TEAM UPDATE: #17-Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing

After some surprising runs in his part-time Cup Series schedule last year, 2020 XFINITY Series Champion Austin Cindric will contend for Rookie of the Year in the high-powered #2 Ford fielded by Penske Racing. Cindric takes the place of Brad Keselowski, who had been running Cup cars for Penske since 2009, and the flagship #2 since 2011. Keselowski now embarks on his new venture as co-owner of the rebranded Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing. He will also drive in that team’s flagship #6, replacing Ryan Newman, who has not yet accepted a part-time opportunity with the team. Chris Buescher remains at RFK Racing in the same #17 entry.

TEAM UPDATE: #10-Stewart-Haas Racing

DRIVER CHANGE: #15-Rick Ware Racing

TEAM CLOSED: #37-JTG-Daugherty Racing

MISSING: #52-Rick Ware Racing

MISSING: #53-Rick Ware Racing

Aric Almirola announced he will retire from full-time Cup competition at the end of this season. One possible suitor could be Ryan Preece, who after JTG-Daugherty Racing closed their “Open” #37 entry, was brought on by SHR as a full-time alternate. As part of the deal, Preece will run two Cup races in SHR equipment. As a bonus, Preece will take the place of Garrett Smithley in Rick Ware Racing’s #15 for the Clash as RWR has entered into a technical alliance with SHR. Cody Ware remains in the RWR’s flagship #51 entry, beginning with the Clash, as the team restructures into a two-car effort. Neither RWR’s #52 nor #53 from last season are entered.

MISSING: #13-Motorsport Business Management

MISSING: #66-Motorsports Business Management

No Open teams are currently entered in the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, including Carl Long’s MBM team, which had two cars entered last November in Phoenix. The team does have its #66 on hand for the Daytona 500, where Timmy Hill will again drive. At least two other teams – the #62 of Beard Motorsports and the new #27 of Team Hezeberg – are expected to join the Daytona 500 entry list. More information on those teams will be part of the next Entry List Storylines article on Tuesday, February 15.

RETURNING: #16-Kaulig Racing

NEW TEAM: #31-Kaulig Racing

DRIVER CHANGE: #77-Spire Motorsports

The 2022 season sees Matthew Kaulig enter full-time Cup competition with not one, but two cars, and returns to Cup for the first time since last fall on the Charlotte "Roval." A.J. Allmendinger, who won his second career Cup race on the Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit, will this year share the #16 with Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric, the defending XFINITY Series Champion. Allmendinger will run the car in the Clash alongside Justin Haley, who has earned a full-time Cup ride in Kaulig’s second entry, the #31. This marks the first time the #31 has been fielded by a team other than Richard Childress Racing since 1995. Haley thus departs from Spire Motorsports’ #77 he ran last fall, leaving the seat open for a returning Landon Cassill at the Clash. Cassil's most recent Cup start of any kind came last fall at Talladega, where he ran 24th with Gaunt Brothers Racing.

DRIVER CHANGE: #21-Wood Brothers Racing

Also joining this year’s rookie class from the XFINITY Series is Harrison Burton, who takes over the #21 from Matt DiBenedetto, who this year will compete in the Truck Series for Rackley-W.A.R.

DRIVER CHANGE: #38-Front Row Motorsports

Still another rookie is Todd Gilliland, who follows grandfather Butch Gilliland and father David Gilliland into the Cup Series as driver of the #38 Ford. Todd will drive Front Row Motorsports’ second entry, taking the place of last year’s rookie contender Anthony Alfredo.

NEW TEAM: #42-Petty GMS Racing (former #94-GMS Racing)

TEAM MERGER: #43-Petty GMS Racing

Last year, Ty Dillon had signed with Maury Gallagher to bring GMS Racing into the Cup Series for the first time, campaigning the #94 Chevrolet. That plan changed after GMS purchased Richard Petty Motorsports, forming the new two-car team Petty GMS Racing. Ty will now run the #42, which has a long history in the Petty family as driven by Lee, Richard, and Kyle. Erik Jones remains in the team’s flagship #43, which welcomes new 26-race sponsorship from FOCUSFactor.

MISSING DRIVERS FROM PHOENIX 2021: Anthony Alfredo, Josh Bilicki, Matt DiBenedetto, Joey Gase, Timmy Hill, Quin Houff, Ryan Newman, Garrett Smithley, David Starr

LASTCAR STAT OF THE WEEK: The most popular comparison of this weekend’s venue has been to Bowman Gray Stadium, which hosted 29 Cup Series points races from 1958 through 1971. The most recent of these took place on August 6, 1971, just before NASCAR's schedule reduction kicked off the sport's "Modern Era." That day, Detroit-born Bill Shirey quit after turning just one of the 250 laps in his #74 1969 Plymouth. As it happens, Bill Seifert also parked his #45 1969 Ford on the same lap, but Shirey likely took the spot as his #74 was classified ten spots behind Seifert on the starting lineup. This was Shirey’s sixth of his eight career Cup Series last-place finishes. That day’s race saw 29 cars start the race – six more than will run Sunday’s main event, which is also 100 laps shorter.

OPINION: Haas F1 Team at a Crossroads Entering 2022

PHOTO: Beyond The Flag

by Ben Schneider

LASTCAR.info Guest Contributor

As America’s lone Formula 1 team prepares for their seventh season, how do we grade the underdog Haas F1 Team’s performance and accomplishments since their 2016 debut?

If I were writing this three years ago, in the months immediately preceding the 2019 season, it would likely be a resounding A. Haas came into the sport with immediate success as Romain Grosjean scored points on the team’s debut race in Australia with a P6 finish. Grosjean immediately followed this up by finishing 5th in Bahrain and would add three more points finishes by the end of the season, including a P10 in the team’s home United States Grand Prix. While teammate Esteban Gutiérrez failed to score a point in 2016, Grosjean’s 29 total points were enough to give Haas an eighth-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship.

Haas followed this up with another P8 Constructors’ finish in 2017, as Grosjean and new driver Kevin Magnussen combined for 47 points throughout the season. Haas truly broke through in 2018, improving to fifth in the Constructors’, highlighted by both Grosjean and Magnussen finishing inside the top-five in Austria. For a brand new team to jump straight into the midfield and even flirt with the podium within their first three years is unheard of in modern Formula 1, and speaks volumes about the team’s desire to come into the sport and be competitive.

However, I am writing this in the present day, in the months immediately preceding the 2022 season. As such, it’s hard to justify that grade being anything better than an F. Recent bias aside, the lifetime grade would likely average out somewhere in the C or D range, but it’s hard to fathom just how far Haas has fallen in only three years.

The 2019 season began with high hopes as Haas signed Rich Energy as the team’s title sponsor. They even went so far as to contend that they could fight Red Bull “on and off the track.”

This did not happen. In fact, neither Haas nor Rich Energy came particularly close. Rich Energy became an entrenched source of controversy regarding brand legitimacy, copyright infringement, and their contentious CEO William Storey. By July, the brand’s Twitter account appeared to signal a termination of their contract with Haas, and while these reports were initially denied by Rich Energy shareholders, Haas announced the end of their partnership in September before the Italian Grand Prix.

Haas, on the other hand, also took a massive step backwards. To be fair, the Rich Energy saga certainly could not have helped matters, but the team scored only 28 total points as they fell all the way to P9 in the Constructors’, beating only a Williams team that missed the beginning of preseason testing. They also only managed a single point with one of the worst cars in the Grove-based team’s history.

In 2020, Haas managed only three points on their way to another P9 Constructors’ finish. Both Grosjean and Magnussen departed following the season, and in 2021, Haas was faced with an all-rookie lineup of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. Both drivers struggled to adapt to a car that Haas elected not to upgrade throughout the season, while Mazepin in particular underperformed compared to Schumacher and found himself in off-track controversy before the season even began. For the first time, the team failed to score a single point throughout the entire 22-race season.

In theory, Haas’ decision to stop development of their 2021 car should increase their resources and strengthen their 2022 challenger. And with the biggest regulation changes since the introduction of the V6 Turbo Hybrid engines on the horizon, many believe 2022 could be an opportunity for the small teams to close the gap to the likes of Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren.

In the case of Haas in particular, this season may very well be make or break for the American team. Gene Haas has said on multiple occasions that it makes little sense to remain in Formula 1 long-term if there is no clear path towards competing at the front of the field. After three disappointing seasons in a row, how much longer will he be willing to invest millions of dollars into his team?

Only time will tell.

ARCA MIDWEST: Braison Bennett exits early in Dixieland 250

PHOTO: Ricky Bassman via Facebook

by William Soquet

LASTCAR.info Staff Writer

Braison Bennett picked up the second last-place finish of his ARCA Midwest Series career in Tuesday’s Gandrud Auto Group Dixieland 250 at Wisconsin International Raceway when his #9 PMF Landscape Supply / Bennett’s Auto, Inc. Toyota retired from the race after completing 25 of the race’s 250 laps.

The finish was Bennett’s first since the May 29 race at Jefferson, three races prior.

Braison Bennett is the third generation of an illustrious family of Wisconsin racing drivers. His grandfather, Bob Bennett, was a pioneer in the Northeast Wisconsin circle track racing scene in the mid-1900s. Braison’s father Lowell is an incredibly accomplished super late model racer who won the Slinger Nationals five times and made seven Busch Series starts in the early 2000s. 

Braison cut his teeth in the local pavement ranks at Wisconsin International, following the tire tracks of his father and grandfather, but also spent some time in the local IMCA dirt scene. However, after some years, Bennett decided to fully turn his attention to pavement racing, running in both the late model and super late model divisions at WIR. Until 2021, all of Bennett’s racing had been done with himself at the helm with his trademark #9 machines. However, at the end of 2020, local team Chase Motorsports parted ways with Casey Johnson, who won the ARCA Midwest Tour title in 2019 and 2020. For local shows, Chase turned to Braison Bennett; the team’s traveling endeavors were mostly put on hold for 2021.

The Dixieland race has a decades-long penchant for drawing big names; currently, it bills itself as “Wisconsin’s richest one-day race”. The guest list this year included NASCAR Cup competitors William Byron and Aric Almirola (who said that it was his first super late model race in a decade), ARCA Menards Series East champion Sammy Smith, late model barnstormer Casey Roderick, NASCAR Truck Series driver Derek Kraus and Toyota development driver Jesse Love. Bubba Pollard, after using a promoter’s provisional to make the show last year, did not make the trip up to make another attempt.

Ty Majeski, the former Roush-Fenway Racing development driver who grew up about a half hour from WIR in Seymour, Wisconsin, paced the qualifying session with a lap of 18.7 seconds. The top 16 qualified in on time trials with WIR local Jesse Oudenhoven the last of those. Bennett clocked in 32nd, and anchoring the charts in 34th was Andrew Brockers, a Midwest Tour regular who ran a lap of 20.2 seconds. Brockers consistently lacked pace in the last chance qualifier, and eventually retired early from the race, the only entry to do so. Travis Sauter, brother of NASCAR Truck Series driver Johnny Sauter, won the last chance race. Bennett finished 15th in a race that took ten cars to the feature, but secured a provisional due to his high point standing within WIR’s weekly racing.

The other local provisional (the Midwest Tour granted two for this event) was granted to Sawyer Effertz, who secured the 30th and last starting spot on the grid. The last-place battle, however, cycled through several different drivers in the early goings. On Lap 6, local driver Bobby Kendall assumed control of the last position, followed by Levon Van Der Geest, Bennett and Dillon Hammond in the next few laps. Hammond qualified in on time and avoided the last chance race, but struggled with handling during the feature event, eventually finishing eight laps down in 16th position. The #75 machine was lapped on Lap 19 and was the last-place runner until Lap 26. At that point, Bennett’s #9B machine made a quiet exit on to the pit lane. As his pit stall was on the backstretch, activity was hidden from the fans, and the car never made it back out on track. When non-crew members were allowed in the infield after the race, Bennett’s hauler was already on its way out of the track, the driver at the helm of the dually.

Next to retire was Jeff Holmgren Jr., who ran decently until the first competition caution on Lap 56, but did not return to the race after pitting. The WIR local was busy putting the car away after signing autographs and taking pictures after the race, but I did manage to catch a word with one of his crew members. “We have three cars and this one just doesn’t run right. Jeff has two checkered flags here in the past month, there’s no reason we should be lapped by lap 50,” the crew member told me. The team parked the entry; photos later showed that flames were emanating from the car for a fair amount of the opening section of the race.

The 2011 ARCA Midwest Tour champion Andrew Morrissey met a similar quiet end to his race. His #19 Toyota made it just past the competition caution before making an inauspicious exit on Lap 59. Things were a little more hectic for Carson Kvapil, the 27th-place finisher. The son of former NASCAR Cup racer Travis Kvapil skipped on the first day of his junior year in high school to run the Dixieland and showed off in time trials, clocking in eighth on the charts. The #35 machine was a solid contender until Lap 65, when the car slowed considerably in turns one and two. Kvapil pitted in an attempt to fix the issue, but made only a few more laps before permanently retiring from the race. “I was just driving it as hard as I could to keep up without burning the right rear off,” Kvapil told me after the race. “We broke the left-front hub, broke the A-frame. We had really good speed, just didn’t get to show it.”

A similar fate befell Love, who rounded out the Bottom Five. The ARCA Menards Series West champion was fastest in final practice and was sixth in time trials while driving for Chris Wimmer Development, headed by the namesake, the former Xfinity Series driver. Approaching Lap 90, Love’s car lost a good amount of pace and fell through the field, eventually spinning Aric Almirola on Lap 93 to draw a caution. The ensuing pit stop stretched into a retirement for the #21 car, which was later revealed to have also broken a hub. “About Lap 60, I felt a really bad vibration, felt like the power steering,” commented the driver. “Got progressively worse and worse and then after that caution got really really bad… I finally found a hole to get down to the pit road, and before I was going to make that cut, it broke the right-front hub. It landed on the splitter and went straight, and you can’t do anything at that point.”

Almirola emerged from the spin unscathed and finished the race in eleventh position on the lead lap.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
30) #9B-Braison Bennett / 25 laps / mechanical
29) #5H-Brett Holmgren Jr. / 56 laps / carburetor
28) #19M-Andrew Morrissey / 58 laps / unknown
27) #35K-Carson Kvapil / 69 laps / hub
26) #21L-Jesse Love Jr. / 95 laps / hub

2021 LASTCAR ARCA MIDWEST TOUR DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP