ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Domination. That was the key word during Saturday afternoon’s Rockingham ARCA 125 at Rockingham Speedway.
Brent Crews started on the pole and led the majority of the contest aboard his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to score his first ARCA Menards Series East triumph.
“We had an amazing race car all day,” said Crews. “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 at the .94-mile track, the first race for the East Series at Rockingham since 2012.
Crews 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 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 at Phoenix Raceway in March.
Sawalich 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.
The finish:
Brent Crews, William Sawalich, Eloy Falcon, Patrick Staropoli, Andy Jankowiak, Isaac Kitzmiller, Kole Raz, Lanie Buice, Lavar Scott, Spencer Gallagher, Zachary Tinkle, Austin Green, Austin Vaughn, Tim Monroe, Takuma Koga, Blaine Donahue, Tyler Reif, Andrew Patterson, Tim Goulet, Timmy Hill, A.J. Moyer, Caleb Costner, Nate Moeller, Brad Smith, Corey Aiken, Jake Finch, London McKenzie.
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