Sammy Smith scored the ARCA Menards Series victory on Sunday afternoon at the Milwaukee Mile. Photo: ARCA Menards Series/Twitter
There was a point Sunday during Sunday’s ARCA Menards Series race at the Milwaukee Mile when Sammy Smith did not have the dominant car. Taylor Gray took the lead from Smith near the halfway point of the event and led through the second of two scheduled race breaks.
That time, though, was short-lived. Smith regained the lead on the ensuing restart and proceeded to leave no doubt he was the driver to beat Sunday afternoon on the historic, one-mile paved oval in West Allis, Wisconsin.
Smith picked up his third ARCA Menards Series national victory of the year when he took the checkered flag in the event, which also served as the penultimate race of the ARCA Menards Series East season. In that series, the victory marked Smith’s fourth in six races this year.
“I’m not sure what we did there that (first) stop, but it wasn’t very good,” Smith said of the first race break Sunday. “I was able to stay with (Gray), but I felt like we needed to get away from him to protect my lead, and the changes we made on the last stop were awesome.”
Smith, who started Sunday’s race on the pole, entered the day with a 27-point lead over Gray in the East Series championship standings. That edge will grow as the series enters its season-finale at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday, Sept. 15, for another combination race with the ARCA Menards Series.
Driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2022, Smith is the defending East Series champion. He has registered a top-five finish in all six East Series races this season.
Smith also has a top-five finish in nine of his 11 ARCA Menards Series starts in 2022.
Not including Brandon Jones, who won a combination race at Iowa Speedway in June, Gray remains the only driver not named Smith to win in the East Series this year. He has five top-five finishes in six East races.
“I feel like we just lost a lot of front grip there at the end,” Gray said of Sunday’s race at Milwaukee. “Second stage, I thought we had a really good car. And then we didn’t do enough for the track getting tighter at time went on. Just need to go back to the shop and keep working and keep getting better.”
Daniel Dye finished in third, with Rajah Caruth in fourth, and Nick Sanchez in fifth. That’s notable considering those three drivers are in a tight race for the 2022 ARCA Menards Series driver’s championship.
Sanchez entered the 15th race of the season with a 13-point edge over Dye in second and a 17-point lead over Caruth, his Rev Racing teammate, in third. That lead will shrink with Sanchez having finished behind both Dye and Caruth at Milwaukee.
Landon Pembelton, Jesse Love, Jake Finch, Greg Van Alst and Matthew Gould rounded out the top 10.
Sunday’s race nearly ran incident-free, as the only caution for an accident arrived on lap 3, when Alex Clubb cut a tire and hit the wall to bring out the first yellow flag of the afternoon.
The ARCA Menards Series returns to action Sunday, September 4 at Illinois’ DuQuoin State Fairgrounds dirt track.
ARCA Menards Series
Milwaukee Mile – West Allis, WI
Sprecher 150 – August 28, 2022
1. Sammy Smith
2. Taylor Gray
3. Daniel Dye
4. Rajah Caruth
5. Nick Sanchez
6. Landon Pembelton
7. Jesse Love
8. Jake Finch
9. Greg Van Alst
10. Matthew Gould
11. Leland Honeyman
12. Toni Breidinger
13. Ron Vandermeir, Jr.
14. Amber Balcean
15. Christian Rose
16. Mandy Chick
17. Tim Richmond
18. Amber Slagle
19. Bryce Haugeberg
20. Zachary Tinkle
21. Brad Smith
22. Eric Caudell
23. Mike Goudie
24. Stephanie Moyer
25. Rita Thomason
26. Tim Monroe
27. Nate Moeller
28. Alex Clubb
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