Tyler Ankrum celebrates in victory lane after winning Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Photo: ARCA Menards Series
On a restart with 18 laps to go in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, race-leader Tyler Ankrum got shoved off the track in turn 1, dropping him out of the top 10.
Just 13 circuits later, with five laps to go, Ankrum made the race-winning pass on fellow NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Dean Thompson. Ankrum went on to score the victory.
“I knew I had a great car. We were really fast in practice and qualifying,” Ankrum said. “I just had to pull my head out of my rear end and keep it up front. … I don’t think that if my car wasn’t as good as it was I could have driven through the field like that.
“I don’t want to do that again. I would have much rather just led all those laps.”
Ankrum, is the 2018 champion of what’s now the ARCA Menards Series East. Friday’s victory marked his first ARCA Menards Series (national) win in just his second start.
“We were talking before the race about what we wanted to learn from this to take to the truck,” Ankrum said. “We’ve learned a lot. There are quite a few things we can take from this and add it to the truck.”
Thompson did not earn a top-five finish despite the speed he showed Friday at Mid-Ohio. That’s be cause he and fellow Venturini Motorsports driver Sean Hingorani tangled on the final lap, leaving Thompson with a 10th-place finish and Hingorani with a 13th-place run.
William Sawalich and Jack Wood finished second and third, respectively.
ARCA Menards Series championship points leader Jesse Love finished fourth, an impressive run given the issues he battled Friday. He started at the back of the field after failing to qualify with electrical issues.
“I don’t know what was going on (during the race),” Love said. “Whenever I’d get about two laps into a run, I’d just lose all my fuel pressure. It would just start sputtering and the fuel pressure gage would go way down.
“We were the best car on every corner of the race track. I thought we were the best car at the end today. It’s just, yeah, not sure what happened. Fuel pressure-wise, it went south.”
Dale Quarterley rounded out the top-five finishers.
ARCA Menards Series rookie Frankie Muniz finished sixth on Friday. The former TV star was making his return to the track where an accident in 2009 halted his racing career.
“The racing is so fun in this series,” Muniz said. “It’s so tight, but I learned so much. It’s so different than what I used to race. I had a blast and learned a lot for Watkins Glen.”
Todd Souza, Conner Jones, Zach Herrin and Thompson rounded out the top 10.
The ARCA Menards Series returns to action Saturday, July 15 at Iowa Speedway, a combination race with the East Series.
ARCA Menards Series
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course – Lexington, OH
Zinsser SmartCoat 150 – July 7, 2023
1. Tyler Ankrum
2. William Sawalich
3. Jack Wood
4. Jesse Love
5. Dale Quarterley
6. Frankie Muniz
7. Todd Souza
8. Conner Jones
9. Zach Herrin
10. Dean Thompson
11. Christian Rose
12. Jon Garrett
13. Sean Hingorani
14. Bob Schacht
15. Andres Perez de Lara
16. Tim Monroe
17. A.J. Moyer
18. Casey Carden
19. Tim Richmond
20. Zachary Tinkle
21. Brad Smith
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