Ty Dillon celebrates his win in the ARCA event at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis Thursday. Photo courtesy ARCA
Ryan Blaney was charging, but Ty Dillon had too much left in the tank. Dillon, a rookie and the points leader in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, held Blaney’s late rally at bay to take his sixth victory of 2011 in the Ansell Protective Gloves 200 and extend his impressive lead atop the series point standings.
Dillon led 71 laps, including the final 39 in a race extended to 203 laps, to earn his eighth victory in 15 career starts. The 19-year-old now leads Frank Kimmel by a commanding 360 points atop the series standings. Kimmel and Grant Enfinger passed Chris Buescher, who fell to fourth.
The race was the first for the ARCA Racing Series at Lucas Oil Raceway – the former Indianapolis Raceway Park – since Bob Schacht’s victory in 1985.
‘I’ve got to thank Ryan Blaney for racing me clean,” Dillon said. “He’s a heck of a wheelman and I can’t thank him enough. Two in a row. We’ve had fast cars everywhere we’ve unloaded. I’m so happy for Chevrolet, Hemelgarn Enterprises, and the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma. Everybody’s helped out. These guys are awesome. That last pit stop was great. We dialed it in and were just able to hold on there at the end.”
As has become custom in the series, Dillon started the day quickly. After finishing second to Blaney in practice, he won the Menards Pole Award presented by Ansell – his second consecutive and fifth of 2011. Dillon ran away from the green flag, building his lead over James Buescher to 1.675 seconds through four laps. Blaney passed Buescher for second on the fifth lap, and by the time they hit the start/finish line again, Dillon had extended his lead to 2.012 seconds. Dillon’s lead grew to 2.374 seconds by lap 10, when he lapped Benny Chastain to leave just 30 cars on the lead lap.
Seven laps later, Dillon approached Bobby Gerhart Racing teammates Bobby Gerhart and Brandon Kidd, who ran 25th and 26th. Dillon lapped them on lap 18, and moved his advantage past three seconds two laps later.
Blaney started to gain then, however, closing to within a second four laps later as Dillon encountered heavier traffic. By the time the top three reached lap 30 and only 20 cars remained on the lead lap, Blaney and Buescher had cleared most traffic and had Dillon clearly in their sights. Just behind them, Chad McCumbee and Casey Roderick drove fourth and fifth, respectively.
Chad Hackenbracht (58) and Grant Enfinger (36) race in a pack at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. Photo courtesy ARCA
Blaney moved close in turn 3 on Lap 31, and passed Dillon one lap later, leading the 32nd lap by 0.132 second. Buescher worked closely on Dillon on the backstretch of lap 34, and then passed for second the next lap. Chastain spun soon after that, bringing the field to caution.
McCumbee, Chad Hackenbracht, Tom Hessert, Enfinger, and Max Gresham were among the contenders that pitted before the green flag flew again on lap 41.
Blaney led the ensuing restart easily, eventually building a 1.403-second lead at lap 48. Buescher started to close as the run went on, but found himself hardly closer than a half-second as Blaney continued to roll. Chastain spun for the second time on lap 60, collecting Kenzie Ruston along the way. Buescher and Dillon both pitted on the caution, but Blaney did not. McCumbee, who had pitted earlier, followed Blaney in second, with Enfinger and Hessert behind him.
Blaney led from the lap 66 restart, but behind him, Buescher was gaining considerably. He bolted from seventh to fourth within a lap, just before Sean Corr suffered an expired engine that brought another caution. He then moved to third during the caution period, setting himself up for a run at Blaney. Blaney led at the lap 77 restart, and again at a lap 84 restart after a Roderick incident.
With Buescher now second, Dillon passed McCumbee for third. Buescher and Dillon both drove within two seconds of Blaney over the ensuing laps, and Dillon eventually closed his gap to the lead to less than a second.
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Ty Dillon (41) races Ryan Blaney (15). Photo courtesy ARCA
A caution period set up a lap 123 restart, and Dillon trailed Buescher by approximately a quarter-second. Buescher’s lead grew to 0.653 second at lap 130, when Gerhart spun in turn 4 and down the frontstretch to bring another caution. On the ensuing restart, Hackenbracht ran into George, lifting his back wheels off the track. Jared Marks slammed into George, and Joey Coulter spun nearby, bringing out a red flag that lasted nine minutes and 18 seconds.
The restart out of the red flag produced some of the night’s most exciting racing, as Dillon made a run on Buescher, and Blaney, who had improved to third, ran within a quarter-second of the lead. Blaney had a wheel inside Dillon on lap 145, but could not improve to second. A caution period brought a lap 154 restart, and Dakoda Armstrong led when Dillon and Buescher and the other leaders pitted.
Armstrong, racing in his home state and looking for his second victory of the year, led until lap 165, when Dillon moved by him in turn 3. Buescher and Blaney both followed, and again the top three was just as it had been at the start: Dillon-Buescher-Blaney.
Ty Dillon celebrates his win in Lucal Oil Raceway's victory lane. Photo courtesy ARCA
Dillon’s lead grew to 1.681 seconds by lap 182, when Blaney passed Buescher for second. Blaney appeared to have a clear shot at Dillon, but the points leader had too much left, as Blaney could get no closer than 0.614 second with five laps to go. A late caution flag flew for a turn 1 accident on lap 197, but Dillon drove away cleanly on the race’s final restart, winning the extended event by 0.676 second.
“It just came to me,” Dillon said of the restart. “I was waiting for it all day. We had an awesome car on the restart all day. We weren’t as good, I don’t believe, on the really long runs, but at the beginning of a run, we were on fire.”
Blaney’s second-place finish was an improvement on a sixth-place result in his ARCA debut at Winchester in June, and Buescher finished in the top five for the ninth time in 22 ARCA starts. Buescher’s race was only his first of the weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway, as he will participate in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series races at the track Friday and Saturday. He had not raced in ARCA since last April, at Talladega.
Armstrong finished fourth, and his former teammate Hessert finished fifth for Ken Schrader Racing.
Ryan Glenski, who was making his ARCA debut as the winner of Andy Hillenburg’s Fast Track Blue Collar Hero Driver Challenge, ended the race sixth. McCumbee, Josh Williams, Enfinger, and Hudson rounded out the top 10.
The race finished in one hour, 46 minutes, and 26 seconds, at an average speed of 78.504 mph. 10 caution flags slowed the race for 56 laps.
The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will visit Pocono Raceway for the second time this season on Saturday, August 6, as Tim George Jr. will aim to defend his June victory in the Pennsylvania ARCA 125. The 50-lap, 125-mile race – the 13th this year for the ARCA Racing Series – will air live on SPEED at 3 p.m.
Practice at the Long Pond, Pa. track begins at 1:40 p.m. Friday, August 5, and lasts for 80 minutes. Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell follows at 5:40. The race will be the 53rd on the 2.5-mile triangle since 1983. For more info, visit www.arcaracing.com.
