The 1,000th checkered flag given out in ARCA Menards Series West history belongs to Sunrise Ford Racing’s Tanner Reif, who surprisingly powered past his teammate Jake Drew for the lead on a restart with 24 laps to go in the NAPA Auto Parts 150 at Evergreen Speedway.
This victory marks the 16-year-old’s second win in seven races this season, but the win marks more of a sigh of relief for a team that has experienced many unfortunate results in the last few months.
Reif was the initial polesitter but lost the lead to the young BMR driver Landen Lewis on the opening lap. Lewis showed promise early as he has on the short track scene most of the year but would eventually lose the lead to his teammate Cole Moore after 30 laps.
NEW LEADER: Cole Moore muscles his way past teammate @landenlewis99 to take the lead during the restart!@EVGSpeedway | @FloRacing pic.twitter.com/ouoqSEkOrg
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) August 21, 2022
After losing the lead, Lewis’ race continued to get worse, as his track position dropped almost in an instant. The young driver was just hanging on hoping for a caution, unfortunately the caution would fly for himself.
The debuting Sean Hingorani slid across the nose of the No. 16 and into the wall.
Contact with @landenlewis99 sends the debuting Sean Hingorani into the outside wall. @EVGSpeedway | @FloRacing pic.twitter.com/hYn5GjYaB7
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) August 21, 2022
As the 50 laps to go mark approached, it was only a matter of time before the driver on a three-race win streak — Drew — would make the pass for the top spot, and the driver of the No. 6 car did just that on lap 96.
In any other race that would have been the pass for the win, but Reif somehow flipped the switch and turned on the JETS to get the lead on a restart with 24 laps to go.
This was a much-needed run for Reif after three-straight finishes outside the top five (which in the West Series is about the third of the field, so not ideal). With this victory it moves Reif into the second position in points behind Drew, who still maintains a healthy points lead with his runner-up finish.
POINTS – @ARCA_Racing West (After 7 of 11):
1. Jake Drew 361pts
2. Tanner Reif (-44)
3. Cole Moore (-46)
4. Todd Souza (-54)
5. Joey Iest (-74)
6. Takuma Koga (-88)
7. Bridget Burgess (-96)
8. PJ Pedroncelli (-106)
9. Austin Herzog (-131)
10. Paul Pedroncelli (-178)#ARCA— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) August 21, 2022
The rest of the finishing grid featured Joey Iest, who scored his best finish of the season in the third spot. Iest has had an abysmal season, only having two top 10 finishes before this strong run.
Moore and Todd Souza made up the rest of the top-five finishers, with Lewis, Kyle Keller, Trevor Huddleston, Takuma Koga, and Bridget Burgess rounding out the top-10 finishers in the event.
Here are the complete race results for the NAPA Auto Parts 150 at Evergreen:
Race Results: ARCA Menards Series West NAPA Auto Parts 150 at Evergreen
After the long stretch of no racing for the ARCA Menards Series West came to an end on Saturday night, the series does get another week off before heading back to Portland International Raceway on Saturday, September 3rd for more rights and lefts. Live coverage of that event will be streamable on FloRacing.com.
