Sean Hingorani Muscles His Way to ARCA West Win at Shasta Speedway

After a passionate battle for the win Saturday night in the ARCA Menards Series West Shasta 150, Sean Hingorani is back in victory lane in his first race back since being suspended from ARCA competition following an incident in the ARCA Menards Series event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

This marks Hingorani’s third victory of the 2023 ARCA Menards Series West season, and Hingorani celebrated the triumph by climbing the Shasta Speedway catchfence, and then went into the crowd, where he gave a lucky young fan the checkered flag.

“I had to give one of the little kids a flag right there,” Hingorani explained with a smile. “So pumped about this win, man. It’s been a while since Kern [County]. Venturini guys, Kevin Reed Jr., all these guys gave me a great car today. Can’t thank them enough. So pumped to get this win.”

While Hingorani scored the win, he was anything but dominant on Saturday night. Hingorani didn’t snag the lead in the race until 39 Laps to go, and there was a tinge of controversy attached to his move on Trevor Huddleston for the lead.

Huddleston, who had led the opening 111 laps of the race, went wide off of Turn 4, coming to 39 laps to go, which opened the door for Hingorani.

As Huddleston went to the inside of the lapped car of Tyler Reif, Hingorani saw just enough space to the inside to make a move. He fired the No. 15 Venturini Motorsports Toyota in there and made it work.

There was contact, which sent Huddleston into Reif, and brought out the first caution of the race.

Here is a video of the move that put Hingorani into the race lead:

Here is the incident that led to Huddleston relinquishing the lead to Hingorani. #ARCA pic.twitter.com/SVGyBHVCw8

— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) July 30, 2023

From there, Hingorani set sail. But he did have to endure a late-race restart after Tanner Reif sent Bradley Erickson spinning with five laps remaining in the race.

After the way he took the lead, Hingorani knew he had to be perfect on the final restart of the race in order to take home the win.

“I knew we needed to get a good restart otherwise we were going to get moved out of the way, so, we did exactly that,” Hingorani said. “Drove away, and got the win.”

As Hingorani won by a victory margin of 1.649 sec. over Huddleston, who wore his disappointment on his sleeve after the race, Kole Raz, who was making his series debut, turned in an impressive third-place finish in the No. 5 Jerry Pitts Racing machine.

While Huddleston was wearing a long face after the race, Raz was potentially the happiest guy not named Sean Hingorani on Saturday night.

Raz feels if the race had stayed green to the checkered flag on the final run of the race, he potentially could have been the driver celebrating with the fans in the stands.

“Just wish we never had that yellow,” Raz stated with a smile. “I feel like we were the best car on that long run. Unfortunately, we came home third, but honestly, for our first race together this is a huge statement for us, and Jerry Pitts Racing. These guys have been working so hard.”

Landen Lewis finished fourth and Eric Nascimento Jr. rounded out the top-five finishers in the race.

Kyle Keller, Tanner Reif, Nick Joanides, Bradley Erickson, and Todd Souza finished in positions six through 10.

Heading into the race, Hingorani trailed Lewis by 14 points for the ARCA Menards Series West point standings, after his latest win, Hingorani has sliced the lead in half with five races remaining in the season.

RELATED: 2023 ARCA Menards Series West Point Standings

For Hingorani, it was a big night as his championship hopes were bolstered.

“It’s huge. I think we’re going to get it,” a confident Hingorani boldly stated about the championship.

ARCA Menards Series West Series Shasta 150 Race Results