In order to prepare for Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, Ryan Preece was one of the drivers that elected to compete in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series West event at the 1.99-mile road course.
Though, no matter the results of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event, Preece will get to leave Sonoma, California with a trophy, after winning Friday’s General Tire 200 in dominating fashion.
Leading a race-high 50 of 64 laps, Preece was virtually uncontested in his No. 9 Bonanza Ford Mustang, only losing the lead when crew chief Chad Johnson elected to bring him down pit road for adjustments and fuel.
Landen Lewis, who entered Friday’s event as the ARCA Menards Series West points leader, led the race’s other 14 laps, after staying on the racetrack while the Stewart-Haas Racing driver elected to come down pit road.
Once the Berlin, Connecticut-native reclaimed the lead with 32 to go, there was nobody who could keep pace with Preece for more than one lap after any restart, in which there were several in the second half of the event.
During the final green-flag stretch of Friday’s event, which lasted for about 15 laps, Preece was able to stretch his advantage over Sammy Smith, the race’s runner-up, to nearly 10 seconds.
Smith, returning to ARCA West in an entry for Hattori Racing Enterprises, was strong throughout the entirety of the event, but could never close up to the eventual race winner, having to settle for second place.
Riley Herbst, who returned to Jerry Pitts Racing for the second weekend in a row to gain experience for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event, came home in third place, while Jack Wood and William Sawalich completed the top five.
Sean Hingorani was the highest-finishing ARCA Menards Series West full-timer in sixth, while Bradley Erickson and Todd Souza finished behind him in seventh and eighth.
Johnny Borneman III, making his first start of the year, came home with a top-10 finish in the ninth spot, with Ethan Nascimento rounding out the top-10.
Cole Custer ran inside of the top-five for much of the 200-mile contest on Friday, but had a late-race mechanical issue with placed home 18th, eight laps down at the conclusion of the event.
Landen Lewis ran into a similar situation, sustaining suspension damage to his No. 17 Chevrolet SS at the same time as a crash between Todd Souza and Eric Nascimento, putting the ARCA West points leader behind the wall.
Lewis continues his hunt for an ARCA West title with McGowan-Cook Motorsports with an 11-point advantage over Sean Hingorani. Bradley Erickson, despite no finishes better than third-place, remains in the hunt, just 13 points behind.
Tyler Reif and Trevor Huddleston round out the top-five in point standings, although substantially further behind. Tanner Reif, Kyle Keller, Todd Souza, David Smith, and Takuma Koga complete the top-10.
Leaving Sonoma, the ARCA Menards Series West is finished with road courses for this season and will head back to the short tracks, with the season set to continue at Irwindale Speedway on July 1.
