After a heated finish and some pit road tempers, last weekend at Berlin Raceway, Jesse Love and the Venturini Motorsports No. 20 were able to take the checkered flag in Saturday night’s ARCA Menards Series Menards 250 at Elko Speedway.
While Love led 233 of the 250 laps in the event, he felt that he had no shot of winning the race when his No. 20 team unloaded his car earlier in the day at Elko. However, after his crew chief took some massive swings on the setup, the No. 20 car emerged as the top contender.
“Man we unloaded today and we know when we’re getting beat, and we were getting beat pretty bad. Shannon (Rursch) just went to work and fixed center first, and then first break we fixed the entry, and then next break we fixed the exit,” the 18-year-old said in victory lane.
“Last week, we lost one that we probably should have won, a I feel like tonight that we might have won one that we probably should have lost. Just gotta muscle up sometimes and take what’s yours,” Love added.
Here is a video of the finish of the Menards 250:
Fourth win on the year for @jesselovejr1#ARCA #TeamToby
pic.twitter.com/ZpCf6SCDIp— old ben (gone and forgotten) (@BrBranscum43) June 25, 2023
Love was dominant all race long after starting second to runner-up William Sawalich, who had an up-and-down race of his own.
Contact between the Eden Prarie, MN native and rookie VMS driver Sean Hingorani sent the 18-car for a spin in turn three with 100 laps to go. Both would rebound as Hingorani would end up finishing third behind Sawalich.
Sawalich felt he held his own pretty well throughout the race, despite being the target of Venturini Motorsports retaliation. Sawalich was scratching his head as to why Hingorani chose to stick his nose in the feud between he and Love.
“I almost felt like it was two against one, but I held my own. Didn’t really feel like I raced too dirty. They got me a couple of times which I felt like they would get me back from Berlin. I don’t know why the 15 would get me back. It’s not really his deal,” said hometown driver Sawalich post-race.
Hingorani’s Venturini teammate Conner Jones finished fourth and Andres Perez de Lara rounded out the top five.
Massive hit for Frankie.#ARCA #TeamToby pic.twitter.com/k3h0r2bL20
— old ben (gone and forgotten) (@BrBranscum43) June 25, 2023
With Love scoring his fourth win of the 2023 ARCA Menards Series season, and Muniz suffering the hard crash and DNF, Love extended his points lead over Muniz to 40 points after Saturday night’s race at Elko.
STANDINGS – #ARCA Menards Series (After 7/20):
1. Jesse Love 336pts
2. Frankie Muniz (-40)
3. Andres Perez de Lara (-48)
4. Tony Cosentino (-60)
5. Christian Rose (-62)
6. Toni Breidinger (-72)
7. Jon Garrett (-98)
8. Jack Wood (-122)
9. AJ Moyer (-124)
10. Brad Smith (-134)— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) June 25, 2023
In their return to the ARCA series since Daytona, fan-favorite driver Willie Mullins was able to bring home his throwback no. 10 in eighth place on the night.
Official Results from the Menards 250 at Elko Speedway:
| Fin | St | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | DIFF | BEST LAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 20 | Jesse Love | Venturini Motorsports JBL Toyota | 250 | -- | 14.604 |
| 2 | 1 | 18 | William Sawalich | Joe Gibbs Racing Starkey / Sound Gear Toyota | 250 | 0.998 | 14.577 |
| 3 | 4 | 15 | Sean Hingorani | Venturini Motorsports Yahoo / Mobil 1 Toyota | 250 | 3.726 | 14.691 |
| 4 | 3 | 25 | Conner Jones | Venturini Motorsports Jones Utilities Toyota | 250 | 5.998 | 14.748 |
| 5 | 9 | 2 | Andres Perez de Lara | Rev Racing Max Siegel Inc. Chevrolet | 250 | 8.300 | 14.768 |
| 6 | 8 | 01 | Davey Callihan | Fast Track Racing CW Metals Toyota | 250 | 13.871 | 14.876 |
| 7 | 19 | 45 | Tony Cosentino | Tamayo-Cosentino Racing Ford | 249 | 1 lap | 14.866 |
| 8 | 6 | 10 | Willie Mullins | Fast Track Racing CW Metals Ford | 249 | 1 lap | 14.902 |
| 9 | 7 | 55 | Toni Breidinger | Venturini Motorsports Toyota | 248 | 1 lap | 14.854 |
| 10 | 10 | 32 | Christian Rose | AM Racing West Virginia Department of Tourism Ford | 246 | 3 laps | 14.998 |
| 11 | 11 | 66 | Jon Garrett | Veer Motorsports Venture Foods Chevrolet | 242 | 7 laps | 15.313 |
| 12 | 15 | 12 | Ryan Roulette | Fast Track Racing VFW / Bellator Recruiting Academy Ford | 240 | 9 laps | 15.476 |
| 13 | 13 | 11 | Bryce Haugeberg | Fast Track Racing Haugeberg Farms Ford | 233 | 16 laps | 15.845 |
| 14 | 16 | 31 | Rita Goulet | Rise Motorsports Auto DNA Collision & Repair Chevrolet | 217 | 32 laps | 16.189 |
| 15 | 12 | 06 | AJ Moyer | Wayne Peterson Racing River's Edge Cottages Toyota | 216 | 33 laps | 16.068 |
| 16 | 5 | 30 | Frankie Muniz | Rette Jones Racing ReSkills Ford | 199 | 50 laps | 14.883 |
| 17 | 14 | 03 | Casey Carden | Clubb Racing, Inc. Denton Carden Racing Ford | 113 | 137 laps | 16.137 |
| 18 | 17 | 48 | Brad Smith | Brad Smith Racing Copraya Chevrolet | 3 | 247 laps | 17.263 |
| 19 | 18 | 43 | Jalen Mack | Tamayo-Cosentino Racing Chevrolet | 0 | 250 laps | 0.000 |
Up next, the ARCA Menards Series takes on the road course of Mid Ohio on July 7th. You can watch the race live on Fox Sports 1.
