Sawalich Slays Salem, Takes Home The Trophy In A Chaotic Race

On a hot Saturday night in Southern Indiana, William Sawalich managed to survive the chaos and calamity and take home the win at the ARCA Salem 200 at the famed Salem Speedway.

“We had a really good race. Really fast Starkey SoundGear Toyota Camry. Made it really easy on me. I can’t thank the guys enough,” the Eden Prarie, Minnesota native said post-race. “It’s good momentum leading into next week. Home race at Elko. So it’s really special to get it done here. Last year we had some misfortune..really good momentum and we’ll keep it rolling.”

For the third straight year, the winner of the #ARCA Menards Series event at @Salem_Speedway dominated the race by leading wire-to-wire.

In 2024, that honor belongs to @WilliamSawalich of @JoeGibbsRacing. Hear from the winner of the #SalemARCA200:

?: @benbranscum pic.twitter.com/emLV4n52s7

— TobyChristie.com (@TobyChristieCom) July 28, 2024

ARCA Menards Series points leader Andres Perez took home second, with Rev Racing teammate Lavar Scott third. Hometown favorite Will Kimmel came up fourth, and Christian Rose finally got the money off his back with a fifth place.

Sawalich was dominant leading all 200 laps en route to his win, but it wasn’t with some adversity. The race itself was mired with several wrecks. Including all five Venturini Motorsports cars getting some form of damage. This marks the first time since the 2018 Pocono race that VMS has failed to have a car in the top eight.

Amber Balcaen had contact lap one that ended her day, then a pileup in turn two took out Jake Finch and collected several others including some damage to Toni Breidinger. It also ended the day for the 10 and Ed Pompa.

Later, Breidinger would get caught up in a spin and wreck with rookie Corey Day making his debut in turn three ending her night. While contact with the wall hard off the final restart ended the day for Gus Dean.

Wright was able to survive and come home tenth.

While struggles hit them, others took the chance to gain. Cody Dennison and Ryan Roulette for Fast Track Racing came home in seventh and eighth respectively, and Brayton Laster brought the No. 06 home in ninth.

One of the race’s red flags came out for veteran driver Dale Shearer, who was transported to a local hospital for evaluation. As of the time of publishing, no updates have been given on Shearer’s condition.

Up next, the ARCA Menards Series travels up to Elko Speedway for the Shore Lunch 250 at 9:00 pm ET on Saturday night.

Official Results from the ARCA Salem ‘Mid Summer Classic’ 200