Dominance is a word that’s been used a lot when it comes to Sammy Smith’s 2022 ARCA Menards Series East campaign, and Saturday night’s race at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway showed no different.
The Kyle Busch Motorsports driver scored yet another victory after falling just short last weekend at Dover. Smith has now won three out of the first four races to start the season.
The only thing the 17-year-old driver did not achieve on Saturday night was leading all 200 laps of the Music City 200.
Smith not running the table and leading every lap can be credited to the young Jake Finch, who led the first chunk of the race. Finch, the polesitter, was able to fight hard and maintain a lead over the field until he was finally passed by the No. 18 on lap 46.
New leader: @sammysmithSS ?@FloRacing | @RaceFairgrounds pic.twitter.com/uVH5fwENpf
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) May 8, 2022
The son of team owner James Finch still salvaged a very solid race and a solid finish. He was able to grab the runner-up spot late in the race over Taylor Gray. Finch would nail down the second place finish, while Gray settled for a third-place finish.
27-year old veteran Mason Mingus made his return to the series and track where he won the pole at just a year ago. While it didn’t match the top-three finish that he and his team had scored last season, Mingus slotted in right outside of the podium in the fourth position.
Rounding out the top-five, as well as the lead lap, was Leland Honeyman. The Young’s Motorsports driver continues to have a quiet, yet consistent season just behind the front-runners for the championship — Smith and Gray.
As noted, only five cars were on the lead lap at the conclusion of this race, with the sixth-place car Tanner Arms being three laps down in his ARCA East debut.
This was somewhat expected in a race that has a lot of green flag runs, and only one incident coming from contact between Michael Lira and Matt Wilson.
Around goes Matt Wilson ?@FloRacing | @RaceFairgrounds pic.twitter.com/J9eRangGtN
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) May 8, 2022
The ARCA Menards Series East will have to wait a month until their next race, which will take place at the Iowa Speedway on June 11th.
