In preparation for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway, Ryan Preece joined the ARCA Menards Series West field at the road course on Friday, June 9. He won the pole and dominated the 64-lap race en route to winning the General Tire 200.
Preece scored his first career West series win as well as his first win in the ARCA series.
Preece led most of the race, but a caution before the lap 32 competition caution split the field on its pit strategy. Stewart-Haas Racing opted to bring Preece to pit road, thereby forfeiting the lead to series points leader Landen Lewis.
When the caution came out at lap 32, Lewis pitted and Preece reassumed the lead. He never looked back as he gained a sizeable lead to capture the victory.
The victory is also one of redemption for Preece.
NASCAR Xfinity Series regulars Sammy Smith and Riley Herbst finished second and third, respectively, both also using the West race to gain more experience at Sonoma.
Jack Wood and William Sawalich rounded out the top five finishers in fourth and fifth, respectively.
While Sean Hingorani finished sixth, he was the highest-finishing series regular as Lewis wound up with a disappointing 19th-place run due to damage sustained to his No. 17 during the second half of the race.
Lewis wasn’t the only series regular who encountered problems at Sonoma. Trevor Huddleston dealt with mechanical woes in his No. 50 Ford, bringing out two cautions. Huddleston’s 28th-place DNF was compounded by the fact his teammate Cole Custer also suffered an 18th-place DNF due to an internal issue.
Eric Nascimento entered the race 11th in the points and he was enjoying a solid run. Yet with 19 laps to go, Nascimento’s day came to an untimely end via a hard hit after contact from Todd Souza.
Souza also spun Brian Kamisky, so Souza’s eighth-place finish came with a beat-up No. 13.
Meanwhile, the Reif brothers, Tanner and Tyler, both endured less-than-desired outings. Tanner Reif brought out the caution after his No. 16 received a good amount of damage, though his Bill McAnally Racing team repaired his racecar and he returned to finish the race nine laps down in 20th.
Tyler Reif, who won the season opener at Phoenix Raceway, ran inside the top 10 for most of the race, but on lap 61, his No. 41 came to an abrupt stop, though because he was out of the racing line, series officials did not throw the yellow flag.
Preece isn’t competing for points; rather, he wanted to gain experience at Sonoma for his third career Cup start there. He certainly made the most of it, complete with taking home the trophy.
ARCA West Race Results from Sonoma
The West series next travels to Irwindale Speedway, the second race at the short track. The NAPA Nightvision 150 will take place on Saturday, July 1 at 10 p.m. ET, with coverage provided by FloRacing.
About the author
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
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Maybe he should finally stay in that league. IMO