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ARCA Preview: General Tire 150 at Dover

The ARCA Menards Series will hold its fourth race of the 2024 season this Friday (April 26) as the General Tire 150 kicks off an action-packed weekend of racing from Dover Motor Speedway in Dover, Del.

With the defending winner of both last week’s event at Talladega Superspeedway and last year’s ARCA Menards Series East event at this venue, Jake Finch, not on the entry list, the ARCA Menards Series is guaranteed to see a new Dover winner. 

Venturini Motorsports, fresh off a strong showing at Talladega that saw them sweep three of the top four finishing positions, will enter several strong candidates to become that new Dover winner. 

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Entry List: 2024 General Tire 150

Following a runner-up finish last week, Kris Wright will pilot Venturini’s No. 15 entry with backing from FNB corporation. The Wexford, Penn., driver will look to capitalize on the momentum he and his team gained last week to score another solid finish.

Gio Ruggiero, who scored his breakthrough victory in the ARCA Menards Series East earlier this year at Five Flags Speedway, will get behind the wheel of the No. 20 Toyota for Venturini with backing from JBL. The Seekonk, Mass., native will look to continue his season of firsts in chasing his first ARCA Menards Series national win. 

Toni Breidinger and Amber Balcaen are also entered in their familiar Nos. 25 and No. 22 entries, respectively. Each driver is also fresh off a solid top-10 effort in Talladega.

Also representing Toyota this week in Dover will be defending ARCA East champion William Sawalich in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 entry backed by Starkey/Sound Gear.

In last year’s ARCA East race at this facility, Sawalich finished fourth after leading two laps from the pole. Always fast in his national series starts, Sawalich will almost certainly be a threat for victory again this weekend in Dover.

Although the prevailing story following Talladega was Venturini’s continued dominance, it was AM Racing’s Christian Rose who left the Yellowhammer State as the ARCA points leader.

Amidst a sea of Venturini Toyotas, Rose carried the flag for the Ford camp for much of the day at Talladega en route to a fifth-place finish. The baseball player-turned-racer has already stacked two top-five finishes on the young season to lead the series standings by a skinny point. 

Consistency has been the calling card for Rose and the AM Racing No. 32 team dating back to last season, but the Martinsburg, W.Va., native surely has his sights set on a trip to victory lane. Having taken the points lead for the first time in his young career, there’s no time like the present for Rose to take his first checkered flag.

The man currently sitting second in the ARCA standings, trailing Rose by only that single point as acknowledged earlier, is Greg Van Alst. After starting deep in the field, Van Alst fought a losing battle to gain track position in an incident-free Talladega race on his way to an 11th-place finish. 

As is the case for many drivers in the field as Dover moves to the national series schedule, Van Alst will be making his first start at the Dover Motor Speedway.

Included in that list of drivers making their first start at the Monster Mile is NTT IndyCar Series veteran Marco Andretti, who will make just his third ARCA start in the No. 17 Cook Racing Industries Chevrolet with backing from Group 1001. Despite showing flashes of speed in his first two starts, Andretti is still in search of his first career top-10 finish in ARCA.

Also representing the bowtie brigade will be the two entries for Rev Racing driven by Andres Perez de Lara and Lavar Scott. While Perez de Lara finished eighth at Talladega for his No. 2 team, Scott’s No. 6 team befell to mechanical failure and was relegated to a 31st-place finish. 

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While Perez de Lara still sits third in ARCA standings, Scott’s Talladega misfortune dropped him to ninth in the points chase. Though Talladega proved rough for Scott, he returns to Dover with experience after finishing fifth in last year’s ARCA East race at the Monster Mile. With Talladega in the rearview, Rev Racing will look to rebound at Dover with solid efforts for both their teams. 

With the two superspeedway races on the ARCA calendar now in the books, the series has now reached the point in the calendar when the rubber begins to meet the road and the championship picture really begins to take shape. 

Classified as a short track, Dover may serve as a litmus test for what can be expected for the majority of the remainder of the ARCA schedule. Leading storylines will include whether the Toyotas continue to stack victories and which ARCA full-timers will solidify themselves as championship contenders as we begin to work deeper into the gauntlet of the ARCA schedule. 

Be sure to tune in to FOX Sports 2 on Friday, April 26 at 5 p.m. ET to catch all the ARCA action from the Monster Mile in Dover, Del.