In a race dominated by Joe Gibbs Racingβs Tanner Gray, it was Connor Mosack who stormed to the lead in the late stages to score his second consecutive ARCA victory at Kansas and the second win in as many weeks for the Pinnacle Racing Group in the Tide 150.
For most of the day, it appeared as though Gray would cruise to an uncontested victory, as he led every lap prior to the raceβs halfway break and lapped all but four cars in the field before lap 50.
Even after the halfway break, when competitors got the chance to adjust their cars, the No. 18 Toyota held a commanding lead up until a late-race restart inside of 20 laps to go following a Ryan Roulette spin.
On what proved to be the final restart, Mosack drove around Gray on the outside to seize the lead. Gray quickly got back around Mosack, but the No. 18βs second stint up front proved to be only momentary, as Mosack once again passed Gray and would not look back on his way to victory lane.
Dean Thompson finished his relatively uneventful day in third, while fellow Venturini Motorsports drivers Kris Wright and Jake Finch rounded out the top five.
Andy Jankowiak scored yet another top-10 finish, placing sixth for his AJ Racing team in what has been a very consistent campaign for the New York driver.
ARCA Menards Series points leader Andres Perez De-Lara finished seventh and extended his points lead over Greg Van Alst, who overcame early mechanical troubles to finish 12th.
Amber Balcaen and Toni Breidinger scored two more top-10 finishes for Venturini Motorsports as they finished eighth and tenth, respectively.
Marco Andretti brought his Cook Racing Technologies Chevrolet home in the ninth position to kick off his month of May the right way as he prepares for another run at the Indianapolis 500.Β
Championship contenders Lavar Scott and Christian Rose finished 13th and 14th, respectively, after each received damage in an incident before the halfway break in which they made contact with each other before Scott suffered an apparent tire failure and made additional contact with the wall.
With Kansas in the rearview and five events on the ARCA Menards Series schedule down, the championship picture is now starting to take shape with Perez De-Lara lengthening his advantage and his competitors trying to reel him in.
Tide 150 Race Results
After Kansas, the ARCA Menards Series will return to action in a few weeks at the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the General Tire 150 on May 24th. Be sure to tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 6 p.m. to catch all the action from Charlotte.
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